"The Possession" has shades of "The Exorcist": An otherwise-sunny preteen in a single-parent family falls under the spell of evil forces. Only no power of Christ is compelling anyone. Instead the troublemaker is a dybbuk, a malicious spirit from Jewish folklore contained in a wooden box. Based on actual events, "The Possession" has some of "The Exorcist's" creepy subtlety but more often comes off bland and silly.
Numerous owners of the real "dybbuk box" claimed strange phenomena occuring during ownership, such as head-to-toe welts, horrific nightmares and the smells of cat urine and jasmine. None of these are present in "The Possession." Instead, sweet Em (Natasha Calis) quickly progresses from "feeling funny" to swallowing insects and expressing no emotion upon the mysterious death of her teacher (who had confiscated the box earlier). Her divorced parents (Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are predictably confounded, then frightened, first blaming their separation then seeking out a curious Orthodox Jew (Matisyahu).
"The Possession" contains shades of co-producer Sam Raimi's witty sense of the bizarre. (Matisyahu's rap career is given a brief, clever allusion.) However, I wonder how much scarier — and funnier — the film could have been with Raimi at the helm. Director Ole Bornedal has all the right ingredients — a story too strange to be fabricated and a strong cast to back it. Calis is little-girl creepy in all the right ways, Morgan and Sedgwick's struggle to parent despite their estrangement is believable, and Matisyahu clearly relishes his screen time. If only the locust-ridden recipe were more creative.