The Chosen

A curse occurs in a family where everyone's age looks misleadingly too young or too old. It's one of the strange things about The Chosen, the leads seem very young for their characters who are playing the uncle and mother although they're more fitting as siblings. Furthermore, the brief jump scares occasionally turn into unintentional comedy with stiff acting and awkward scenes as though these events are pranks gone wrong instead of genuine haunting.

To its credit, the setup for the premise is decent. It's a more unique twist of the usual possession plot. There's a good use of family bond here, the two leads can at least produce on-screen platonic relationships. It's definitely aimed towards the younger audience who can relate more. However, the acting isn't superb all around, thus more character it tries to introduce the more they become like strangers bumping into each other.

Any attempt at horror quickly fades. The sudden pop up of random lady or the child staring bizarrely only makes it uncomfortably odd, far from creepy. Later on it relies on cheesy CG and unconvincing practical effects that utter hamper the tension. Drama between the characters is inconsistent, the development sometimes happens too sudden or just inexplicably arbitrary.

It's a missed opportunity since there's a good foundation for horror here, but with such shoddy presentation The Chosen is devoid of any thrill.