The Possession of Michael King

Anchor Bay Films | Release Date: August 22, 2014

4.6	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Ratings

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CrimAug 3, 2015

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The title just gives it all away, doesn't it? The first part of the movie tries to play coy as an "angry white guy who lost his wife now embarks onto a not-as-unique-as-he-thinks docutrip (found footage pretext) to disprove the supernatural, occultists, all that." It's pretty well executed: the setup means that anything cringe-worthy can be intentional on the part of the filmmakers.

But then the movie has to deliver. And it does. With a few caveats. First of all, the demonologist helpfully read the description of the demon and this was filmed, so it should have been pretty obvious what the noises and the ants were about; this is never explicitly mentioned and the guy visits the necromancer first. Furthermore, at the end he says that the noise that initially drove him crazy was not actually the demon, but angels trying to protect him, which made no sense and was a completely pointless line to boot.

Secondly, after he'd realized that he was irrevocably possessed, that it was a fight he was losing, that he was hurting others and himself, that everything was becoming unreal and he was losing sensation... he patched himself up. Why? He did try to kill himself later, in a scene that also made very, very little sense.

Third, the daughter was treated as a prop for the entire movie. The guy was shown as consumed with his quest, and there was no mentioning, even from the psychologist/psychiatrist, that she existed and needed her father. I don't normally care for this familial stuff, but here it was a tad jarring: at first I thought he was living with his sister and her daughter. Why was the daughter included? For the "emotional stakes" of him struggling to not harm her. And that is just cheap and cliched. Here we have a relationship that was not established at all, yet used for the ending because parental love is a default, a free card to play.

Fourth, the ending. The movie completely changed tone, it got the nice spiritual touch, used the daughter, and became sentimental all in one scene. I'm subtracting a full star just for that. At least there weren't any angels flying to take his soul up stairs of light. It was close, though.… Expand

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marc5477Feb 25, 2016

Not the worst horror movie I have ever seen but the film was a cliche. Jump scares galore, shaky found footage camera, abrupt loud noise... bleh. Sometimes these things are ok but it was simply over done. There was also little mystery and noNot the worst horror movie I have ever seen but the film was a cliche. Jump scares galore, shaky found footage camera, abrupt loud noise... bleh. Sometimes these things are ok but it was simply over done. There was also little mystery and no depth to the story or characters and no comedy so there was little to keep me entertained all the way through. The movie is about a guy who loses a wife and is out to prove there is no supernatural... turns out he was wrong. You can guess what happens next.… Expand

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SushiStonerDec 17, 2014

if the film didn't relay on cheap jump scares it would have stepped out of the clichéd found footage's comfort zone and worked. It didn't, which resulted into a lazy, average possession movie with a poor script and horrific direction.

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FilipeNetoMay 28, 2020

Films based on situations of demonic possession are something that is so often seen that attempts to do something different, even if only in the details, sometimes fail. This is admittedly the same as a thousand other films we've seen.

TheFilms based on situations of demonic possession are something that is so often seen that attempts to do something different, even if only in the details, sometimes fail. This is admittedly the same as a thousand other films we've seen.

The highly predictable script is based on the search by a recent widower for proofs of the existence of something beyond life, no matter what: God, the Devil, angels, souls, demons. What he looks for, in his attempt to deal with his grief and pain, is proof that makes him believe in something that he has difficulties to believe. To do so, he decides to film himself in a thousand and one situations: he invokes souls, spirits and demons, does magic and necromancy, goes to fortune tellers and mediums. It is a good starting point, although not entirely new. As the people say, those looking for it will find it. Of course, it is another "found footage" film where you can't miss that moment "if you found this video etc.".

Directed and written by David Jung, a notable stranger who never wrote or directed anything in cinema, the film stars Shane Johnson, a third-rate actor with a career in shorts and TV series, always discreet and far from spotlight. He does what he can, but the mediocre material he received in this film, which, until now, is the only one where he was the main actor, frustrates any attempt to go beyond average. It is an exaggerated, histrionic and noisy performance, which does not arouse the audience's sympathy and makes evident what will happen in the end. At a technical level, the film stands out for a dull and shaky cinematography, cold and gray colors, a warm environment that never scares even though it causes tension and discomfort and, still, mediocre visual and sound effects.

There are, however, some redeeming aspects to take into account: the first is that, despite the lack of originality, the story told is logical and entertaining, proving to be engaging enough to create a tense environment, which never scares but is also pleasant. The second is that, unlike most films, it shows a lot of rituals and phenomena linked to magic or the occult, being more plural in its approach to the supernatural. The third is that, unlike most films, where the character is inadvertently victimized by a spirit or demon, the character in this film seeks everything that happens to him and, afterwards, when he calls for help, he does not receive it for what we have never seen any kind of saving magic or exorcism. This is the greatest originality I have seen.… Expand

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