Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Better Late Then Never

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of my favorite movies. It's very unique being that it's Jewish demons that are involved. The x-ray part also thrills me. When he travels very far to meet the jew people. I don't know, i just love the movie. You're always on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next.

The Possession—not to be confused with Possession (1981), Amityville II: The Possession (1982), The Possessed (2017), The Possession of Michael King (2014), or countless other films based around demonic possession and exorcism—is about as inspired as its title.The story is cookie-cutter stuff, The Exorcist given a Jewish spin, and sees a young girl, Em (Natasha Calis), buying a box from a yard sale unaware that it contains an evil spirit called a Dybbuk. On opening the box, Em becomes possessed by the Dybbuk, much to the horror of her recently divorced parents (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick), who call in a Jewish priest (Matisyahu) to cast the spirit out.Director Ole Bornedal rattles off all the expected genre clichés and numerous less-than-effective jump scares whilst simultaneously leaving several plot threads dangling (where did Brett drive off to after his teeth fell out? What was the significance of the moths? Why did the Dybbuk stop some people using supernatural force but allow others to seek help? Why does the spirit leave Em and enter Clyde at the end?). The result is a mediocre movie at best.4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

After The Exorcist, I find movies about possession to be unoriginal and tedious, and this one was no different.Add to it a very annoying character - the mother of the possessed girl, played by Kyra Sedgwick complete with the bitchy ex-wife thing going full speed, made me start walking away from the screen before the film was half over.But if you like this kind of thing, go for it. It's well produced and acted, with some minor gross-outs to keep it interesting. But it's mediocre to the end.

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.