By Anealla Safdar

Film: The Possession
Year: 2012
Director: Ole Bornedal
Stars: Jeffery Dean Morgan, Natasha Calis, Kyra Sedgwick
Running Time: 92 min

Much as the scariest part of riding a rollercoaster is the slow climb up, the tension built up in ‘The Possession’ is more frightening than the calamitous finale. From the first scene, you watch waiting nervously for the moment innocence will be replaced by evil.

Sewn together with low piano chords, images of dark grey clouds and shaky camera shots intended, we assume, to represent a mysterious force’s wicked eye, this is an edge-of-your-seat, classic horror movie.

It starts with cute tween Emily (Natasha Calis) asking her weekend Dad Clyde (Jeffery Dean Morgan) to buy her an ominous looking ancient wooden box from a garage sale. Already a victim of her parents’ divorce, Em soon becomes the target for what’s inside – a dybbuk. Based on Jewish folklore popular in 16th and 17th century Eastern Europe, this malevolent spirit is itching to get out and find a host.

In many ways, ‘The Possession’ is a 2012 interpretation of ‘The Exorcist’ (1973) and homage is paid; little Em is often clothed in a white nightie, her monstrous, attention-grabbing convulsions usually happen in her bedroom and a brave religious man tries to contain the drama. Naïve attempts to cure ‘the possession’ have evolved and range from searching for answers on Vimeo videos and shoving the child through an MRI scanner.

The film’s haunting, constant and creepy musical score is the work of Emmy award-winner New Yorker Anton Sanko. It only stops to allow the demonic dybbuk to have its moment; it might be better to cover your ears, rather than your eyes, to avoid a seat-jump.

Directed by the Danish Ole Bornedal (a producer of Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Mimic’) and co-produced by Sam Raimi (director of ‘Spider-Man’, ‘Drag Me to Hell’, ‘The Gift’), ‘The Possession’ has been marketed as based on a true story. Though that’s implausible, and even with the unintentional laugh-out-loud moments, the producers’ claims that this is a ‘terrifying story’ are credible.

‘The Possession’ is a restricted movie for viewers aged 18 and over.