The action is set in the "duck and cover" epoch.All fear the "atomic attack".Bill Bowdern teaches at the Faculty of Theology,at "SLU";he was in the war and has his subsequent traumas;he drinks a little,knows much about comics and football.Bowdern defends the faith by fighting racism and gets arrested after punching a policeman.He's not afraid to use some bad language.One day,Bowdern is shown a house of the Alexian Brothers,as a terminus for the misfits.Robbie,eleven years old,is interested mainly in comics and tricks.He learns to be a ventriloquist.One day,at school,objects begin to move themselves by the boy;Robbie becomes morose,violent.He is seen by Rev. Roland Eckhardt ("a man of reason,a man of science,and a man of God",as he defines himself),who takes Robbie at his home and nearly gets killed by the boy.At first,Fr. Bowdern considers Robbie's "abnormal behavior" as "a lot of hearsay","mass hysteria".Then,he is asked to investigate the case.He does some research,finds out about Surin (as a Jesuit professor,he should have known already about Father Surin,at least as much as he knew about Lois Lane,I think).This movie is not frightful,lugubrious,scary,nor creepy,etc.;it seldom tries to be so,and in a naive,clumsy and conventional way.As a matter of fact,it bases upon facts,not upon fantasy.It tries to suggest the sinister,the horrible violence,the horrid,the fearful of the situation,by means of the reactions of those implied (W. Bowdern,Phyllis,etc.).I think it refuses to resort to cheap means in order to scare.The best actors of the show are Timothy Dalton,Shannon Lawson,Czerny and Christopher Plummer.Dalton utters sonorously,plainly,in his affected and theatrical way.W. Bowdern has a rough line:"Too many jackasses have made our decisions".On a TV in this movie we see a bit of a Bp. Sheen show ("higher than Milton Berle").

One faces the inexplicable beyond the reaches of western scientificism and one reaches into the grey realm of faith and skepticism. Welsh born actor Timothy Dalton plays a persuasive American Irish priest Father Willam Bowden taking cover in superficial faith from the horrors of world war II; yet in pursuit of that faith, Father Willam Bowden comes directly into the grasp of Satan. He must struggle not only with Old Scratch but also with the Romanish Church hierarchy which despite its mideaval costumes and time worn ceremonies would like to modernize and depart from some of the smoke, fire and brimstone.Though Father Willam Bowden whose personal weaknesses particularly for alcohol are probably known might not be the best choice to perform the ancient ritual, Archbishop Hume (Christopher Plummer) chooses Rev Bowden to perform the rite.Can Reverend Bowden overcome both his past and the curlish Roman Church hierarchy more interested in political standing than preaching to drive away the Devil? See Possessed.

I enjoyed watching Possessed. This one made me laugh because of the little boys impressions. I think this is the real version to the exorcist, because it was based on a true story of a young boy that is possessed by a demon. I give this movie 10 out of 10.

Yes, or course there are the usual amount of cliched semi-plots that add to the character development and have nothing to do with the story, but POSSESSED is quite good. Not really scary to me, but if you are a religious person, then it is quite possible that this movie will f*** you in the head! So be warned. Take the same warning for THE EXORCIST. Both of these films are similar (because one inspired the other) and they are both disturbing.The ending of this film was not as good as I was hoping, but the rest of the film was pretty much everything I wanted. The acting is cheesy in some cases, but Timothy Dalton and Christopher Plummer both do good. I recommend all those other demon movies, like THE EXORCIST, END OF DAYS, LOST SOULS, BLESS THE CHILD, and STIGMATA.POSSESSED: 4/5.