Anticlimax

THE POSSESSION

DIRECTOR: Ole Bornedal

CAST: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, Natasha Calis, Madison Davenport

Rating: **

Another film inspired by The Exorcist, this one gives the girl at the centre of it a broken family, a loving elder sister and a guy who could be her step dad. Given that it is based on a true story, that's about the only part that works for The Possession. Once the "spirit" has taken over 10-year-old Emily (Calis), director Bornedal really doesn't know where to go where others haven't gone before. At the same time, it's a relief that he doesn't fall back on the cheap hysterics. The bloodletting is generally off-screen. Emily's trauma is more in the direction of glaring through eyes dark from lack of sleep and a voice that at times breaks into a grown-up woman's. Bornedal cleverly handles a scene involving Emily and mom Stephanie (Sedgwick), where the mother for the first time realises something may be wrong with the daughter as she walks into her devouring the entire fridge. Is it Emily or someone else — the mother can't tell through the glass bottle behind which the daughter is crouching. In fact, you are almost ready to pardon the film for its lack of enough original thrills, chills and trills and for throwing in a smattering of Jewish religious hocus-pocus, till Bornedal goes into the final exorcism scene. As it plays out for far too long and far too ridiculously on a hospital floor, Bornedal commits the cardinal sin of a horror-suspense: making you wait for an end that's no surprise.

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