For those who aren't familiar with the name Sam Raimi my
guess is you are aware of the movies he's made. Lately he's been associated
with the first Spider-man trilogy starring Tobey McGuire. But long before that
Raimi was a director whose first major film of note was THE EVIL DEAD, still
one of the scariest movies ever made. That being said I guess it's no wonder
that Raimi got into the producing side of the business. The latest film to find
him in that seat is THE POSSESSION and it's one of the scariest movies I've
seen in some time.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan stars as Clyde, a basketball coach
recently divorced from his wife Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick). The couple has two
pre-teen children, Hannah (Madison Davenport) is the older of the two and of
course the standard troubled pre-teen. Em (Natasha Calls) is the younger of the
pair and still has high hopes of her parents reuniting. With a new man in her life that's highly
unlikely.
On a weekend when Clyde has the girls staying at his place
they stop at a yard sale where Em's eye is attracted to what appears to be an
antique box with some writings carved into it. Of course she's allowed to buy
this and then takes it home. It seems like a puzzle box with no way of being
opened, but eventually Em does get it open. And that's when things begin to
happen.
Small things at first like a single moth in a room. But that
escalates when during the night a bunch of these moths show up in the bathroom
while Hannah is there which leads them to Em's room which is filled to the brim
with them. A phone call to an exterminator and a trip him ends this visit.
As the story moves forward Em begins to show signs of
becoming different. Her parents think it's nothing more than her reaction to
their recent split. But there's more to it than that. A fight at school is
described as more than a simple altercation with Em showing a substantial
violent tendency that has he withdrawing from her friends as well.
Clyde begins to suspect it has something to do with the box
and takes it to school with him to have a colleague look it over. The friend
reads the inscription which is in Hebrew and says that the box contains a
Dibbuk, an evil demon whose spirit is said to be contained therein. Clyde
considers this the possible reason for Em's outbursts and throws it away. When
Em finds out, she makes it appear he's hit her and runs to rescue the box from
where Clyde threw it away. She also causes Clyde to lose any and all custody of
the girls.
More strange things occur and Clyde continues to seek a way
to save his little girl. With more research he travels to meet with a group of
Hassidic Jews and shows them the box. They are the ones who finally give him
the information he needs to know about what the box actually is. But will they
help him rescue his daughter or is she condemned to whatever evil was contained
inside the box?
The film could seemingly boil down to being called a Jewish
EXORCIST. But it's not quite the same. How the case is handled is much
different. Yes, there are some similarities but on the whole the story is
handled at a slower pace with quite a bit less of the gore effects. This story
is more a battle of good and evil. It also deals more with the question of how
far a parent will go to fight for his or her child and just what they are
willing to accept.
There isn't a bad performance in this film. I've become a
big fan of Morgan since his days as the father of Sam and Dean Winchester on
SUPERNATURAL. His portrayal of Clyde here shows the concern of a real parent
for his child and the hopelessness he feels once he discovers what is causing
the problem. Sedgwick does a great job as well although her time onscreen seems
somewhat limited. What time she does have is well played. Both Davenport and
Calls turn in great performances for actors so young. Calls especially stands
out as Em, showing the two characters contained in one body convincingly.
It's obvious from the box art for this DVD as well as the
commercials that ran when it was in theaters (the ones that showed fingers
trying to work their way out of Em's throat when she looked in the mirror) that
this is a movie intent on scaring the viewer. I've seen plenty of horror films
and this one actually did give me a start now and then. But more than just
offering a few jump scares, this movie had you in its grip from start to
finish. It didn't feel like it had wasted space or time spans that made you
want to reach for the fast forward button. This movie keeps your attention till
the end. And if you get scared along the way on this trip, then that's just
icing on the cake.
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