Krishna
A completely Hebrew horror. The problem with the movie, though, is manifold. For one thing, it is a rehash of all the posession movies we have seen. Come on, a young girl, posessed by spirits? And a priest comes in to exorcise? Sound familiar?
For another, the movie is completely cliched. The wife who has left the husband for another man, the husband brooding about it, and the conversations so trite. “Don’t give them pizza”. Later, “you gave them pizza?”. The kid saying, “Why did you not come to see me daddy? Don’t you love me?” All kinds of completely expected cliched situations.
The possession itself is not very well done either. They pick up a box from an auction lot and the old lady who wanted it sold and is completely bedridden shrieks when she sees the little girl with the dreaded box? And when this man – believe me he is by no means religious from all accounts – is told this is an ancient Hebrew horror, instant belief and ‘oh my god, how do we handle it?’. The answer? ‘Did you open the box?’ He says “yes”. “Then there is no hope, go away”. What? Really? These are the “experts”?
And it was so silly in many places that at first I was convinced that the director was making a parody! But no, he seems to have been dead serious.
If there is a redeeming factor, it is the elder sister’s acting (Madison Davenport) even though it is unnaturally bouncy when there is gloom all around. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan tries to give life to an essentially one dimensional role thrust upon him valiantly.
Is it only me, or did others also feel that this hero is a dead ringer for Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond series? The fact that the other one is a known comic kind of intruded on my appreciation of the serious portrayal, adding to the feeling of watching a parody. Of course, it is not the fault of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, playing Clyde, but still.
In many cases, it looked like a comedy with exaggerated acting and trite dialogues and so it was very difficult to get into the character.
Finally, even the evil itself looks vaguely like Gollum!
I cannot in all seriousness (no pun intended) give it more than a 2/10
— Krishna