The Possession (2012)

RATED- PG-13

RUN TIME- 92 MINS

WRITTEN BY- JULIET SNOWDEN AND STILES WHITE

STARRING- NATASHA CALIS, JEFFERY DEAN MORGAN AND KYRA SEDGWICK

DIRECTOR- OLE BORNEDAL

Synopsis taken from IMDb

A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child.

This was a film I was extremely excited to see. Going to see it was actually a late birthday present, so I'm thankful for that. And it didn't turn out to be a bad gift at that.

Anything with Sam Raimi's name tagged on it in any way has my vote and I'm bound to go see. So for this one I was hoping I could see a good possession movie for once.

The movie starts off with us seeing a wooden, creepy box and we're hearing a raspy old woman's voice coming from it. Speaking in what appeared to be a muffled language.

There's an old woman starring at the box in terror. She proceeds to grab a baseball bat and attempt to sneak up on the box. However, the box senses the attack and causes a gust of wind to throw the woman across the house and slam her face into tables and making her fold in unnatural ways.

Her son arrives at her doorstep only to see the aftermath and we here him scream.

The movie picks up with us seeing the Dad, Clyde, (Jeffery Dean Morgan) pick up his two daughters for the weekend and thus introducing us to the fact that the family is broken and separated. Dad is then told not to feed his daughters pizza, only healthy food. He swears to follow instructions.

That night they have pizza and have fun as a family making shadow puppets on the walls and laughing, enjoying the time together.

The next day after stopping at a yard sale, Em,  Clyde's youngest daughter is intrigued by a wooden box and wants it. We learn that the yard sale is from the house in the beginning with the old woman and her son is the one selling the stuff. Clyde allows her to get it thinking it is only a simple wooden box. Not knowing it's power. This part was particularly because after buying the box Em looks in the window of the house to see the old woman from the beginning of the film in bandages from head to toe. And when the woman sees the box she starts flipping out requiring having to be restrained.

That night Em is restless and tries to open the box although it appears to have no seems, it wasn't intended to be open. She finds the way to open it and does so. Searching through it's contents to see weird trinkets and miscellaneous items. She closes the box and goes to sleep.

The next day almost as if it were instantly, Em starts to feel ill and not like herself. And we start to see some strange behavior.

Clyde walks in on Em looking into her new mysterious box, only the reflection isn't hers. It's of what looks like an older lady with white eyes. Clyde turns Em around to see she's normal and fine and you can see in his gut that he knows somethings wrong.

Em's behavior starts becoming out of control. They start to see horrible attitude from her and know she's not feeling like herself.

She stabs Clyde in the hand with her fork at breakfast for him raising her voice at her for how rough she was being with eating her pancakes. He sends her to her room.

Then Em's older sister, Hannah, sees the house infested with flying insects I believe they say is moths but they don't look like moths. And after getting Clyde they both discover the source of them infesting the house is from under Em's door. Upon opening the door they see Em sitting on her bed calm as the bugs fly all around her. Clyde gets her out of the house and calls the exterminator.

Her next act-up is when she starts smacking herself and blaming Clyde of doing to to make Hannah believe her and turn against Clyde since Clyde decided that Em shouldn't have the box. Em runs from the house in the middle of the night and is mysteriously heading toward the box's direction, only there's no way she could know where he put it.

We see her open the box and talk to an invisible being and she begins to sound panicked and scared. We then see her scream as a moth flies down her throat.

After this incident the girls' mom and Clyde's ex- wife Stephanie, files a claim to refused visitation rights against Clyde and blaming him for this incident.

Clyde takes the box to some Jewish men who can identify the box for him. He goes to them after researching some possession videos and articles online. The Jewish men are scared and intimidated by the box and are unwilling to help him. They do say however, that the box is from the early 1820's and that the box contains a demon that wants life and that was held in that box as prisoner. That's also why it wasn't intended to be opened. The demon is known as the taker of children.

Clyde then goes by the house, against the registrations regulations and goes into Em's room and reads her a passage from the bible. After she turns and looks at him the bible is then thrown from his hands and into the wall.

Em takes her anger out on her mom's new boyfriend who's making himself to comfortable for her. So she gives him an evil, aggressive stare and causes his teeth to fall out. He gets in his car and drives off.

Stephanie takes her daughter to get some tests done on her to figure out the problem, alot like in The Exorcist (1973). However, these test results show that their is someone else inside Em and it shows up on the X-ray machine looking sinister and threatening. It is taking claim of Em. It wants her life.

There's a particular scene in this movie that stands out as creative but it's also one that's been shown on the commercials where Em is looking in her mouth with a flashlight and we see fingers come up her throat and touch her tongue.

The son of the old Jewish man Clyde saw decides to help him get the spirit out of Em and back intot he box.

Stephanie joins side with Clyde and they all work as a team and family with their other daughter, Hannah. And their friend Tzadok. Together they manage to threaten the demon and cause a violent outrage from the demon and it runs loose in the dark hospital. Clyde chases after her leaving the others behind and this led to the creepiest scene in the movie to me.

There's no light in the room but a red tint from an EXIT sign. Em is standing under it making weird noises and repeating "You hurt me daddy." over and over again until the light goes out completely and we get to the film's climax.

I loved this movie and I was so, so thankful that a good possession movie was made to try and ease the hurt The Last Exorcism and The Devil Inside left. This a good horror movie and a good possession movie. Especially for a PG-13 rating.

I thought the special effects were good and the story was totally original and it was good to see a fresh take on the possession angle. The acting was well done and sympathetic as well.

THIS FILM GETS 3 REAPERS OUT OF 4