Review: http://www.worldofkj.com/article.php?i=801

A few more thoughts:

- Matisyahu is rather decent in his, I believe, acting debut (or at least the first time I have seen him in a film). He's charismatic in a low-key, pleasant way and has presence.

- Even though the film does it again and again, the tactic of ending scenes abruptly with a dramatic musical note is effective.

- The X ray scene is fantastic.

Apologies in advance for being a smart-ass, but it was not an X-ray. fMRI...

Eh. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

What strange device is this?

David thought he caught you with another typo, but you showed him!

Fuck.

I don't normally dig exorcism movies, but this was unusually well acted and shot. It's still beholden to the more hoary cliches of the genre without coming off as truly demonic due to the limitations of a PG-13 rating, but the extra effort on crisp framing, cutting scenes earlier than usual, and getting the audience emotionally invested in the dysfunctional family go a long ways. Sam Raimi's presence can be felt throughout some of the sillier moments, but this is much more somber than Drag Me to Hell. More generic, but for horror movie fans, any movie that has a firm grasp of lighting and composition is worthy of approval.

It was decent. Though the line "She's still hungry" made me laugh so hard.

6/10 ( B- )

The Possession

It was, umm, sort of scary in parts, but it's a victim of modern horror again, in that the first hour nothing (or very little) happens, then in the final 25 minutes it tries to make up for it, but it's an impossible task. When did horror movies stop trying to be scary for the entire duration? I suppose when your horror movie is reliant on one scary twist, or one scary shot or idea, then you have no choice but to time-waste for the first hour.

I liked the acting in this, especially from Jeffrey Dean Bardem. I really liked him, he's got such a watchable nature to him. He was a pretty cool dad. I thought there was great chemistry between Javier Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick, and you could totally believe that they were once an item. I'm not sure how much I believe of the story and how it was true, but for what it's worth, it did manage to scare on the occasions it would bother, apart from the ending in the hospital - the noises were scarier than the visuals. Raimi used his standard "Evil Dead" demon face/eyes, unlike in Drag Me to Hell which was far better. I can't forgive it for the lack of action in the first two thirds (although the atmosphere was good).

I was more interested in the dynamic between Morgan, Sedgwick and her new fella. This should have been a drama, and with the same actors and situation, and it would have been great; a nice little Kramer vs. Kramer, but without the lawsuit.

C+

I must say, I'm really enjoying my nightly feast of recent horror movies. It's bringing up some good entertainment. I'm not really a horror fan, and I usually stay away from them because I hate them, but I'm enjoying much of them. I like to see what types of new stories and original ways to scare, thrill or excite there are, but horror mainly follows a rigid code, and so very few will get stellar reviews from me. When a film transcends the genre, then it's got my attention.