Moving to a new house in a small town, a woman and her daughter strike up a friendship with a doctor who just moved into town himself forced to confront his personal demons when it becomes apparent the daughter is possessed like his child and must try to save her to save himself.
This was a decent enough if unspectacular possession effort. When this one works is due to the rather enjoyable is when it details the various elements that signal the daughters' growing possession. Starting with the discovery of the rash and her strange dreams of figures from the past, this one manages to generate a rather creepy subtle atmosphere that gets enhanced even more by the possession sequence which is cheesy fun. Due to the start with the power outage while she's on the call with her friend, the computer freezing up and the stalking camera following her after the earthquake strikes as well as following her re-entry into the house up into the attic in a nice shock scare. As well, the later scenes here following the possession where her obviously changed behavior starts to signal the change in her state are fine if nothing special. Hitting all the usual standbys of a disruptive sleeping pattern, moody and aggressive outbursts and a dismissive attitude to everything around her, things get much more obvious about what's going on. That everything comes together into the finale with all the usual high-energy hysterics found in usual possession film as the final exorcism attempt is where most of the usual fun and highlights come from. These here are where the film works the best as there are a few issues to be had with this one. Among it's bigger faults is the rather contrived and unnecessarily overlong romance angle that erupts between the two, which is absolutely not needed in the film. The setup is seen coming from a mile away with them being both single and the meet-ute of them coming together because she almost runs him over just makes it worse. The idea of cliche enough with the fact that there's nothing interesting happening here and just comes off as time-wasting. On top of that, the rest of the film is really just a never-ending series of cliches and rehashed sequences that are part of every genre effort. The fallen religious-believer who no longer has any ties to his faith but comes back together with the help of a priest that restores it all to help save him from his demons creates a boring and generally familiar setup that's at play here. When done in conjunction with the other ideas in play from the disbelieving family and manner of possession that occurs here, this one feels way too familiar and drawn out resulting in a rather routine and formulaic approach that can be incredibly off-putting, resulting in the film's biggest issue that holds it back the most.
Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.
This was a decent enough if unspectacular possession effort. When this one works is due to the rather enjoyable is when it details the various elements that signal the daughters' growing possession. Starting with the discovery of the rash and her strange dreams of figures from the past, this one manages to generate a rather creepy subtle atmosphere that gets enhanced even more by the possession sequence which is cheesy fun. Due to the start with the power outage while she's on the call with her friend, the computer freezing up and the stalking camera following her after the earthquake strikes as well as following her re-entry into the house up into the attic in a nice shock scare. As well, the later scenes here following the possession where her obviously changed behavior starts to signal the change in her state are fine if nothing special. Hitting all the usual standbys of a disruptive sleeping pattern, moody and aggressive outbursts and a dismissive attitude to everything around her, things get much more obvious about what's going on. That everything comes together into the finale with all the usual high-energy hysterics found in usual possession film as the final exorcism attempt is where most of the usual fun and highlights come from. These here are where the film works the best as there are a few issues to be had with this one. Among it's bigger faults is the rather contrived and unnecessarily overlong romance angle that erupts between the two, which is absolutely not needed in the film. The setup is seen coming from a mile away with them being both single and the meet-ute of them coming together because she almost runs him over just makes it worse. The idea of cliche enough with the fact that there's nothing interesting happening here and just comes off as time-wasting. On top of that, the rest of the film is really just a never-ending series of cliches and rehashed sequences that are part of every genre effort. The fallen religious-believer who no longer has any ties to his faith but comes back together with the help of a priest that restores it all to help save him from his demons creates a boring and generally familiar setup that's at play here. When done in conjunction with the other ideas in play from the disbelieving family and manner of possession that occurs here, this one feels way too familiar and drawn out resulting in a rather routine and formulaic approach that can be incredibly off-putting, resulting in the film's biggest issue that holds it back the most.
Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.