After buying a present for his estranged daughter, a man finds that the box contained a powerful demonic entity that slowly possesses her and eventually forces him to come to grips with the supernatural in order to finally beat it.Overall this one was quite enjoyable if slightly flawed. Among the more positives aspects here is the fact that this one manages to great enhance the idea of her being possessed by really going for a more understated idea than usual to account for the growing suspicion, using nervous ticks, irrational outbursts of anger and turning away to hide the possession giveaways of eye-manipulations and eerie whispering that goes hand-in-hand with the obsessive fixation on the box which all manage to make the first half quite a bit of fun slowly spelling out it's tell-tale signs. When it does shift into higher gear in the second half with a more pronounced bit of supernatural displays, from the swarming bedroom of locusts and the demonic taunting that leads into the most disturbing scene in the whole film, it gets a lot of mileage out of her turn and becomes quite fun due to that being added on to the slow- building first half. The finale is all based around the actual exorcism of the demon and manages to run nicely enough by making the creatures' unusual origin a nice focal point away from the typical style usually found here which is quite nicely handled, along with the tense action and thrilling encounters within that make it quite exciting. These here are enough to raise this up enough over its few minor flaws. The biggest issue within this one is the fact that it manages to carry on with the oblivious parents and the doubting figures long after it's realistically feasible since it plays the big trump card of the infestation with locusts despite not being the slightest bit annoyed with them there so early on in the film that it should've been the start of trying to figure out what's wrong with her instead of being simply a great shock gag the way it comes off here which is pretty irrational in real life as that would warrant far more action on their account than is called for here. The other factor to account for here is the rather cliché note this one undertakes, feeling like pretty much every other paranormal haunting movie out there and plays through a lot of the same features as elsewhere in here which makes it feel really familiar along the way. Still, it's got enough positives to be enjoyable at least.Rated PG-13: Violence, Language and intense scenes of children-in- jeopardy.

The Possession has done only one thing well: it follows the formula of "Look at that piece of possibly cursed box of questionable origin, there's no way it has some demonic entity that will make my life miserable". Everything plays out predictably, there are no surprises or twists, and the worst of all, it's not even scary. The movie is just annoyingly loud and poorly edited, I'd advise you use your money to watch the kiddie CG movies instead, they won't suck as much as this.Look at the poster above, you'll be seeing some people puke moths, hands and even a Gollum. This trick is done so many times, it loses any suspense and resembles more of an eating disorder. Plot has a bit of value in the beginning as the family is in post-divorce aftermath, their relationships been fractured and set for harder situation to come. The sisters are good addition, since they look identical which might show how both of them cope with the possession, respectively. Instead, you'll be bombarded with series of gibberish that comes of that bloody box, things being broken in maximum volume and someone is always screaming.I get the necessary blast of volume in horror movies, but this is just ridiculous in every levels, as if they are saying "HEY, IT'S SCARY! LOOK, SO SCARY!" every five minutes. At some point, I prepare myself for the next attempt of blowing my ear drums off, it's not even unintentionally funny anymore. There's also telekinesis parts where people are seemingly break dancing or doing lousy acrobatic while the soundtrack is trying so hard to hum unpleasant effect to convince the audience. Play dubstep remix instead and you have a hip hop dance video.It's also unfortunate that the movie's editing is sometimes choppy, it could use more time to emphasis some scenes further and establish more ground for the build the next fright, instead they dwell longer on the divorce issue. It's a good concept for background, but it gets stale and offers only more excuses for people screaming at each other. It doesn't help that it uses every-so-cliché flashing lights, coupled that with the blaring audio, it's a torment to your senses.If you like girl throwing tantrum because their parents are separated, seeing her gorging food to make herself obese and watching the parents watch Youtube videos with cinematic overly loud volume, still don't watch this. I honestly can't find any reason to recommend it, I actually would give it lower score if not for the "Based on true story" remark, because I don't want to mess with the creepy Dybbuk.

The subject material to "The Possession" is your typical, a tad generic, demon possession affair and the scares that litter the film weren't very effective for me but the film didn't prove to be a complete waste of time.Director Ole Bornedal has some very sharp visuals in the film and, even though it makes for predictable scares, it looks good along the way. Additionally, the entire cast is very, very good—with special mention to Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the father Clyde and Natasha Calis as the possessed daughter Em. The entire cast was great but those two were incredible! Finally, the film's final sequence where they attempt to exorcise the demon from the little girl is incredibly put together and meshes sound, light and shadow very well to make a very intense scene.The film does suffer from being soaked in generic horror film territory, some plot issues, and scares that just didn't do anything for me but the story works for what it is and the points I mentioned previously made the film watchable and fairly decent. It's not great or memorable but it never really bored me.

Now THIS was a decent horror movie. "The Possession" (2012) was a well-directed and capably written yarn about a demon afflicting a divorced family via a cursed box. It had great acting all around, most notably by the possessed innocent (Natasha Calis) and especially her well meaning father (the talented and likable Jeffrey Dean Morgan). I'd give it an 8 out of 10.My quibbles were minor. This is essentially a Jewish retread of "The Exorcist" (1973), with the Catholic clergyman and demon swapped out for a rabbi and a "dybbuk" (sp?). If you've seen "The Exorcist," you've basically seen this. There is some CGI-rendered body horror that seemed gimmicky and unneeded. And I hate movies where divorced families are magically reunited after facing a challenge together. (Does this ever happen in real life?)Still, this was a scary flick and a fun watch. I'd recommend it.https://ericrobertnolan.wordpress.com/