User reviews

"Ava's Possessions" follows the titular character, a young woman who wakes up one day tied to her bed after an exorcism. Having wrought havoc on the public during her demonic spree, she is ordered by the court to a "spiritual possessions anonymous" group to reorient herself. But in making amends with the people she wronged, she uncovers a plot deeper than mere possession.

While it may sound like a substandard and silly representation of the possession horror genre, "Ava's Possessions" is really a morbidly funny, mysterious, and amusing post-millennial riff on a subgenre that has been drowned in terrible found-footage films and badly-scripted Z-grade movies.

This film presents the aftermath of demonic possession in a contemporary world, albeit a topsy-turvy one in which such things as group therapy for ex-possessees are a real thing, and friends are insouciant to the fact that you've been taken over by a demonic entity. It's these kinds of idiosyncrasies that make the film slightly humorous, but it never really at any point becomes a comedy. The film is nicely shot and makes use of an overt neon color palette, which is rather beautiful. The performances overall are very good as well, with Louisa Krause as the semi-cynical Ava. Carol Kane also has a cameo as a downtown New York witch/botánica proprietor.

Overall, "Ava's Possessions" is an amusing, slightly sardonic, and energetic horror movie. It is not profound by any means, but it is a self-aware rewriting of the conventional possession film that came to be defined in the wake of "The Exorcist." It's a playful twisting of conventions, is nicely shot, and considerably well-acted. Those expecting a B or Z-grade possession flick should be nicely surprised.

About 20 minutes in I had to check that I wasn't watching a series pilot. AVA'S POSSESSION doesn't really take off like a movie should. The back-story is a mismatch of flash-backs and hints from the family that don't accelerate the plot much. I realise I'm supposed to suspend disbelief a bit more than usual due to the genre, but the alternate world, where possession is relatively common, wasn't as fleshed out as I thought it should be.

That aside, it is funny in parts, and watchable in a very predictable and cliched way. Overall: a bit flat, a bit lazy and nothing to get excited about.

Normally, a possession movie ends with the victim baths in sunlight or in some cases wanders into the dark. In "Ava's Possessions" it's just the beginning as the priest commences the procedure along with opening credit. There's quite the idea here, comically displays the aftereffect of the unfortunate event, but it becomes too busy with overload of subplots, colors and eventually too plodding for its own good.

It begins right after the exorcism, a young girl must face the consequences of her actions, even though she is not responsible for them. Soon she joins a support group filled with equally outlandish characters. This is a good quirky premise, it even includes actual collateral of damage to property as well as a couple of comical antics.

Mystery or horror aspect is not entirely prevalent as it dabbles more on world affairs. Most of the time is spend dealing with real life problem and threats, although it plays with the theme to make it as though there's more than what it seems. Nevertheless, it doesn't peak more than a few shock value.

The use of satire is sometimes decent, but it tries to make connection from possession to real life problems. These analogies might be appealing at first, yet it repeats itself too much. Furthermore, the design for costumes and setting is heavily colored, which can be distracting at times. Acting from the cast is not bad, but there are too many characters to distribute the focus evenly.

It's a nice twist on the genre, the mix of thriller and occasional satire might work as well, but it tries to fit too much into overwhelming and messy presentation.

Beginning where most, if not all, exorcism-related horror movies end, "Ava's Possessions" travels the path less taken, chronicling its titular character's recovery from a brutal bout with a demon name Naphula. It's an interesting angle to take and director Jordan Galland makes considerable hay with the concept, even if some elements fall flat. But in a genre where possession is old-hat, it's rare to see a fresh and unique take on the material. If nothing else, this film is quite unlike anything you've ever seen before.

With a style that owes considerably to Nicholas Winding Refn's retro-noir "Drive," "Ava's Possessions" works with a brilliant color palette, numerous cockeyed and crazy angles and a moody, atmospheric score by Sean Lennon. Galland is a relatively inexperienced director (his time spent in the entertainment business has been mostly musically related) but he shows a steady hand here, establishing a style that is familiar yet titillating. Even when certain threads of the film's plot don't quite hold together, the film is an audio/visual feast. Whether it's the gory make-up and effects or simply the pouring of an orange soda, "Ava" is quite a sight to behold. As far as little-seen horror films you stumble upon in Netflix's library in the middle of the night, you'd be hard-pressed to find something this colorful and unique.

