This ‘Possession’ is a Blair switch project
AT least this year’s “Exorcist’’ knockoff has one novel twist — it introduces what’s apparently the screen’s first Jewish exorcist. Too bad he doesn’t make an appearance until midway through this otherwise unremarkable and nonetooscary horror movie.
For far too long, upstate suburbanites Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan blame their recent divorce for the increasingly bizarre behavior of their 11yearold daughter Em (Natasha Calis who is no Linda Blair).
The youngster has opened an old wooden box with a Hebrew inscription that her father bought for her at a yard sale, unleashing an evil spirit called a dybbuk, though the movie takes forever to explain this to us.
As the dybbuk begins taking control of poor Em, she stabs her basketballcoach dad in the hand with a fork and hundreds of moths fly out of her mouth. Her parents are so busy arguing about restraining orders they don’t even notice that the hand on which she wears a ring from the box is turning blue.
Well after she starts babbling incessantly about “my friend in the box,’’ her mom’s boyfriend finally suggests that Em “needs to see somebody.’’ This character, a dentist, soon finds himself in need of extensive dental work, courtesy of the dybbuk.
The script, credited to Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, adheres so closely to formula that it’s possible to predict not only which characters will end up dead, but in what order — beginning with Em’s unfortunate African-American schoolteacher.
Danish director Ole Bornedal (“Nightwatch’’) finally goes off autopilot when Dad susses out Em’s malady and heads for Borough Park, Brooklyn, in search of a Jewish exorcist he found on the Internet.
“This must be left to the will of God!’’ proclaims the Hasidic rabbi.
But the rabbi’s hipper son — played by the singly named Hasidic reggaepop star Matisyahu — is up to the challenge and agrees to visit them.
He explains to Em’s dad that he’s even allowed to ride in a car on the Sabbath, in contravention of Jewish law, “when a human life is in danger.’’
That’s what I love about this job: You learn something every day.
Matisyahu is no Max von Sydow, but he does provide the film with some muchneeded energy. His character’s final con frontation with the dybbuk is directed by Bornedal with effectsdriven panache otherwise missing from the proceedings.
“The Possession’’ claims to be “based on a true story.’’ But a quick perusal of the Los Angeles Times story cited as a source in the press notes reveals the dybbuk may be little more than an elaborate Internet hoax concocted to sell an antique wine box.