"The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
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<table border="20"><tr> <BR><td bgcolor=#000000> The Possession (2012) http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps0bb016d5.jpg Selected by ntnon </tr></td></table> IMDB ENTRY NETFLIX WATCH INSTANTLY _______________________________________ These "October Horror Movie Challenge" threads are for the discussion of the films in the 31 FILM SUBSET list. The plan is for everyone to watch this film on the October day in the thread title, and to start discussing it the morning of the following day. You may start discussion early if you want, but the preferred plan is for this to be as much of a group exercise as possible, with all of us viewing it "together" and discussing after. Of course, you are totally encouraged to participate in these threads even if you haven't watched the movie on the designated day. Even if you haven't watched it in years, or are not participating in the Horror Challenge, please feel free to chime in. Spoiler tags are unnecessary in here, so if you have yet to see the film BEWARE OF SPOILERS. _______________________________________ <table border="20"><tr> <td bgcolor=#778899> SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! MAIN THREAD | LIST THREAD |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
The Possession (2012) really works. I initially dismissed it as just another PG-13 throwaway but despite some familiar elements it's a lot of fun; like a modern jewish Amityville Horror with actual creepiness and good tension. It's well executed even if some of the content doesn't feel fresh.
The similarities to Amityville Horror seemed striking at times. The moths everywhere (like bees in AH), stress from family discord, appeal to religious figures. I'd be curious to see if anyone else thought thought elements of The Possession were overly familiar not just in comparison to Amityville horror. The exorcism subplot seems over-used, right down to the "take me instead" bit and suddenly limber kid, I kept myself braced for pea soup spew that never came. I really like the near end hospital segment which seemed brilliantly composed and gripping. Horror films take liberties with "based on a true story" taglines, but the introduction here seems to suggest this was based on "true events." Does anyone know anything about that? Kudos to ntnon for the subset pick. |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Undeadcow
(Post 11856323)
Horror films take liberties with "based on a true story" taglines, but the introduction here seems to suggest this was based on "true events." Does anyone know anything about that?
http://www.doblu.com/2013/01/11/poss...bluray-review/ |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Undeadcow
(Post 11856323)
The Possession (2012) really works. I initially dismissed it as just another PG-13 throwaway but despite some familiar elements it's a lot of fun; like a modern jewish Amityville Horror with actual creepiness and good tension. It's well executed even if some of the content doesn't feel fresh.
The similarities to Amityville Horror seemed striking at times. The moths everywhere (like bees in AH), stress from family discord, appeal to religious figures. I'd be curious to see if anyone else thought thought elements of The Possession were overly familiar not just in comparison to Amityville horror. The exorcism subplot seems over-used, right down to the "take me instead" bit and suddenly limber kid, I kept myself braced for pea soup spew that never came. It was an alright movie. Yeah, there are lots of familiar elements from other movies here. And the PG-13 takes away a bit of bite that other movies have. For example, the nastiest thing the demon-possessed child could say was "I don't like you anymore". Regan would not be impressed. It was nice to have the Judaism angle (though you could swap in a priest for the rabbi and the exorcism scene wouldn't be that different). A few things I learned: 1. Talking on your cell phone while driving is more dangerous than performing an exorcism. 2. When at a yard sale, if you see an old box with arcane symbols on it that whispers to your daughter ... pass on it. On the flip side, if such a box is in your possession a yard sale is a great way to get rid of it. 3. If you're not good at basketball it may be time to start playing with the invisible ball. EDITED for another thing I learned: 4. If you're possessed by a demon/spirit, an MRI can pick it up! |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by PhantomStranger
(Post 11858964)
The Blu-ray had a little featurette on the "true events." I got the impression the incident was vastly blown out of proportion for the movie and could have been done as a publicity stunt. Supposedly someone bought the cursed box off of eBay. I kid you not.
http://www.doblu.com/2013/01/11/poss...bluray-review/ |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Undeadcow
(Post 11873351)
The assortment of supposedly haunted stuff on ebay is mind numbing up to a $200,000 "haunted" funeral home. I can't tell what is worse, the rash of remakes or "hollywood" turning to Ebay for feature stories. The movie worked out really great but when you put it that way it sounds like a dud.
