3 out of 5

Director: Ole Bornedal

The overall negative reception of this film by the horror community is somewhat puzzling, but I suspect it’s that ‘true story’ tag that did it in for a lot people who read up on the “mysterious relic” at the core of the story – a dybbuk box, a malicious spirit-container from Jewish folklore – at got riled that, I dunno, it didn’t follow the narration in their head or something.  But horror has been using the “true” gimmick for years now, so maybe toss that off as marketing and try to enjoy the film..?  Because director Ole Bornedal has delivered a solid, creepy film that mixes wonderfully crisp cinematography with haunting lighting and a well-placed score of strings and piano plunks and the first smart and tasteful use of CGI shocks in the Ghosthouse Productions catalogue to tell, yeah, a pretty typical exorcism tale that follows the general gist of the classic one (you know which one), but TRULY does right by its influences by paying tribute to story and characters first, making the eventual evolution of the scares worthwhile.  No, you won’t be surprised, and no there isn’t a twist, but by not having a direct boogeyman to jump out at us and settling on moments of violent dread instead of tireless jump scares, ‘The Possession’ does what it sets out to do – tells a good story, very well acted by Jeffrey Morgan and the girls playing the sisters, and if the lights are out, even wrings a shiver or two from the viewer.  It didn’t knock either of my socks off, but this deserved your time more than, say, the last Resident Evil or something.