Where the film stumbles is in its overly complicated story. Clocking in at under 90 minutes, there's no reason for this film to be as cluttered with needless plot debris. While watching Louisa Krause find her way post-exorcism is compelling, we are constantly tripping over side characters who insist on telling us their story, too. Problem is, this is Ava's story and that story should be compelling enough on its own merits. After all, the film is essentially a metaphor for recovering from drug addiction, and that ambitious angle is never quite fully capitalized upon in favor of characters who, quite frankly, aren't really all that interesting. Sure, we are treated to veterans like Carol Kane and William Sadler, both of whom are solid in their roles, but comedic actors like Dan Fogler and Deborah Rush ("Strangers With Candy," represent!) are given so little to do with their talents, its a wonder they were even cast in the first place.

Flaws aside, "Ava's Possessions" is still a nicely made, fresh and enjoyable take on a tired genre. It tries to break new ground and mostly succeeds. Genre fans will appreciate a new spin on familiar material, while bleary eyed late-night viewers will find themselves possessed by its aesthetics. Amidst all of your Netflix binging, this one should definitely not be purged.

A girl recovering from demonic possession is forced into therapy, but flashbacks make her doubt the origin of her troubles.

What if we did a coming to terms story, but instead of drug addiction it's ... demonic? I dunno, wouldn't that be kinda lame? No, think about it - we set up all the usual conflicts but make the heavy stuff literal without losing the METAPHOR.

This really rambles on. I do like the concept, and the performances are good. But the dialogue is sooo Brooklyn Jewish, the story doesn't take itself seriously enough to create drama or frights, the humour is "gentle", and enough already with the daughter-mother antagonism. Also too many characters, and the most interesting one - the empathetic girl friend - trails off.

Directed by the writer, and I guess he did the photography, editing, music and effects too. Just not enough contrasts for good story telling. Music is interesting, but it never lays off and leaves a taste of the elevator. There is one brilliant smash cut: punch lands on a ball break at a pool table.

Overall - pleasant viewing with some atmosphere, but no real spark. Reminded me of Life After Beth.

At the start of the film I was like WTF is going on is this a comedy. I almost stopped watching there and then but decided to keep on going for a bit. The story afterwards, fleshed out more and the comedy was gone. It was pretty cool trying to figure out what's happening and putting the story together. I do recommend for anyone wanting to watch a mildly horror movie but I felt it was more drama then anything else.

This movie drew my attention due to its somewhat original premise. Instead of focusing on her possession, this movie asks the question, what is life like AFTER your demon has been exorcised? It's a question not many movies have asked, so I sat down and took it in.

AP has some starts strong, with a mystery at hand. I love movies that keep me off-kilter and I wasn't quite sure what was happening. This puts the viewer in the shoes of Ava, who also has no memories of her possession and therefore, no idea of the damage she wrought. There is also a lot of dark comedy here, with the rehab for the once possessed and Ava dealing with the things she did (beat up people, slept with strangers etc)

Sadly, the movie loses focus and gets convoluted, with too many players on the board. They also have sub-plots like a girl who wants her demon back and a serial killer on the loose, that just didn't do anything but confuse the main plot. If they had left this stuff on the back burner, Ava's Possessions would've been a much stronger film.

Points for originality and the acting is pretty decent, but unfortunately they tried to do too much and it ended up taking away from the main story and weakening the entire flick.

Finally someone made a movie, that is so obvious, you really wonder, how no one came up with that simple yet brilliant concept yet. All the exorcism/possession movies end, after the exorcism - whether it went right or wrong, there's not much we get after that. There have been sequels to exorcism movies of course and they show a sort of aftermath, but this is an "original", without any background as to what happened before.

Well until you watch the movie and it backtracks at certain points so we do see what has occurred. It's all done in a rather light (still vivid) fashion, that doesn't shy away from gross or graphic content. If you are into the idea, you will like what they did with it. The movie is worth it (the performances too).

Oops, I said the d-word. The golden rule of spirit possession anonymous is never ever use that word. Yes, you read it right.