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Being an atheist, I have a strange affinity for possession movies and I have no idea why. But alas, this one left me cold. I thought the little girl did a good job with her role but there were really only one or two truly creepy parts (my particular favorite was the little girl standing under the red exit sign stating the exact same thing over and over again in the exact same way...with some creepy repeated gurgling sounds in the middle).
I have watched a lot of horror movies in my day and I have yet to comprehend why when something strange is going on, no one ever turns on the lights. Oh yeah, and hospitals are completely without staff, visitors, other patients or cameras at night. The whole box theme kept my mind on Hellraiser more than anything. And "based on true events"...yeah, right. I felt this was one of the weaker "possession" movies that has come out in the last few years. It held my interest, but just barely. My rating: *** out of *****. |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by brainee
(Post 11873343)
Just watched it. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but it seems whenever I stream a movie the night it's assigned my stream is bad quality.
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by DaveyJoe
(Post 11888632)
Did you stream it through Netflix? Even if your connection is on the slow side you can force it to stream in HD, you'll have a longer buffer time at first but it's better to watch a movie nice and sharp.
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Spiderbite
(Post 11888648)
How can you force it? This is a trick I would like to know! I watch Netflix on both my 360 and my PS3 (mainly my PS3).
1) hold ALT + Shift and Left Click on the picture. 2) You'll see an option box come up, go to Stream Manager 3) enable Manual Selection and pick a high bitrate I think anything higher than 1750 should give you 720p and the higher selections give you 1080p. You'll have to wait for the movie to buffer, but it should force a higher video quality when it's finished. |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
^Anybody know how to do this on the 360 or PS3?
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Spiderbite
(Post 11888734)
^Anybody know how to do this on the 360 or PS3?
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/sony-...n-hd-27573873/ You can go to "Your Account", then down to "Your Profile", and then to "Playback Settings". My defaults to "Auto", but there are three other options. I honesty don't know if selecting "High" will force the PS3 or PC to buffer the stream a little in order to show HD or not, but it's the only choice I see.:shrug: |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by brainee
(Post 11873343)
A few things I learned:
1. Talking on your cell phone while driving is more dangerous than performing an exorcism. 2. When at a yard sale, if you see an old box with arcane symbols on it that whispers to your daughter ... pass on it. On the flip side, if such a box is in your possession a yard sale is a great way to get rid of it. 3. If you're not good at basketball it may be time to start playing with the invisible ball. 4. If you're possessed by a demon/spirit, an MRI can pick it up! 6. Get the iPhone 12 flash LED light when searching large open spaces. 7. Don't make a move toward the possessed girl's Eggo. 8. We find out how Gollum made a little cash between LOTR and The Hobbit. |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
I loved it. I found it to be a mostly understated, engrossing piece of filmmaking. It wasn't ever balls-out scary, but it had a nice vibe going and was always interesting. I wasn't expecting it to be any good, so I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much. I was so afraid that it was going to turn out to be dreck like The Haunting in Connecticut or An American Haunting, to pick two PG-13 horror movies that I really disliked...yet it entertained me, often in spite of its flaws (such as the aforementioned MRI dybbuk scan and Gollum's cameo). Not perfect, but MUCH better than I expected it to be.
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Is there some specific mythology that gives background on ghosts turning into flying bugs or being associated with them? I noticed the girl "screaming" butterflies on the poster and keep seeing that sort of imagery so wonder where "everyone's" getting so inspired to connect ghosts/demons with bugs.
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
I liked this one. Didn't break any new ground, but the cast was solid and the pacing was good. Some creepily effective scenes and nice effects work, too.
