Horror Pre-Season: The Possession

Late August through mid-September is when studios like to release horror movies outside of the shadow of whatever late-October juggernaut franchise is popular.  I guess either because they're unsure of the movie's ability to stand up to the competition or they want to give something a bit different a chance to flourish.  I'm honestly not entirely sure which The Possession is.
Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie.  I thought it was pretty decent and a largely unexplored concept with a pretty great 3rd act.  However, there was something about it that made it hard to take seriously, and if you can't take a horror movie seriously it loses all ability to scare.

Firstly, I really enjoy it when a possession story takes a different approach to the mythology it's going to use.  Most entries in the genre focus on the Catholic rites of exorcism, so I take particular interest whenever a movie bases itself on a different culture's possession myths.  In this case, the Jewish dybbuk, which is more of a ghostly possession than the traditional demonic one.  I recall The Unborn being about a dybbuk as well, and though the movie wasn't too creative with its scare design it had a few really good ones and I thought the unique concept elevated it a bit.

So The Possession is a story about broken family and their experiences after one of the daughters convinces her father to buy her a Dybbuk Box at a garage sale.  She falls under the influence of the box and becomes increasingly dangerous to herself and her family as the dybbuk takes hold, while her father tries to convince his ex-wife that something is wrong with the girl and eventually to get an exorcism.

Jeffery Dean Morgan does a decent job as the ex-husband, Clyde, conveying a real sense of a father who just wants his kids to like him.  His character is pretty well developed, without spending a lot of time on him which is really nice.  Another standout in the cast is Natasha Calis is Clyde's daughter Em.  She reminds me a lot of Chloe Moretz, and has some real acting skill.  She does a great job here developing the character's mannerisms as the possession continues.  There are some nice creepy moments that rely on her acting being convincing in order to carry them, and she sells them well.  I wish there were actually more bits in the movie like that.

The sound design is also pretty unnerving.  I've noticed this is something that does a really good job scaring me when it's done well.  It's probably why I like Ti West's movies so much, he had the same sound designer (Graham Reznick) on House of the Devil and The Innkeepers, and he's really good.

The exorcism sequence itself was also very nicely done, being chaotic while still clear and focused.  There are some contrivances to set the scene, but it is an effective setting once you forget how we got there.

However, I think the movie falters at a few points.  One being Kyra Sedgwick is pretty unconvincing as the ex-wife.  There are only one or two scenes where she seems to be putting the correct emotions into her lines.  It's heavily implied she's angry at Clyde, and really into her new boyfriend and the various yuppie lifestyle trappings he brings, but the way she behaves never conveys that.  She actually seems to be happy to see her ex most of the time.

Another issue I had is that the dybbuk is absurdly powerful, even when it's still trapped in the box it's able to send a grown woman flying across the room and snap her back.  It ruins all sense of proportion, so nothing can escalate properly and the whole movie winds up feeling pretty flat.  There are peeks and valleys with the action, but the average line doesn't move much.

It feels like the script had been rewritten or heavily edited several times.  They make a lot of hints at what would have been really interesting bits of mythology to play around with, like in one scene Em finds a small carving of some sort of animal in the box, like a dog or a boar.  A few scenes later some sort of animal you never see is shown having wandered into Clyde's house and raiding his fridge.  Could it have been related?  I dunno, would've been cool, though.  They have a similar thing with a moth from the box, but then moths are made really prominent.  I wish they had given some indication of why moths were so important.  As nocturnal creatures they have obvious symbolism, but is that the intent or is it just "bugs are creepy"?

Scenes alternate tone drastically as well, and that keeps breaking the immersion, which makes the attempts at drama fall a little flat.  You kindof lose the tension they're trying to develop, so the whole things feels a bit scattered.  They also didn't really make use of the dybbuk mythology, and treated it more like a standard demonic possession with a sprinkling of Judaica.  So yeah, it was entertaining.  Not nearly as bad as everyone seems to be making it out to be, but it does fall a little flat.  It's got a few good scare moments, but it never comes together as anything so it winds up being pretty forgettable.

--PXA