Starring: Jeffery Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, Natasha Calis, Madison Davenport, Matisyahu, Grant Show.
Director: Old Bornedal.
Jeffery Dean Morgan was good in Supernatural. I believe I saw this a couple of years ago and didn't think much of him here...or of the film whatsoever. I'm bored with the "Based on a True Story" conceit in general, especially when it comes to the Possession sub-genre. Honestly, I think the only reason I'm watching this now is to check it off the list so I can get past possession movies because I've seen so many over the past eight weeks. But, I bought the damned thing last month so...let's get this over with, shall we?
I feel like if I had a weird box that whispered weird-ass shit all the time, I wouldn't have waited awhile to smash the crap out of it. I'd probably just set fire to the friggin' thing. The weird contortionist stroke deal that the old lady has reminds me of what I do every time someone on the internet talks about how much they love House Of 1,000 Corpses.
Gonna take back what I said about Morgan earlier: I think I DO like him in this. He's giving a very honest, likable performance as a Coach and as a Father. His laughter as he and his Daughter do Shadow Puppets feels very real. The troubled family/divorce stuff is a little over-done, but hey...gotta have some sort of familial issues I suppose, especially since movies love to parallel supernatural shenanigans with personal issues.
The little girl opens the box and actually seems interested in what's in it...I feel like most kids would open it and be incredibly disappointed to find a bunch of moldy junk contained within. Honestly, you buy a moldy old box from a Old Woman yard sale you get what you paid for.
I feel like Jeffery Dean Morgan had the essential Dad experience: One Daughter screams about a bug, he kills it, the other one freaks out at him for killing the bug. Poor guy.
Natasha Calis, as the Possession victim, actually has some creepy performance stuff going on. Her eye movements are genuinely unsettling in a couple of scenes. Especially as her older sister is dancing in the garage, and Calis says she "doesn't feel like herself" and then follows her sister with her eyes...creepy stuff.
This movie does pretty well with cliches. Sure, they're still cliches, but this movie manages to have some fun with them anyway: Morgan and Sedgwick have a nice, easy chemistry in their scenes, the Moth infestation is suitably weird...most of the possession stuff is also pretty cliche: catatonia, fuge states, violent outbursts...but they still mostly work more often than not. The "fingers in the throat" gag works well enough, despite the somewhat tacked on feeling.
There is a sense of real horror when Emma begins to be slapped by an invisible force while screaming at her Father...that is the sort of thing that really is freaky. If you can imagine that happening in front of you-not that I have children, but the thought of that happening to my child is a genuinely terrifying one-and the accusation...terrifying stuff. I find nothing more frightening than being accused of violent acts against someone you didn't commit. It's just a horrible idea. The Teacher's hackneyed death feels like another tacked on element...most of the more horrorish stuff feels a bit flat.
Oh, right, I forgot: this is a Possession film that isn't Catholic. It's Jewish. That's actually pretty cool, really, in the grand scheme of things. It's different, at any rate. Unfortunately, a lot of things do feel the same once we get to the exposition stage, but at least it's another religion than the usual Catholic stuff. We get Rabbis,though,which is cool.
It's unfortunate that the possession stuff doesn't land very well, because the emotional responses and pay-offs actually are pretty excellent. As Emily growls and chews on meat like a rabid dog while Kyra tries to cajole her...it's not terribly scary or what have you, but the aftermath of Emily jumping into her Mothers arms, dropping the shard of glass, and crying is really effective.
Well, they got one creepy possession moment: Emily stands beneath an "Exit" sign, her face obscured, repeating "Daddy, you're scaring me" and then making weird laughing/crying noises in another voice, over and over again. Pretty creepy stuff, actually. Kind of falls apart with a simple and bad jump scare, but it worked for a minute.
I try not to think about the "true story" element. Somehow, I doubt anyone said "and then Daddy had this little hand coming out of his Mouth and then this weird fishy looking Woman crawled out of him and towards us as the lights flickered and stuff," y'know? I just sometimes can't help but think of what's happening on the screen being described to other people, who then write screenplays.
Final Thoughts: While almost none of the big scare scenes work nearly as well as intended, the actual emotional nuances and performances are actually enough to still make this a watchable film, which is odd for me to say considering how much I really didn't like this film much when I first saw it. The Actors bring a lot of strength to their roles, even when the script isn't quite supporting them as well as it probably should. The plot sputters and stalls a lot, and it just can't help being the same as every other movie of its type, but it still does manage those nice honest moments of humanity.
Final Rating: Three Stars.
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