HMRWS - Starring Abyzou!

[Seil]

Wow, it's weird that the first two horror movies I've picked up in a while have evil spirits whose names begin with "A." It's also really cool to see some Judaism in a horror flick.

Okay, now this is something to get excited about. The Possession is pretty rad, but it seems to be a blend of a lot of recent horror movies - or maybe I'm just recognizing tropes as this thing continues.

Okay, so The Cast has Jeffery Dean Morgan as Clyde, Kyra Sedgewick as Stephanie, Natasha Calis as Emily and Madison Davenport as Hannah. They're one big unhappy family!

The Plot has Clyde and Stephanie separating, and their two young daughters, Hannah and Emily, dealing with the divorce. Clyde is a basketball coach at a local university, and has a job offer on the table for a school a few states away.

Hannah and Emily spend their time in betwixt their parents houses, with each parent trying to be... there. Trying to be supportive to their kids. When Clyde moves into his new house, it's Hannah who sees the garage sale, reminding him that he needs dishes. However, it's Emily who finds the box. The strange box covered in archaic writing that doesn't seem to be able to open. So, of course, she begs her dad to buy it for her. Everything seems fine until something from the box starts talking to Emily.

Personal Opinion Man, I'm finding that I have to look at my earlier review to make sure these things are uniform. Oh well, no one reads these things anyway.

This is pretty cool - the movie opens and closes on strong notes. The intro has an older woman in her house staring at the box, listening to something inside. She walks away from it, puts on the stereo, but keeps staring at the box. Then she picks up a hammer, walks over, her body is picked up off the ground and flung into the walls while she screams and cries for it to stop, all the while listening to the swinging "You're A Heavenly Thing."

The beginning really sets the mood, and while I can make a ton of parallels to other films - the separated parents from Mirrors, the sealed evil in a box from, well, too many movies to name - it is it's own movie, though. Everything is acted very well, and the scares are cool. They rely more on isolating this little girl, Emily, showing her slow degeneration into, well, possession. Kind of like The Exorcist, my favorite film. Did I mention that?

Final Opinion Is this movie good? Yes. Great? Ehhh... While it does scare, and it can keep it up longer than The Last Exorcism, it's not going to be a classic. I'll say it's definitely worth a rental, maybe something to throw on with a few friends who don't talk during the movie or are otherwise distracting, but it's not something to plug in during a party where no one's paying attention. Great performances, very human characters, everything's logical, and neat ending.

Not so sure about the whole "Based On A True Story," though.