‘The Possession’ Movie Review

This last week I went to see the supernatural horror film “The Possession” directed by Ole Bornedal and co-produced by Sam Raimi.  If you are expecting to go see a film that will make you jump out of your seat, scream or even give you nightmares well I personally think this is not that film.

The film is based off of a true story and how much the film is kept true to what actual events happened I couldn’t say.  The film starts off slow and mainly focuses on the falling relationship of the family.  The father Clyde Brenek (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is in the process of getting a divorce with his wife Stephanie Brenek (Kyra Sedgwick) and it is clear that Clyde doesn’t have the best respect form his two daughters Emily and Hannah played by Natasha Calis and Madison Davenport.  Clyde’s focus is on his career coaching a lower division college basketball team and is in the process of getting a job in North Carolina coaching a Division I team.

One weekend when Clyde has the girls he takes them to a yard sale where Em is interested in a strange looking box that has strange carvings on it.  When Clyde and his girls get home Em is very interested in opening the box, Clyde notices that there are no seams on the box, giving the impression that someone didn’t want this box opened. Em ends up opening the box and finds dead bugs and other strange things in it.

Strange things start happening in Clyde’s house as well as with Em who doesn’t feel like herself and begins doing strange things and becoming violent with anyone who comes in the way of her and her box.

The film I think is slow and it comes off as more of a family drama rather than a horror film.  I did jump in my seat once however in a scene where Clyde is trying to read a part in the Bible to get rid of the possessed demon inside of Em and the book is thrown out of his hand., many of the scenes that are supposed to come off as creepy come off as funny in my opinion.

The film does have an interesting storyline and if you look at it as a family drama rather than a horror film you might enjoy it more.   Hopefully we will receive better horror films later this fall but in my honest opinion I would say wait until it comes out on DVD or on Netflix.