A no-spoilers review, brought to you by Loathsome Things: A Horror Movie Podcast
I gave this movie a 2/10 for having some admirable artistic qualities. It is not, however, a good movie. I am interested enough to watch The Possession of Mia Moss, should it ever become available.
You might like it if:
*You enjoy looking at Nicola Fiore's face
*You enjoy micro-budget scares and aren't bothered by un-acted line delivery
*You are a die-hard deep-cut indie horror nerd
You might not like it if:
*You have a healthy aversion to bad acting
*You have a normal human level of impatience
*You wish your nephew would stop making you be in his silly little movies
The micro-budget flick showcases a director practicing the fundamentals. We get an eerie tone thanks to long shots, an unsettling soundtrack, and some menacing creepypasta business lurking in the background.
This movie is composed of overly-long sequences. Sometimes Mia goes for an entire walk. Sometimes Mia just watches youtube videos for a long time. Sometimes a silly camera filter is applied over too much footage of a bartender boringly pouring drinks. Sometimes a woman burns a bundle of white sage through the house... and makes sure not to miss a square inch. We, the viewers, are made sure of this. This might count as a spoiler, given how I just described a much larger percentage of the movie's run-time than you'd expect.
This movie seems to be funded by the white sage industry. At times, it watches like a 1950s-style public service film on the benefits and many uses of white sage. Also, possibly, the dangers of women who dress in identical outfits while chatting on the stairs.
Nicola Fiore's does some acceptable acting, but is surrounded by what is almost certainly the director's friends and family members. The acting is incompetent, but mostly in a low-energy way that's less cringey than the loud over-acting common to these types of films. Still, it sets a low ceiling for overall movie-watching quality.
It takes a little over and hour before anything resembling a plot arrives. We're mostly just watching Mia do slice-of-life stuff as bumpers to her going to the bathroom and looking in the mirror in the bathroom. Where's she going this time? O, it's the bathroom again! I guess, maybe, that was another spoiler.
The costumes are used to sufficiently spooky effect, especially considering that they probably came from going-out-of-business box from ITT Tech's theater department.
I appreciate this movie as the evidence of a director practicing the art of horror in cinema and trying to learn from the experience. There are plenty of worse movies in this grade of film-making. Also, there is video evidence of someone having a badass DVD collection.
- Josh, from Loathsome Things: A Horror Movie Podcast.
