The Possession Experiment (2016) Directed by Scott B. Hansen
Well, isn't this a shame. I'm not going to lie here, I was actually
genuinely enjoying the first half of the movie. It was a pretty well
done, all things considering. It felt fresh and original with both its
approach and story, until the movie suddenly threw in a crazy and
terrible twist, after which the movie never recovered and steadily only
got more and more worse to watch.
I don't know how many horror movies and possession movies in particular I have ever watched but it has to be in the hundreds by now. It therefore gets more and more hard for me to come across a movie that does anything new and genuinely impresses me. This movie was well on its way, by featuring a very standard plot but an interesting and good approach to it. It for instant cleverly combined straightforward horror with the found footage sub-genre. Found footage actually can be a very effective something for a horror movie but the problem with it is that it's limited by far too many different limitations, which also makes it a very tiresome genre by now. If found footage wants to 'survive' in horror film-makers should pick the best aspects from it and put it into more conventional horror movies. It's OK for movies to feature found footage stuff to add to the atmosphere and throw in a couple of jump scares but I myself am pretty done with watching a shaking camera, a bunch of annoying characters, while for the longest time there is absolutely nothing happening in it. It's all buildup but too often very little payoff. I'm therefore glad that movies such as this one didn't decide to be a found footage flick, which could have been the cheapest and easiest thing to do perhaps but instead decides to use some found footage elements instead, while still being a more straightforward standard movie and conventional horror flick.
It was also handling things pretty effectively, by not featuring the standard bunch of characters and it also wasn't relying on jump scares but more on story and gore instead, which is not something that most possession/exorcist movies go for. The story also definitely wasn't anything too bad and it seemed to have some pretty interesting ideas in it, until it totally started to mess things up.
It doesn't even really feel like the first and second half belong together. As if the two got written and directed by totally different persons. Everything starts to go downhill once it's 'twist' gets introduced. The story, the horror, the characters, even the acting gets worse. I won't say that the movie becomes unbearably to watch but it does get pretty terrible. Luckily it's a very short movie, so the movie simply doesn't have enough time to ever become a truly horrendous one to watch.
In a way it also definitely remains a tad bit better and more watchable than the average, low- budget, genre attempt. The movie looks very professional, despite its still very obvious low-budget and the story flows pretty well. It doesn't stop for any jump-scares and it doesn't waste any time on any unnecessary buildup or on too many pointless side-plots that distract from its main story.
It's weird, I still really want to praise this movie for its excellent first half but ultimately I still just can't recommend this movie to anyone. It almost completely gets ruined but its awful second half and all of the nonsensical twists. The movie was perfectly fine as it was, until it decided to try and become more.
5/10
Watch trailer
I don't know how many horror movies and possession movies in particular I have ever watched but it has to be in the hundreds by now. It therefore gets more and more hard for me to come across a movie that does anything new and genuinely impresses me. This movie was well on its way, by featuring a very standard plot but an interesting and good approach to it. It for instant cleverly combined straightforward horror with the found footage sub-genre. Found footage actually can be a very effective something for a horror movie but the problem with it is that it's limited by far too many different limitations, which also makes it a very tiresome genre by now. If found footage wants to 'survive' in horror film-makers should pick the best aspects from it and put it into more conventional horror movies. It's OK for movies to feature found footage stuff to add to the atmosphere and throw in a couple of jump scares but I myself am pretty done with watching a shaking camera, a bunch of annoying characters, while for the longest time there is absolutely nothing happening in it. It's all buildup but too often very little payoff. I'm therefore glad that movies such as this one didn't decide to be a found footage flick, which could have been the cheapest and easiest thing to do perhaps but instead decides to use some found footage elements instead, while still being a more straightforward standard movie and conventional horror flick.
It was also handling things pretty effectively, by not featuring the standard bunch of characters and it also wasn't relying on jump scares but more on story and gore instead, which is not something that most possession/exorcist movies go for. The story also definitely wasn't anything too bad and it seemed to have some pretty interesting ideas in it, until it totally started to mess things up.
It doesn't even really feel like the first and second half belong together. As if the two got written and directed by totally different persons. Everything starts to go downhill once it's 'twist' gets introduced. The story, the horror, the characters, even the acting gets worse. I won't say that the movie becomes unbearably to watch but it does get pretty terrible. Luckily it's a very short movie, so the movie simply doesn't have enough time to ever become a truly horrendous one to watch.
In a way it also definitely remains a tad bit better and more watchable than the average, low- budget, genre attempt. The movie looks very professional, despite its still very obvious low-budget and the story flows pretty well. It doesn't stop for any jump-scares and it doesn't waste any time on any unnecessary buildup or on too many pointless side-plots that distract from its main story.
It's weird, I still really want to praise this movie for its excellent first half but ultimately I still just can't recommend this movie to anyone. It almost completely gets ruined but its awful second half and all of the nonsensical twists. The movie was perfectly fine as it was, until it decided to try and become more.
5/10
Watch trailer
