THE POSSESSION (2012)

Studio:       Lionsgate
Director:    Ole Bornedal
Writer:       Juliet Snowden, Stiles White
Producer:  Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, J.R. Young
Stars:     Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, Madison Davenport, Natasha Calis, Grant Show, Matisyahu

Review Score:

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Summary:

A young girl becomes possessed after opening an antique box that imprisoned a dangerous entity.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

An old woman visibly fears the dibbuk box on her mantel that she received as a birthday gift. After hearing strange mutterings and having her hair fall out, she tries to take a hammer to the box but is contorted and maimed by an unseen force. Her son finds her crumpled body.

Clyde is a college basketball coach. He picks up his daughters Emily and Hannah at his ex-wife Stephanie’s house for the weekend. Stephanie’s new boyfriend is a dentist named Brett. Clyde takes his daughters to his new house that is in a community still under development. Em is optimistic that her parents will reconcile. She has her father buy the dibbuk box at a yard sale. In the window of the home at the sale, Em sees the old woman in traction and she screams upon seeing the little girl with the box. Her caretaker hurriedly closes the curtain.

Clyde is unable to open the box for Em because it has no seams. Later in the night, she manages to open it herself. The wind outside stops at the same moment. Among the items inside the box are a tooth, a carved animal, a fossilized moth, and a ring that Em decides to wear.

Hannah’s screams awaken everyone in the morning, but she was only frightened by a moth in her bed. Em begins to feel unlike herself as she fiddles with the ring. Clyde picks up some boxes when he returns the children to Stephanie and he watches his ex-wife get along with her new boyfriend.

When the girls come over the next weekend, something tosses items around the kitchen. It turns out to be a raccoon that came in the dog door. Clyde promises to be at Hannah’s dance recital. During the night, the dibbuk box opens by itself and seems to speak to Em. Clyde finds Em staring into the box in the morning. She stabs noisily at her breakfast and puts a fork in her father’s hand when he tries to slow her down, although she is shocked at what she did. Hannah is later attacked by moths while brushing her teeth. She and Clyde then find Em’s room completely swarmed with the insects. Clyde calls an exterminator, and Em has no recollection of what happened.

Clyde and Stephanie reminisce over old videos found on the family computer while he is deleting his email for her. He also asks if Stephanie has noticed anything strange with Emily. A late practice prevents Clyde from attending Hannah’s recital. He calls to apologize, but Hannah gives the phone to Emily. Em asks her father if the box is alright and then instructs him not to touch it. He does anyway and looks through its contents. In her bathroom, the flesh around Emily’s ring begins to deform and she sees two fingers poking out of her throat in the mirror. When a boy at school takes the box out of her backpack, she begins to beat him until the teacher stops her. The teacher meets with the parents to discuss Em’s recent change in behavior. Clyde thinks her behavior is due to more than the separation of her parents. Stephanie confronts Clyde about the possibility of him taking a coaching job in North Carolina.

In the classroom at night, the teacher tries to open the dibbuk box but starts bleeding from the eyes before being thrown out the window by an unknown force. Em is unaffected by her teacher’s death and asks her father to get the box back for her. Em says she knows Clyde has the box because she talks to the “she” who lives inside the box. Clyde later tosses the box into a commercial dumpster. Em starts insulting her father and is then slapped repeatedly by something invisible. To Hannah, it appears as if Clyde is hitting her sister. Emily runs down to the dumpster and retrieves the box. A voice whispers to her before a swarm of moths enters her body. When Clyde brings her back to his house, Stephanie is waiting along with a police officer. Believing he is physically abusive, Stephanie is furious with Clyde.

Brett finds Emily with the tooth from the box. She begins to contort and transform while Brett is distracted. Meanwhile, Clyde recovers the box across town where Emily left it. Clyde takes the box to a professor at the university. The professor explains that the box was made to contain an evil spirit. Clyde starts researching possession and Jewish exorcisms. While Stephanie is out, he goes to the house and tries to perform an exorcism on Em, but is interrupted by Stephanie. Clyde takes the box to a rabbi’s son named Tzadok, who in turn takes Clyde to see his father. The assembly of rabbis is afraid of the box and is distressed to learn that a girl opened it. It is explained that the dibbuk has taken its host and can only be commanded back into the box by using its name, which Clyde does not know. Tzadok’s father says it is too dangerous to perform a ceremony that would release the girl. The group refuses to help, leaving it “to the will of God.” Clyde leaves. Tzadok follows Clyde and says he will help because a human life is in danger.

Stephanie finds Em gorging herself like an animal on food from the refrigerator. Em asks her mother, “who am I?” Brett suggests that Em have professional treatment. The next day, Em stares at Brett from a distance. He begins to spit up blood and lose his teeth before getting in his car and driving away. Em collapses on the lawn and a moth flies out of her throat.

