The Possession Experiment

Theology student Brandon Jensen (Chris Minor) is doing his class assignment on exorcism. He and his class partner Clay Harper (Jake Brinn) do some research. They sell passes to their possession attempt to generate internet funding. They recruit medical student Leda Morgan (Nicky Jasper) and hire a cultist to raise a demonic spirit.

This small budget indie may have an interesting idea, but this movie cannot escape its poor execution. First, the work group should be bigger than two people from the start. There is no reason to not have the girl right away. I like the crowd funding idea. They could make a bigger meal out of hiring a wacky dark magic witch. The reconnection with the father is a little abrupt. I like the idea, but the execution is wanting. A lot of this movie is flawed in that way.

My quick rating - 4,5/10. The movie begins with a strong opening scene of an exorcism. I really thought I was in luck in finding a decent unknown possession flick. The premise of a student doing a school project and attempting to possess himself was interesting enough to me. Sounds like the dumb stuff I would've tried in school (anyone who knows me is most likely agreeing) but then comes the downfall. The trio of our star, Brandon (Chris Minor) and two bit players go to the sign of an exorcism in hopes to conjure up the spirit and welcome it into himself. Thankfully Hasbro has created the key to the gates of hell and in comes the method, a Ouija board. The movie instantly lost all merit it had right there. Not only is this cliché getting so ridiculous, the movie then turns so stupid. Days pass and Brandon seems fine until his mother commits suicide (by ripping her own jaw off) and Brandons demon lies dormant no more. So far aside from the kids toy, it hasn't been too bad. In comes the shlock as Brandon puts on blades (Freddy Krueger style) and begins killing people on campus. And yes, throws in a couple one liners to complete the pointless rip off. I don't know if the makers were attempting to pay tribute to Wes Cravens classic (which they didn't) or just had no ideas. Sprinkle in the painfully obvious coincidence which leads to the far more obvious ending (no spoilers) and you are left with a solid 5 minute opening, and 80 minutes of horrible acting and pointless flashbacks/dreamscenes. Just another in the line of OK to watch but there are so many better out there I don't see why you would.

Yet another film that wastes a creepy looking cover and quite intriguing concept. It is also another film that started promisingly but very, very quickly went downhill and never recovered, instead it progressively grew worse. This is coming from somebody who saw it in my "more like this" section when watching some other low-budget films, decided to ignore the rating and only skim through a few of the reviews, having been known to go against the grain.

Even when taking all of this into account, without any prejudice and giving it a proper chance, 'The Possession Experiment' was just very weakly done on most levels and on the most part it does not deliver. Am definitely going to have to agree with the low rating, don't always do with film and television having more than once in the past found ratings here too low, and the mediocre at best reviews (having read them properly just now) that sum up what's wrong with the film very well.

As said above, 'The Possession Experiment' did start off very well and the main reason for not scoring it lower as tempted to. It had genuine tension and creepiness and actually looked pretty good (the only scene really to be so).

The setting has moments of eeriness and the titles sequence was quite creatively done.

Can't say anything else good. The production values rapidly got worse in a jarring shift, with the lighting being far too dim and the photography being wildly disorganised in a particularly under-funded found footage sort of way, some erotic films actually look better. The editing is far too jumpy too with the constant setting shifts being choppy and sometimes confusing. The sound is too obvious and intrusive too often, pet hates of mine when it comes to audio, and the direction also shows signs of disorganisation and not thinking things through.

It doesn't feel like much of a script was written, as it constantly sounds awkward in flow and is woefully under (or should that be un)-rehearsed. The tension and horror is far too fleeting, with hardly anything scary after the opening, and when there is any signs of a story (barely there and it feels padded) it becomes more tedious, more predictable and sillier with each minute, with the sudden and choppy shifts making it harder to follow as well. Didn't find any of the characters interesting or appealing and the acting is horrendous enough to single-handedly wreck the film. The only halfway okay actor is Bill Moseley and he is wasted.

On the whole, good start but everything else is almost beyond redemption weak. 3/10

Worst acting I've ever seen in my life 🤦‍♀️ stupid movie.

It appears to me, that at this moment in time, writers and directors are struggling to portray a decent horror story. This is another of those films that should have been much better. Once again it's a nice idea - A theology student decides to do his thesis on Exorcism, though while investigating he has the idea of getting an entity to possess him and then carry out an exorcism online. You know things are going to go wrong, though the main thing that went wrong with this movie was the acting and the directing.

Though, for the opening sequence, which is a flashback with Bill Moseley as Father Mark Campbell trying to exorcise a demon from the body of a woman, it pretty good. I even settled down to enjoy the movie. Not long into the second scene where we're introduced to Brandon Jensen, it becomes evident that the atmosphere previously built up has disappeared. Worst still, it never comes back. It's as if there are two directors working on this film instead of just Scott B Hansen. All the flashback sequences are the best if they'd kept the same grimy dark atmosphere this would have been a better film.

Bill Moseley is, by far, the best thing about this film (shame he's not in it too long), and he outshines all of the other actors. The actors struggle to make their characters believable, even likable, most of the time the come across as flat and uninteresting.

The direction suffers from the hit-and-miss with creating and holding tension as well as managing action scenes credibly. Though I know Hansen can do it, as the flashbacks are evidence to. Not sure why the other sections of the film fail.

Not worth watching unless you're into exorcism and there's nothing on telly.