Grace: The Possession

Wasn't terrible, but the first half was better than the second. The whole exorcism bit felt a bit overplayed and took away from the eeriness of the film.

This is the story of Grace (Alexia Fast), an orphan whose mother died in childbirth and a father she never knew. These are her experiences in her college days and the terrible things that happen soon after.

Up front, it must be said that this "Grace" has nothing to do with the film "Grace" from 2009 starring Jordan Ladd. This shared title is unfortunate, as it will likely confuse horror fans. On the plus side, this is probably the better of the two films, so if the two are going to be inevitably compared, at least it will be favorable.

Viewers should be warned that this is a POV film, shot from the vision of Grace. Now, to be clear, it is not found footage and is not supposed to be a camera filming -- it is merely what Grace's eyes see during different events, including tug of war, meaning we only ever see the title character if she looks in a mirror. (The mirror moments provide for some interesting camera tricks, and whether they are practical or not are a good feat.) Besides the mirrors, another interesting element is that even dreams are from Grace's point of view. And these are terrifying, realistic dreams.

As much as POV can generally be a hindrance, or even annoyance, director Jeff Chan was clever enough to take it in some new directions here and should be complimented on his efforts. (The drinking scene is reminiscent of The Prodigy's music video for "Smack My B* Up", in a good way.) The POV even pays off later on, with a slight twist that may be the most clever of all. (Unfortunately, it would be impossible to reveal that plot point, so you will just have to watch and see.) We also get some better than average possession effects, including burns, vomiting blood and the loss of teeth. The scares grow as the film moves along, and the suspense is built up quite nicely.

In a supporting role, we have Joel David Moore as a deacon and youth group leader, which is a much more serious role than he is known for playing in such films as "Dodgeball" and "Hatchet". In the second half, he becomes the object of Grace's questionable affections. In some ways, this is the most troubling and gets into the dangerous territory of priests and sex.

Another supporting role has Lin Shaye as an ultra-religious grandmother (or foster mother). Shaye has been a horror staple at least since "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and she is fine form here, even if her role is rather small.

Is this worth checking out? Yes. While maybe not the hit of the year, it is not a film that should be going under the radar and it would be great to see where Alexia Fast goes next. (She is already carving a nice horror niche with films including "Fido" and "Last Kind Words", not to mention her appearance on "Masters of Horror".)

What lured me in to watch "Grace: The Possession" aside from the fact that it is a horror movie, was the movie cover/poster, because it did seem interesting and have some odd, twisted appeal to it. And also the fact that Lin Shaye was in it had some pull as well.

However, it quickly became clear that this movie was going to be one of those movies that make you curl your toes and not sit well with you. Especially so for me. First of all, I am not fond of found footage, which this luckily wasn't. But they had taken it one step beyond that in terms of camera work and made it a point-of-view experience. Are you kidding me? As if the found footage camera work is not questionable, then they had to go beyond that. That approach to the presentation of the movie was just ridiculous and it was almost enough to make me get up and turn off the movie just because of that.

Then lets move on to the storyline. Well, it was as predictable as they come. And it seemed as if the writers had just previously been going through a movie marathon and written the script for "Grace: The Possession" with the impressions of those movies still fresh in mind. Because it lacked originality.

Furthermore, then the movie was frightfully devoid of scares or anything even remotely disturbing or chilling, which is essential for a proper horror movie. "Grace: The Possession" just trotted along on a very generic path on a very generic mission; to be as plain and mundane as possible.

And as a horror movie that doesn't rely on a proper storyline or scares, then at least a proper and impressive special effects repertoire would be to prefer. But no, not here, not with "Grace: The Possession". I will go as far at to stating that it seemed like they actively voted on not to put special effects into the movie. Again, a thing that was lacking from the movie, and dragged it further down.

The acting in the movie was adequate, although it was hardly Lin Shaye's best performance. Then again, she didn't have the lead role, so it wasn't centered on her performance. Alexia Fast, who did have the lead role, was hindered terribly in her performance by the atrocious point-of-view approach the film makers opted for.

If you enjoy a good and proper horror movie, then do yourself a favor and pick another movie, because "Grace: The Possession" is anything but possessed and anything but entertaining.

A POV possession is a great premise but they severely missed the mark here.

The acting is atrocious and cheesy and I laughed at most of it.

Don't bother.

Or POV in this case ... if I'm not mistaken the Maniac remake with Elijah Wood was around the same time this came out ... maybe a bit later. So this camera thing seemed to be the flavor of the month for a bit. Like a found footage with a twist sort of thing I reckon.

Having said that, this has quite the interesting cast to boost. Of course you can never compare any movie to the Exorcist. Or rather you shouldn't - whatever movie you take and try to compare with one of best movies ever (not just in the horror genre) ... it's going to lose for sure.

Having said that, this is a decent low budget effort - once you wrapped your head around the style it was shot - no pun intended.