Review of 'The Possession'

      

      After watching this last night I have taken a few inspirational ideas which I will note down at the bottom, after my review of 'The Possession'...

     The film is based on the apparently true story of divorced parents whose ten-year-old daughter finds a strange wooden box at a car boot sale and becomes strangely attached to it. In turns out that the box is the home of a trapped demon, and that it has escaped and begins to take control of the young girl who unwittingly unleashed its fury upon the world. Or so the film-makers would have us believe, since the only real 'fury' we see for a long time is a strong breeze and a vaguely unsettling stare.

      Made on a (comparatively) modest budget ($14,000,000) - most likely due to the lack of household names attached to the project - the film tries to punch above its weight by taking itself far too seriously. The film is a lacklustre in atmosphere or shocks, the two areas that a successful horror film surely must adhere to. Director Ole Bornedal seems to have little idea of the direction he wants to take the film, seemingly relying on the viewer's willingness to scare themselves rather than any innovation or creativity in the film-making business.

      The use of jump cuts in the editing seem more like sporadic losses of concentration in the editing suite and supposedly tense moments are often undercut by the poor music choices employed. One such section is completely hampered by what sounds like bass feedback and a cowbell, the resulting effect one of mild annoyance instead of seat-wetting terror. The films special effects are good, but in the age of 'Avatar' and such cinematographic masterpieces, this is hardly anything to write home about.

      There is also the matter of the hastily tacked on explanation of the nature of the box. In what seems like a ham-fisted attempt to give the box some supernatural or demonic characteristics, the writers throw in some less-than-satisfying Jewish dogma and use the word 'dybbuk' like some kind of buzz-word that we should instantly be terrified of. 

      Kyra Sedgwick opts for self-righteousness and hysteria in her portrayal of the mother of the possessed child, but she is largely the exception to the rule here. Jeffrey Dean Morgan gives a solid turn as the father who realises what is happening and weirdly enough is the only one with any obvious desire to do anything about it.

     The real star here is the young Natasha Calis as the possessed Emily, offering more gravitas to the role than the script deserves. She delivers most of the film's scares with a poor script and underdeveloped characters - her future looks bright is she ever gets a real script to work with. Oh and just you wait for the MRI scene...!

      Overall, 'The Possession' was a good film, although this is more by accident than design. It is the good work of the actors rather than those behind the camera that make the film watchable, though it must be said that much better films exist in this genre. I thought it was more jumpy than frightful and there were a few creepy parts, one to be mentioned is that of Emily talking in both voices in the morgue.

      A particular quote that drew my attention was: "It wants only one thing it cannot have - life." as I believe this fits well with the idea behind our title sequence if we are able to adapt it to fit. We also wish on having our protagonist finding something she knows nothing about, something possibly from her other life which fits well with the box that Emily is at first unable to get into - building on tension.