Blu-ray Review: The Possession

Our friends out at Lionsgate sent over a little something special for us to cover today, and though this one won’t be available until January 15, it’s going to prove very much worth the wait. It’s “The Possession”, and for those who like Sam Raimi at his best, then this one is going to be on par with anything their studio has put out.

“The Possession” follows a family who has recently broken up. One weekend, the father, Clyde, has the girls in, and by all reports, they’re having a good time. They’re having pizza, hitting yard sales, and doing all those things that mother Stephanie would rather they not. Their weekend of mildly rebellious fun is interrupted by one sale in particular, in which the youngest of the two girls in the family, Em, finds a small wooden box for sale. The contents of the box are unusual and eclectic at best, but it’s what’s unseen in the box that represents the problem. Em has bought a whole lot more than she bargained for, and her estranged parents will have to come together to put right that which inadvertently went wrong.

This is actually a Ghost House release, and those who’ve seen Ghost House releases before know that there’s a lot of intermingled potential for good and ill going on in here. Sure, they’ve had a hand in some terrific stuff–these are the guys who brought us the remake of “The Grudge” and some great indie fare like “The Children”, “Psych 9″ and “The Thaw”–but they’ve also brought us some truly godawful stuff like “Dark Floors” and “Trackman”. Thankfully, this is one of the better ones, and the quality will be quite readily apparent throughout. While I preferred the original title for this one, “Dibbuk Box”, I suppose it was just a little too “on the nose”, being that that was both the primary plot device and the main antagonist.

Still, there are some excellent scares in here, and the whole “based on a true story” aspect of the plot–which always adds a little extra shot of scary thanks to the note of plausibility–only improves on things. Better yet, the performances turned in will be solid and believable pretty much universally. There are those who might find issue with the pacing or the comparatively bloodless nature of the film itself or the fact that, if it weren’t for the unique source of the titular condition this would just be another exorcism movie.

As for extra features, there are plenty. It’s a Blu-ray release complete with Ultraviolet and a digital copy involved. The DVD menu is actually partially written in what looks like Hebrew–don’t worry, it will go to English but reflects on the nature of film itself–as well as a set of audio options and your choice of English or Spanish subtitles. There will also be audio commentary tracks, a featurette called “The Real History of the Dibbuk Box”, and trailers for “The Possession”, “Texas Chainsaw 3D”, “The Haunting in Connecticut”, “The Last Exorcism”,  and in something of a departure from the norm, ads for both FearNet and Epix.

“The Possession” is good sound horror from a company that certainly knows what it’s doing when it comes to horror fare. It’s not without its rough spots, but it does the job, and does it fairly well.