The Possession - Review

The Possession follows Emily, a 10-year old girl who has her father buy her a mysterious box at a yard sale. Within 29 days of owning the box Emily's family notices she has adopted some odd and scary behavior eventually leading the family to seek exorcism help from a Hasidic Jewish rabbi.


I looked forward to The Possession for one reason; Sam Raimi was involved. Ordinarily Ghost House features aren't necessarily good but I wanted to give this a try. Judging from the trailers and that fact that Sam Raimi's horror has never let me down I went for it. For the most part this movie was good but that doesn't mean it was great. There was problems when it came to character development and some continuity but I will admit it's better that some other exorcism movies I have seen the past couple of years. Definitely more enjoyable than flicks like The Last Exorcism and Paranormal Activity.
As far as acting goes I think it was well acted, including the children. Usually kids are a toss up when it comes to movies and I think the lead girl playing Emily, Natasha Calis, was very good. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was probably the best, though. I also thought it was very visually achieving. The shots were great and the effects were well done. There wasn't an overwhelming amount of effects and the ones used fit great.

But, of course, with every good thing there is something unfortunate. I mentioned the character development and I think that was my main gripe. You find out the most basic details of the family and they just leave it hanging. You find out the dad was a school basketball coach and mom's boyfriend was a dentist, but you never learn anything else about their lives. You also never know why Emily's parents divorced or what the mom did for a living. You also learn nothing about the previous owner of the box or where exactly it originated from. They just show the girl finding it at the yard sale and very quickly becomes obsessed with it.
Like most exorcism/possession movies I think the exorcism itself was very short lived and a little lackluster. The dad goes to find the rabbi and before you know it they are sneaking off to perform this exorcism and it is over within the last 10 minutes of the movie. I was disappointed with that. They wasted a lot of time on things that didn't need the extended focus.


Other than that I would still say The Possession was pretty good for what it's worth. Not quite as good as Drag Me to Hell was but like I said... a lot better than other exorcism movies we have had the past couple years. It's worth seeing.