A modern-day tale of demonic possession, it comes hot on the levitating heels of “Insidious,” “The Last Exorcism,” “The Rite,” and “The Devil Inside,” which go from decent to dreadful in about that order. It brings little of anything new to the presently popular subgenre but a dash or two of Jewish folklore, which, come to think of it, “The Unborn” did in 2009, and with comparably limited success. In that regard, I’m sad to report that at no point in the film does a quivering rabbi repeatedly bellow, “The power of Abraham compels you!”
Admittedly, the story’s inspiration does have a basis in fact. Its plot centres on a small, sealed wooden box that acts as a prison for a malevolent demon known in Jewish circles as a dybbuk. Such a box exists: it has been said to do the rounds on eBay and has supposedly brought bad luck to every one of its owners, though whether or not it does contain a malicious supernatural entity is up for debate. An opening title card of “The Possession" firmly states that the real-life events upon which the film is based took place over the course of 29 days. Internet research provides information on nothing of the sort — the worst things to have been associated with the real-world Dybbuk Box are some bad dreams, one stroke and a bit of hair loss, but sadly there are no accounts of anyone puking up a swarm of moths.
Things get off to an ominous start in the obligatory prologue: a middle-aged lady wielding a hammer and a bottle of holy water hesitantly approaches the wooden box sitting on her living room mantelpiece before spontaneously contorting her body like a circus freak. Soon after, the box comes into the possession (fnar!) of the Brenek family, who buy it at a yard sale when youngest daughter Emily (Natasha Callis), 10 years of age, becomes curiously, hopelessly entranced by the Hebrew-inscribed collectible. She remains in this state for quite some time.
The Breneks are a broken family. Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, “Watchmen”), a basketball coach, has two beautiful daughters, cutie Em and crotchety teenager Hannah (Madison Davenport), whose protective mother (Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer”) he divorced over a year ago. Clyde has moved into the suburbs, where Em and Hannah will now spend their weekends. This is an ideal setting for a horror movie: it is placid, new, unexplored and, as Hannah grumpily points out, stands in the middle of nowhere.
Once opened by Em (and found to contain a figurine, a human tooth and a mirror, among other obscure objects), the box proves an unwelcome presence. Em soon develops an unhealthy obsession with it; she wishes to be by its side at all times, even when at school, and is caught talking to it by her father. One night, she says she doesn’t feel herself. That same night, her room is inexplicably infested with hundreds of moths, like the scene with the buzzing flies and the priest in “The Amityville Horror,” or indeed “Scary Movie 2.”
Em begins acting violently: she viciously attacks a classmate who attempts to steal the box, and stabs her father’s hand with a fork during dinner. An MRI scan, in one of the film’s few scenes of invention, shows a face staring out from inside her. Desperate, Clyde seeks guidance elsewhere in the form of the local rabbi’s young son, Tzadok (musician Matisyahu). Tzadok proclaims that Em is possessed by a dybbuk and warns that if they don’t act fast enough Em’s soul will be claimed by the evil spirit, and Clyde’s beloved daughter will be no more.
Of course, we are building up to the climactic exorcism, which is big, loud, bombastic and, disappointingly, soaked in special effects. The journey there is, at its best, mildly unnerving and, at its worst, rather laughable. Audiences may quiver in fear when Em is slapped across the face by an invisible menace, but a moment which sees her scuttling about on the kitchen floor with an uncooked steak dangling from her mouth elicited a chuckle from most of my audience. It could be a bit of black comedy, but, judging by the bursts of tear-soaked emotion that immediately follow it, I doubt it.
The film benefits largely from the performances of its actors, who lend authenticity to their characters and respectability to the film. Morgan and Sedgwick make for a convincing and likable ex-couple thrown into turmoil and then brought together by the haunting of their daughter — demonic possessions have their upsides, it seems. But it is little Natasha Callis who impresses the most, believably switching from adorable to sinister in a heartbeat. It appears she went through much of the same torture endured by Linda Blair in Friedkin’s head-spinning genre classic, regrettably with not as many utterances of mother-insulting, fellatio-centred obscenities.
Most prominent in the film’s credits is Sam Raimi, who produces through his company, GhostHouse Pictures. Used extensively to help promote “The Possession,” the director’s name is most commonly associated with his “Evil Dead” trilogy, which dealt with demonic possession in a far more tongue-in-cheek manner than the straight-faced take we have here. What “The Possession” has as an advantage over “The Evil Dead” is a bigger budget, superior actors and better production values — the 1981 splatter flick was, after all, a student project. What it lacks is the blood-curdling terror, the brain-boggling invention, the sky-high entertainment value and, ultimately, the inspiration — this is run-of-the-mill horror fluff that will appeal only to the least demanding of Friday-night audiences.
“The Possession” is about as generic as its title; to be fair, the working title of “The Dybbuk Box” perhaps wouldn’t have grabbed as many movie-goers’ attention. It is directed with technical competence by Danish filmmaker Ole Bornedal (“Just Another Love Story”) and its central family conflict is handled with grace and subtlety by the cast, but in the all-important frights department it is disappointingly light. More unsettling than the film is the thought that the Dybbuk Box is really out there somewhere, even if it didn’t actually torment a family for 29 days like the film dishonestly claims.
5/10
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