MOVIE REVIEWS: THE POSSESSION

It is a brave horror film producer indeed who allows his work to be screened by critics, most of whom generally show little charity toward the genre. But the producers of The Possession and Lionsgate, their studio, apparently had enough confidence in their product to let critics see it, and they have been rewarded with several decent reviews. Comments Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times: “The Possession is a serious horror film about supernatural possession that depends on more than loud noises to scare us. Like The Exorcist, the best film in the genre, it is inspired by some degree of religious scholarship and creates believable characters in a real world. That religions take demonic possessions seriously makes them more fun for us, the unpossessed.” “Danish director Ole Bornedal deserves kudos for style and effort,” praises Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times, who calls the film “eerily enjoyable pulp.” And Mark Olsen in the Los Angeles Times allows that it’s a “better-then-most fright-time tale.” Still, many critics review the film with the kind of, er, irreverance that you’d expect to find in reviews for a horror film. Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe remarks that the only twist in this one “is that the demon is Jewish.” That fact is also duly noted by Lou Lumenick in the New York Post, who adds: “Too bad he doesn’t make an appearance until midway through this otherwise unremarkable and none-too-scary horror movie.” And Adam Nayman in the Toronto Globe and Mail simply dismisses the film this way: “This thriller merely feels innocuous: Nothing to fear here.”