Ever wonder how someone gets their life back on track after a hellish possession? This novel approach turns upside down the well-worn formula of recent horror involving satanic possession. It's basically a peculiar, playful and dry comedy-horror looking at the aftermath of an exorcism and how one goes about trying to piece everything back together again. As you know, it's hard to remember what you did on a night out on the town when drunk, let alone under possession for over a month. Maybe you don't want to know. Not Ava. It's part of the therapy to expose those repressed memories. Meaning good times ahead.

The narrative is not so basic, due the various sub-plots and characters leading onto a mysterious, if intricate path. I actually preferred it when it was focusing on the actual metaphoric therapy classes than Ava trying to uncover what her family is hiding from her. The self-aware humour running throughout is consistent, if quite low-key and a touch morbid in delivery. Although I probably wished it had pushed the boundaries a little more on that front. Sometimes it just lacked a bit of punch with it being cute.

There's a real haze to the scummy atmosphere consisting of vibrant neon lighting, a hip synth soundtrack and impulsive acts of bitter violence. The tailored performances are spot on with Louisa Krause's stolid turn as Ava.

Also great to see the 1976 horror "Alice, Sweet Alice" get a little plug on the TV.

I guess this is actually a serious attempt at a horror movie. It did not succeed in my opinion. Basically a demon possesses this woman at certain times and manages to save her life, a time or two. Throw in a bunch of bad dialogue and some skinless sex scenes and you have an attempt at a movie.

I just see too many of these I guess because this one, was done alright, but didn't raise a bar or even reach the bar for that matter. 4/10.

This movie is not a comedy but I liked it! This put a less scary twist on possession with a different take on the story line! It would of been cool if there was a little more to the effects but for a B class movie - not bad! I would put this in the casual viewing category for myself but definitely a good choice to add to your watchlist. Giving a 6 for thinking outside the box and watch worthy~

2 May 2016. It's really a disappointment when the end of a decent and likely unique and new look at post-Exorcist horror has a tacked on ending in the tradition of most clichéd horror B movies. With a great use of a musical track for a horror movie, this if it can be called a sedate but refined version of Pulp Fiction (1994) and The Devil's Carnival (2012) presents the occult in a fresh and humanistic way. The well developed psychological, horror thriller avoids the by now over-used blatantly scary scenes and instead uses a more Hitchcock-directed approach.

Unlike some reviews and descriptions, there is very little comedy in this mostly dramatic rendition of a contemporary horror movie. The parallel of the addictive qualities of possession to alcohol or substance dependency recovery is really an eye-opener. Oddly enough this movie doesn't enjoy the prominent gore shock factor to be appealing for some. The main character and later the group leader are both somewhat repulsive at first so that the movie begins on an off-putting manner. Yet overall, this movie is a captivating crime mystery with an occult lure to it.

Other powerful comparable, if not better, movies might be Nomads (1986), Wicker Park (2004), Constantine (2005), Silent Hill, (2006), Shutter Island (2010), Devil (2010), Black Death (2010), and The Raven (2012).

This amateurish mess of a movie tries to be a horror/comedy but falls flat. It is neither scary nor humorous. I spent the entire flick wondering why respected actors like William Sadler, Carol Kane and Lou Taylor Pucci (who is unrecognizable here) would stoop to participate in this sorry excuse of a film. Perhaps they owed someone a favor. When the lead character attended a meeting of 'Spirit Possessions Anonymous' I thought this may be similar to 'Scary Movie', 'Naked Gun' and other satirical comedies, but no such luck. I won't bother to describe the plot of this disaster, but some of the dialog is priceless...such as 'I think my demon likes me, I'm the first girl he was ever inside.' and 'It was negative space, like a donut hole.'

This was a creative movie with a decent plot and not too many holes in it. The acting was good and I feel that the main protagonist did an excellent job in her role as a possessed individual. The revel at the end kind of tied everything together in a neat little package.

My only complaint would be the ever present stalker, which at least for the most part didn't develop into one of those forced and fake romances we tend to get much too often in these movie which has an attractive leading lady. Also it didn't really clarify what happened to the ex-fiancé. I'm assuming arrested with the video evidence at the "who would have thought" post exercise AA meeting location at the neighborhood church.

7 out of 10 in my opinion.

I dunno... this should have been a pretty great dark/quirky cult movie, along the lines of Repo Man and After Hours and others like it. The cast was great, the cinematography was appropriately oddball (so many Dutch angles! so much neon lighting!)... and that music, with all its funhouse-mirror doo-wop and moody rockabilly-ish twang, was ready for action.

