not horrible nor great

just watch it!

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This amateurish mess of a movie tries to be a horror/comedy but falls flat. It is neither scary nor humorous. I spent the entire flick wondering why respected actors like William Sadler, Carol Kane and Lou Taylor Pucci (who is unrecognizable here) would stoop to participate in this sorry excuse of a film. Perhaps they owed someone a favor. When the lead character attended a meeting of 'Spirit Possessions Anonymous' I thought this may be similar to 'Scary Movie', 'Naked Gun' and other satirical comedies, but no such luck. I won't bother to describe the plot of this disaster, but some of the dialog is priceless...such as 'I think my demon likes me, I'm the first girl he was ever inside.' and 'It was negative space, like a donut hole.'

Beginning where most, if not all, exorcism-related horror movies end, "Ava's Possessions" travels the path less taken, chronicling its titular character's recovery from a brutal bout with a demon name Naphula. It's an interesting angle to take and director Jordan Galland makes considerable hay with the concept, even if some elements fall flat. But in a genre where possession is old-hat, it's rare to see a fresh and unique take on the material. If nothing else, this film is quite unlike anything you've ever seen before.With a style that owes considerably to Nicholas Winding Refn's retro-noir "Drive," "Ava's Possessions" works with a brilliant color palette, numerous cockeyed and crazy angles and a moody, atmospheric score by Sean Lennon. Galland is a relatively inexperienced director (his time spent in the entertainment business has been mostly musically related) but he shows a steady hand here, establishing a style that is familiar yet titillating. Even when certain threads of the film's plot don't quite hold together, the film is an audio/visual feast. Whether it's the gory make-up and effects or simply the pouring of an orange soda, "Ava" is quite a sight to behold. As far as little-seen horror films you stumble upon in Netflix's library in the middle of the night, you'd be hard-pressed to find something this colorful and unique.Where the film stumbles is in its overly complicated story. Clocking in at under 90 minutes, there's no reason for this film to be as cluttered with needless plot debris. While watching Louisa Krause find her way post-exorcism is compelling, we are constantly tripping over side characters who insist on telling us their story, too. Problem is, this is Ava's story and that story should be compelling enough on its own merits. After all, the film is essentially a metaphor for recovering from drug addiction, and that ambitious angle is never quite fully capitalized upon in favor of characters who, quite frankly, aren't really all that interesting. Sure, we are treated to veterans like Carol Kane and William Sadler, both of whom are solid in their roles, but comedic actors like Dan Fogler and Deborah Rush ("Strangers With Candy," represent!) are given so little to do with their talents, its a wonder they were even cast in the first place.Flaws aside, "Ava's Possessions" is still a nicely made, fresh and enjoyable take on a tired genre. It tries to break new ground and mostly succeeds. Genre fans will appreciate a new spin on familiar material, while bleary eyed late-night viewers will find themselves possessed by its aesthetics. Amidst all of your Netflix binging, this one should definitely not be purged.

Finally, a new angle for the old satanic possession standard. Ava's Possessions starts where other movies end: a stoic priest is able to expel the demon Naphula, and the main character Ava is free from its perverse influence. However, it's not that easy to return to normality, because Ava and her family will have to face the practical and psychological consequences of possession. Director and screenwriter Jordan Galland establishes a realistic situation, combining subtle humor with a provocative mystery which impulses the story and assigns a motivation to the leading character. However, that mystery isn't the main point of the film; the most important thing is discovering how Ava's terrifying experience altered her perception of the world and brought her new qualities which will be useful for her to investigate her activities during that "lost month": who she met, why such many people hate her and where a mysterious clock showing up at her apartment came from. What did Nephula exactly do while it was controlling Ava's body? At the same time, we follow the process of "therapy", who works as a support group at first sight: the surviving victims sharing stories, receiving counseling on their re- integration to societies and forming friendships with people who went through the same situation; oh, and they also invoke the demons who possessed them, in order to get trained to expel them without the need of ecclesiastical intervention. All those sub-plots are eventually fused on an ingenious way, until leading to a very satisfactory ending. As for the cast, Louisa Krause displays a perfect balance of internal strength and cynical apathy in her role; and I would also like to mention the solid performances from Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Carol Kane, Whitney Able and the great William Sadler. In conclusion, I liked Ava's Possessions very much, and it deserves an enthusiastic recommendation mainly because of its creative premise combining humor, drama and interesting characters, proving that there still are new things to explore into the satanic possession sub-genre. Who would have imagined that the most interesting aspects of a possession wouldn't be the screams and contortions, but the human problems coming after the exorcism?

Jordan Galland's "Ava's Possessions" stood out in the Fantasia International Film Festival schedule to me for being a movie about the aftermath of a possession. When I originally heard about a little movie called "Tonight, We Stay Indoors" by no-budget filmmaker Joseph Larsen, I was intrigued in similar ways. If you don't know, "Tonight, We Stay Indoors" is essentially about what happens after a slasher movie. Yet "Ava's Possessions" seemed to take a completely different route with its aftermath story. A more traditional one than Joseph Larsen's very slow art-house approach. "Ava's Possessions" mixes crime mysteries and comedy with its horror themes, making it something that doesn't require you to be completely on edge.Ava wakes up as her normal self, with a priest telling her that she has been possessed by a demon. This has been going on for a month, and her family have desperately tried to get through this month of torment. Finally Ava is back! Because crimes were committed during her possession, Ava has to take responsibility for them. She can either go to jail and serve the time, or she can go to meetings with the Spirit Possession Anonymous group. The group helps her on her journey to recovery - a long and hard journey as the demon might return. When things are starting to look up, Ava is told to get in contact with all the people she wronged during her possession, and she slowly finds evidence of something horrible having taken place."Ava's Possessions" feels like if you treat possession like going on a bender, and the movie takes place the day after when trying to remember where you were, what you did and who you slept with. Yes, it's very on the nose about this, especially considering that the demon that Ava was possessed by was a rich, snotty and careless demon. The movie is rather basic and you can quickly tell what the filmmaker was going for. This wasn't really issue to me until a slightly underwhelming end to the movie. For a movie with such a great premise, it felt like the movie became less and less original the longer it went on.Don't let the above statement scare you from watching the movie though, it is still a very fun movie. It's still relatively fresh and unique, with plenty of fun horror movie clichés having been skewed to fit the mold. "Ava's Possessions" is not a horror movie, but I'd absolutely regard it as a movie made for horror movie fans. It's a perfect movie to watch when you want a horror comedy but have realized that the majority of them are the same.I appreciated that "Ava's Possessions" never blossomed into full horror, and was always much more a mystery/crime comedy than anything else. The clichés were done in just the perfect way where they didn't feel like parody, yet somehow intentional. The possession scenes themselves were pretty much what you expect but they are treated well within the "lore" of the movie. Overall a pleasant watch that's worth keeping in mind when you want an easier movie.