Tzadok examines the box for a name. He notes that the mirror inside the box was intended to force the spirit to look upon itself as a reminder that it turned away from God. Tzadoc smashes the mirror and finds a carving in the lid with the name “Abyzou,” which translates to, “taker of children.”

At the hospital, Em is given an MRI. A face can be seen inside her body on the scan as the lab lights begin flickering. Clyde joins the family at the hospital. Stephanie tells him what she saw and Clyde asks her to trust him. Because Em cannot leave the hospital, they sneak Emily down to a physical therapy room in the hospital basement where Tzadoc can perform the ritual undisturbed. Hannah, Clyde, and Stephanie hold Em down while Tzadok chants. The possession eventually overcomes Em and she overpowers the group to escape. Clyde searches for her and is attacked again, demanding the spirit to take him instead. The others catch up to Clyde and Em to find them embracing on the floor. The ring slips off of Emily’s finger. Tzadok senses that something is not right. He begins chanting the dibbuk’s name and it shows itself as having possessed Clyde. A hand begins crawling out of Clyde’s throat. It becomes a full-fledged creature that crawls towards Em just as the ritual appears to end. Tzadok collects the ring and the box.

Clyde goes home with his family. Tzadok is transporting the box back to his father when the car is struck by a truck. The box is seen on the ground not far from the wreckage.

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Review:

The most intriguing aspect of “The Possession” is that it is the only horror film I know of that eschews the Christian mythology behind spiritual possession for a haunting instead based upon Jewish folklore.  How does “The Possession” differentiate itself from its gentile brethren?  The demon is now called a dibbuk.  The Bible is swapped for a Torah.  And instead of a priest performing an exorcism, there is a rabbi performing an exorcism.  Right.  It turns out that the best way to rid someone of an evil spirit is essentially the same no matter what you think about Jesus.  How do you say, “the power of Christ compels you” in Hebrew?

Hyperbole aside, there is nothing specific about “The Possession” that can be called out as particularly bad.  Perhaps the worst thing to be said about the film is that it is basically a rehash of every other demonic possession story trussed up in Semitic references to give it the appearance of something original.

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​                                Christian demons vomit ectoplasm.  Jewish dibbuks vomit butterflies.

Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) tends to his two daughters on weekends while his ex-wife Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick) plays house with her new boyfriend.  The youngest daughter, Em (Natasha Calis), has the misfortune of opening an intriguing box purchased at a yard sale.  That act casts her as host to a dibbuk that wreaks havoc on her family until a rabbi’s son (Matisyahu) is enlisted to help banish the evil spirit.

In theory, the switch to Judaic mythology should have brought a unique take to a familiar plot.  In practice, “The Possession” ends up being a remake of several other horror films all rolled into one, albeit a competent one.  Moths infest the home in much the same way as the flies in “The Amityville Horror.”  The possessed girl’s behavior increasingly frightens her family in the same manner as the possessed boy from “The Haunting in Connecticut.”  Dad demands that the demon take him instead of the little girl, just as Father Karras did in “The Exorcist.”  There are even well worn tropes of a knowledgeable old man and a library research montage to round out the necessary exposition.

The movie never strays from that safe and narrow path.  What scares lack in originality they may make up for in creep factor.  Frights run the gamut from screamingly painful body contortions to tread lightly “who goes there” moments.  Scenes of father and daughter playing shadow puppets or the parents giddily reminiscing over old family videos provide the ready-made emotional connections to make their plight feel all the more tragic.  As by-the-book as some of these setups are, they avoid playing as too vanilla thanks to a cast that keeps things relatively engaging.

Kyra Sedgwick is a welcome addition as the girl’s mother, even if she has little to do but emote the stresses brought upon by an absentee ex-husband and a demonically possessed daughter.  Matisyahu is so well cast as a rabbi’s son that the uninitiated would never suspect him of being a reggae superstar in his other life.  Natasha Calis is also believable and sympathetic as the tortured possessee, although in her most shocked moments the director may have wanted to bring her jaw not so close to the floor.

Just as there is nothing to point to as overwhelmingly bad, there is also not much in “The Possession” to point to as particularly exceptional.  In short, “The Possession” hits all of the gates during its slalom run towards modest entertainment, even though points are deducted for an occasional cheat or sloppy technique.  It also has the luxury of following in the grooves of every ski that came before it.  Okay, maybe that metaphor tried too hard and did not quite succeed.  But sometimes it is better to risk the road less traveled and try something different instead of sticking to a beaten path just to hit the finish line.  “The Possession” might have aimed for a higher score had it gone off a jump and actually turned in an original trick or two.

Review Score:  50

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