The Possession

                 

        Let’s face it, most of us enjoy being scared. You can tell this by how well horror movies do at the box office and all the TV shows out there that deal with “scaring” us. I like being scared; I enjoy the things that go bump in the night and the surprises that always wait around the corner. The best scares always come from truth, because you think they could happen to you. Based on true events can add to the story or be a let down from the real story, the later can be said for “The Possession”.

     It’s based on a true story that revolves around a Jewish wine cabinet that is haunted by an evil spirit called a “dibbuk”, where strange things happened whenever the box is near.  For the movie’s purpose the story is a little bit different. Clyde (Jeffery Dean Morgan) and Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick) are going through a divorce. Caught in the middle are their two girls Em (Natasha Calis) and Hannah (Madison Davenport) who split weekends at both their parents’ house. One day while the girls are with their father, they all stop at a garage sale, where Em is drawn to an old wooden box. Em talks her father into buying it and after the box is opened strange things start to happen. What happens is that she becomes possessed and her family must find a way to save her before it is too late.

    Anytime you see Sam Raimi’s name attached to something of the horror persuasion you hope to see his prints on it. Well everyone is due for a miss once in awhile and I think this is Raimi’s. The problem with horror movies today is that they want to draw you in with the trailer so much so that they have to show you things that may scare. The bad ones show you everything and leave nothing to be surprised at.  “The Devil Inside” rings to mind.  With “The Possession” if you see the trailer you pretty much saw the movie. The story written by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White is pretty basic and could have been so much better. If you read the true story that the film is supposed to be based on, it sounds better then the film. I know nothing will change in the world of horror movies because they make money just about every time. I just wish they wouldn’t show everything in the trailers, just let us be surprised. I wish I could tell you that this is a good scary movie, but after the film was over, all I was thinking was what possessed me to see this film.

Brian Taylor