Also liked that they went with Judaism instead of the typical Catholic route. A couple of things did give me a chuckle: -When the Dad goes to the Rabbi for help, the Rabbi is all like "A little girl is being posessed by a demon? Eh, sounds dangerous. I'll leave it to the Lord's will. See ya." -The possessed girl striking a female superhero pose: http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps97b9e9ae.png |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Spiderbite
(Post 11888532)
Being an atheist, I have a strange affinity for possession movies and I have no idea why. But alas, this one left me cold. I thought the little girl did a good job with her role but there were really only one or two truly creepy parts (my particular favorite was the little girl standing under the red exit sign stating the exact same thing over and over again in the exact same way...with some creepy repeated gurgling sounds in the middle).
Originally Posted by rbrown498
(Post 11890440)
I loved it. I found it to be a mostly understated, engrossing piece of filmmaking. It wasn't ever balls-out scary, but it had a nice vibe going and was always interesting. I wasn't expecting it to be any good, so I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much. I was so afraid that it was going to turn out to be dreck like The Haunting in Connecticut or An American Haunting, to pick two PG-13 horror movies that I really disliked...yet it entertained me, often in spite of its flaws (such as the aforementioned MRI dybbuk scan and Gollum's cameo). Not perfect, but MUCH better than I expected it to be.
Originally Posted by Fist of Doom
(Post 11890562)
I liked this one. Didn't break any new ground, but the cast was solid and the pacing was good. Some creepily effective scenes and nice effects work, too.
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Spiderbite
(Post 11888532)
Being an atheist, I have a strange affinity for possession movies and I have no idea why....
Originally Posted by Trevor
(Post 11890720)
I used to be an atheist too. I think these types of films have always freaked me out because deep down I know there's some truth to it. I can't watch The Exorcist alone or at night.
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
I'm agnostic and I also have a preference for supernatural horror flicks, and always enjoy religious/possession flicks. I was thinking about it earlier in the month while watching 11/11/11, it struck me as strange that I don't believe in anything like that, but I really enjoy movies about the subject. The Exorcist is one of my favorites, and I also love Exorcist 3.
This movie was better than I thought it would be. Despite my appreciation for flicks like this, I have stayed away from movies like The Devil Inside and the Last Exorcism.. of whatever because they genuinely looked awful, and the consensus is that they are. Possession was decent, but still pretty generic. It was enjoyable enough, but I don't think I'd rewatch it. One thing that bothered me is the editing in this movie, I'm a professional video editor, so it really stood out to me. The movie probably had a low budget and the director wasn't able to shoot as much footage as he would have liked, but a lot of the scenes have jarring cuts, or fade to black prematurely, leaving the entire movie with an awkward mise-en-scene. I wonder if anybody else felt this way, or just me because of my attention to detail when it comes to editing. |
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Undeadcow
(Post 11856323)
The similarities to Amityville Horror seemed striking at times. The moths everywhere (like bees in AH), stress from family discord, appeal to religious figures. I'd be curious to see if anyone else thought thought elements of The Possession were overly familiar not just in comparison to Amityville horror. The exorcism subplot seems over-used, right down to the "take me instead" bit and suddenly limber kid, I kept myself braced for pea soup spew that never came.
Originally Posted by Undeadcow
(Post 11856323)
Kudos to ntnon for the subset pick.
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Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by brainee
(Post 11873343)
A few things I learned:
1. Talking on your cell phone while driving is more dangerous than performing an exorcism.
Originally Posted by brainee
(Post 11873343)
2. When at a yard sale, if you see an old box with arcane symbols on it that whispers to your daughter ... pass on it. On the flip side, if such a box is in your possession a yard sale is a great way to get rid of it.
Originally Posted by brainee
(Post 11873343)
3. If you're not good at basketball it may be time to start playing with the invisible ball.
Originally Posted by brainee
(Post 11873343)
4. If you're possessed by a demon/spirit, an MRI can pick it up!
|
Re: "The Possession" Reviews/Discussion - 2013 Horror Challenge: Day 30
Originally Posted by Spiderbite
(Post 11888532)
I have watched a lot of horror movies in my day and I have yet to comprehend why when something strange is going on, no one ever turns on the lights. Oh yeah, and hospitals are completely without staff, visitors, other patients or cameras at night.
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