The Possession
Lionsgate | Release Date: August 31, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
16
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 29, 2012
Like "The Exorcist," the best film in the genre, it is inspired by some degree of religious scholarship and creates believable characters in a real world. That religions take demonic possessions seriously makes them more fun for us, the unpossessed. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 31, 2012
Moody and a little slow, with muted colors and a half-empty, alien-feeling suburban setting, Danish director Ole Bornedal's The Possession is a nifty end-of-summer gift for horror buffs. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 30, 2012
Even if you resist the film's claims of being based on one family's actual experiences, The Possession is eerily enjoyable pulp. Perched somewhere between "The Exorcist" and "The Amityville Horror" - and with a dash of "The Unborn" - the story benefits from an unusually restrained sound design and special effects that enhance but never obliterate its troubled-family center. Read full review
70
MovielineAlison WillmoreAug 29, 2012
This variation on the demon child subgenre has enough of the familiar and the new to be a decently good time at the movies. Read full review
63
Washington PostMark JenkinsAug 30, 2012
Anyone who actually believes in dybbuks and other ghoulies will find The Possession terrifying. For the rest of us, the movie is a cleverly constructed, well-paced piece of hokum. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt GlasbySep 1, 2012
Ole Bornedal's slick religious horror bears all the hallmarks of Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures (the Grudge remake, Drag Me To Hell) – except the gore. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoSep 1, 2012
With an incredible performance by young Natasha Calls and surprisingly effect direction by Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch) you'll be surprised how this horror gets you just when you think you're safe. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenAug 30, 2012
A better-than-most fright-time tale. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 30, 2012
Ole Bornedal's film hits enough high notes to make it a worthwhile addition to the exorcism-film heap, somewhere in the lower middle. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickAug 30, 2012
Unremarkable and none-too-scary horror movie. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniAug 30, 2012
The Possession has none of the suspense that made Bornedal's morgue thriller "Deathwatch" such shuddering good fun. And despite the absurdly overwrought Bernard Herrmann-esque score, it has very few genuine shocks. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisAug 30, 2012
Oh my God, evil. What's with you? Ever since "The Exorcist," it's been the same song-and-crab-dance: Demons don't kill, divorce does. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 30, 2012
While the sound design and spooky minimalist music add suspense, and CGI effects are duly sinister, a climactic strobe effect is more annoying than frightening. Read full review
50
VarietyGeoff BerkshireAug 29, 2012
A ho-hum exorcism chiller that tries to spice up a formulaic screenplay by converting a predominantly Catholic-fixated horror subgenre to Judaism. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckAug 28, 2012
Representing a sort of equal opportunity religious variation on an all-too-familiar theme, The Possession is a Jewish-themed "Exorcist" that, if nothing else, should discourage the practice of buying antique wooden boxes at flea markets. Read full review
42
The PlaylistDrew TaylorAug 29, 2012
Here everything feels limp – simultaneously over and undercooked. It doesn't leave much of an impression and every scare seems to be either some lame jump scare or a fright inflicted by the shrill score. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 5, 2012
Is this the start of a new subgenre? Probably not – 2009's "The Unborn" traded in Jewish mysticism, too – but it's considerably creepier than it has any right to be and, to be sure, righteous rabbis can be pretty terrifying in and of themselves. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 1, 2012
It's a shame, though, that so many of The Possession's later scenes, particularly the exorcism stuff at the end, is mostly a grab bag of tired old scares. You might have convinced yourself, for a while at least, that this one was going to rise above the crowd. Read full review
40
EmpireKim NewmanSep 1, 2012
Too safe to shock and too familiar to really frighten, this is an overly conventional affair. Read full review
40
Time OutSam AdamaAug 31, 2012
Morgan and preteen dybbuk host Calis draw some pathos out of their father-daughter discord, but you can't have a possession without a soul. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 30, 2012
Slick direction and a strong central turn from Jeffrey Dean Morgan will keep you watching, if rarely from the edge of your seat. Read full review
30
Village VoiceNick SchagerAug 29, 2012
Bornedal's fondness for punctuating abrupt cuts to black with a solitary piano-key note is so pathological that it soon turns risible. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanAug 30, 2012
The film is basically a compendium of possessed-child clichés. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 30, 2012
Bornedal invests so much time in the characters - Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick play the split parents of the girls - that there are times you will forget this is a horror movie. It's Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Lucifer. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinAug 30, 2012
The Possession attempts to breathe new life into a creaky old subgenre by taking its exorcist and demon from Jewish mythology, but even this backfires: The casting of Jewish reggae star Matisyahu would be distracting even if he weren't introduced singing softly to himself. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineChris CabinAug 29, 2012
Remarkable only in how brazenly it embraces the tired yet proven formula that these modern ghost tales deal in. Read full review
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