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The Films of Ole Bornedal

Nightwatch

Nightwatch

I Am Dina

The Substitute

Just Another Love Story

Deliver Us from Evil

The Possession (July 12/13)

Directed by Ole Bornedal, The Possession details the chaos that ensues after a young girl (Natasha Calis' Emily) buys an antique box at a yard sale and is subsequently consumed by an evil spirit - with the film following Emily's father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Clyde) as he sets out to prevent her demise at the hands of said spirit. The Possession does, for the most part, progress at exactly the sort of slow-burn pace that one has come to expect from films of this ilk, with the viewer's interest generally held aloft by Bornedal's impressively stylish direction and a series of uniformly compelling performances. (In terms of the latter, Morgan is much, much better here than one had any right to expect.) And although Juliet Snowden and Stiles White's screenplay is rife with needless, time-wasting elements - ie an especially silly child-abuse subplot - The Possession remains surprisingly watchable even through its midsection due the aforementioned elements and an emphasis on appreciatively over-the-top horror-based sequences. It's worth noting, too, that Bornedal has peppered the proceedings with dramatic moments that pack an unexpectedly potent punch, with the best and most obvious example of this a moving scene in which Morgan's character tearfully begs a group of Rabbis to help save his daughter. By the time the fantastically broad climax rolls around, The Possession has certainly established itself as a better-than-expected variation on an exceedingly hoary theme - with the movie's PG-13 rating, as a result, rarely as problematic as one might've feared (ie Bornedal's strikingly cinematic modus operandi ensures that the lack of blood/gore is rarely even noticeable).

out of

© David Nusair