And yet, it just didn't go there, which is a real shame.

Characters kept having these stilted awkward talky scenes where the whole thing just dragged. It's like someone with some influence felt this could be a horror trope parody, and someone else kept wanting it to be a lightly-creepy noir-ish thriller of the Lynchian variety, and yet someone else kept trying to keep things on track towards the kind of breathless, no-holds-barred screwball wackiness that should have been but never actually came to be.

Anyway, it's kind of a mess as it is, and it sure seems that could have been avoided.

Overall this was a fun movie, with good acting, and some neat effects. The story has some ok twists, but I was hoping they'd be a little better to really pull it all together.

I felt like they didn't do quite enough with the main story or the main sub-plot with her ex-possessed friend, but they did some fun stuff with both and I had a good time watching it. The particular flavor of dark humor seemed not to land well with some of the reviewers, but I liked it.

They have a few scenes with some neat filming effects as well, twisting the camera into unique angles.

Is too bad this isn´t better because the concept is gold. It goes for a neo-noir horror mystery comedy. It is mysterious alright. It kind of floats around, without much highs and lows, between the main character trying to figure out what happened during her possesion and her efforts to control a possible demon´s return. The 12 steps for possessed people is a great idea It sets a world where this kind of things seem normal and that feels nice, like getting something annoying out of the way. The problem is how it tries to be too many things at once. The ending is atrocious. I´m not a fan of this digital filming stuff, it looks horrible. Overall, it´s a sexy and funny horror mystery, cool enough to be worth the time.

Ava awakens to find a priest at her bedside; unbeknownst to her, she's been possessed by Naphula, a demon from hell, for the past month, but the priest has successfully exorcised the demon and she's herself again. When her family confirms this story, Ava's first question is whether anyone called in sick for her at her job. Unfortunately, the demon caused a great deal of injury, mayhem and property damage and, well, legally somebody has to pay for that and since it was all carried out by Ava's body, guess who's going to jail? Unless she agrees to join a self-help group, the SPA or Spirit Possession Anonymous, that is. Of course Ava does so, but it turns out that her possession was rather more than she, or almost anybody else, could have suspected....

This is a very funny horror spoof that is yet totally true to its internal logic; in a New York City (and, presumably, world) where demon possessions are real and well-known, what happens to the victim once the demon has been done away with? This film answers that question quite entertainingly. Louisa Krause as Ava and Wass Stevens as Tony, the SPA leader, are both very engaging and believable, and the behaviour of some of the other once-possessed people is pretty hilarious too, especially Whitney Able as Jillian, who longs to be possessed by her demon once again. Recommended!

I recently watched Ava's Possessions (2015) on Tubi. The storyline follows a woman recovering from a demonic possession that wreaked havoc on her love life, friendships, and career. As she attempts to rebuild her life, she discovers a rehabilitation program specifically for people like her-those recovering from demonic possession. Through group therapy and sharing her experiences with others, she hopes to heal. But is she truly free from the demon's influence, or is it lying in wait for the chance to take over again?

This film is written and directed by Jordan Galland (Alter Egos) and stars Louisa Krause (The Dive), Whitney Able (Monsters), William Sadler (The Mist), Deborah Rush (The Box), and Carol Kane (Scrooged).

The concept is unique within the horror-comedy genre and shows a lot of promise. The cast was well-chosen and delivered stronger performances than I expected. The soundtrack was also a highlight, and the special effects team did an impressive job with the possession sequences, which stood out for their creativity. However, the film spent too much time talking about possession and not enough showing it. I found myself wishing there had been more focus on the horror elements, as the possession scenes were underused.

In conclusion, Ava's Possessions introduces some fresh ideas and has solid moments, but it leans too heavily on its premise without delivering enough of the horror payoff. I'd score it a 5/10 and recommend it only if you're in the mood for something a bit different.

This is one of the most original movies i have seen recently.

Creative and brilliant.

It's difficult to categorize it. Indie/art horror with offbeat comedy elements, also having the structure of a crime/mystery movie, without taking itself too seriously.

The ending could have been better, but it's not bad.

This could be a great series. There are many interesting ideas here which are not being explored or exploited, and that would be an impossible thing in 90 minutes.

In any case, if you are looking for a weird, original and pretty interesting movie, this is it.