Modern cinema hasn't exactly been clamouring for a new entry in the demon possession genre, as it's been overloaded in the last few years alone; The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, The Last Exorcism, The Haunting In Connecticut, The Devil Inside, Insidious… the list goes on and on. So in order to stand out from the pack, The Possession really needs to bring something new to the table. Unfortunately, aside from its poster which (1) was banned for being too graphic (2) gave away the ending and (3) was scarier than anything in the movie, there's nothing original on display here.
Based on a true story (aren't they all?), The Possession tells the tale of Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), his daughters Em (Natasha Calis) and Hannah (Madison Davinport), and his recent ex-wife Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick). While on his way to showing the kids his new house, they stop off at a yard sale, and an old wooden box catches Em's eye. Within no time at all, Em is talking to the box and acting all weird, which Clyde puts down to a natural reaction to a parent's divorce, even when Em stabs him through the hand with a fork. But once things start to get a little less easy to explain, and a little more supernatural, Clyde begins to investigate the box, and discovers that it was used to trap an ancient demon, and that demon is now free and has its evil eyes set on Em's soul.
Produced by Sam Raimi, who should know a thing or two about demons and possession (The Evil Dead, Drag Me To Hell), the film falls flat when it tries to be horrifying, and aside from Morgan bringing some weight to proceedings, everyone else involved is either playing a laughably bad cliché, or they're just laughably bad at acting. While there are some examples of startling imagery - a little girl sitting in a room full of moths, a hand clawing to get out from inside someone's throat, an evil image on an MRI machine - it's never once properly scary. Too often it confuses SUDDEN LOUD NOISES with genuine scares, content to shout “Boo!” when it should, like the demon, be trying to get under your skin.