Invocando al demonio

If I find a movie with an intriguing premise, I ignore the reviews and give it a shot. An interesting story that begs you to find out what transpires, goes a long way. Michael King, an atheist, finds himself a widower as the result of his wife's trust in a spiritualist. So he sets out to prove all such people wrong, that there is no such thing as God or the devil, by making a documentary debunking the existence of the paranormal. He uses himself as the victim (er, subject), where he invites all sorts of practitioners of the occult to try and do their worst.

You can see where this is going just from the title. The Possession of Michael King, genre-wise, falls under a few catagories: It is part faux-documentary, part found footage, and part Paranormal Activity voyeuristic camera monitoring. Anyone on here complaining this is just another found footage movie is incorrect, and it's actually one of the things I DIDN'T like about this movie: It breaks from all these formats to go full-on cinematic. I think this would have been more effective had it been filmed by someone (fictitiously) inside the movie, not a cinematographer and director trying to find the right angles. I also found fault in the ending, where they spoon-feed you something that happened earlier in the film... which I felt they had already clearly spelled out before.

However, I did enjoy the story and the performances, and especially liked that Michael couldn't figure out which ritual actually caused the possession. That was a nice touch. Overall, as a descent-into-madness/"Possession Of" movie, this one fares pretty well.

I might have given this a 5 instead of 6 were it not for this film being director David Jung's first directorial effort. It is a well constructed film that shows a lot of promise, even if it doesn't quite deliver a completely satisfying experience. Jung, though he limits himself somewhat with the quasi-"found footage" conceit employed here, has good instincts about how to create a chilling atmosphere and doesn't overdo all the tricks and clichés of horror film making these days. He uses them, but not to excess.

Unfortunately, the story and screenplay (also credited to Jung) could have used more work. A lot of the scenes and shots are composed as if they are supposed to be captured by either cameras rigged up in the house or characters in the film, but then some aren't. It's not really clear what we're supposed to think. The lack of scenes with any meaty conversations means that most of the cast doesn't make much of an impression. Only an early scene where Michael King confronts a psychic "spiritual adviser" about her fakery is particularly effective, and actually gives Dale Dickey, as the psychic, something good to work with. Most of the film rests on Shane Johnson's shoulders as the titular character, and he does a good job given how much he has to sell here (practically the whole movie). We don't get much back story, it's not even clear how these people (a documentary filmmaker and an aspiring actress waiting for her big break) have so much money that they can afford a big atmospheric horror movie house and tons of expensive A/V and computer equipment. It just doesn't seem like Jung thought much about what kind of life these characters have when they aren't on screen. That means it's hard to get invested in what happens to them and that much harder to get scared by the action, because these folks just don't really come to life as much as they should.

This is pretty much a film I'd recommend only to horror fans who want to keep up with the genre and check out promising new filmmakers. I'm not sure anyone else would particularly enjoy watching this.

The Possession of Michael King is an entertaining, thrilling, and well thought out horror film. I was hesitant to watch at first, expecting another generic possession movie, but the premise is original and catches your interest off the bat. Instead of the typical wrong place wrong time possession this is a case of curiosity killing the cat. There are a few scattered jump scares but seeing Michael's descent is what sticks with you after the credits have rolled. Overall this was well shot and acted, my only real complaint is that they could have taken their time and dug more into the religious exploration scenes in the first act.

Starts out pretty well. About half way through it just started losing me. Was too on the nose and it became less a found footage film and more an exorcist type film and shows the audience way too much in the way of camera angles ect. Stopped feeling like a f.f. movie.

Watch this one. Just another possession flick right? Nope. Hard to synopsize too much without revealing plot points, but just know that this is a "found footage" flick in the best way. No shaky hand-held stuff. The film follows a film maker that uses multiple cameras. So that gives us different angles and legitimate cinematic quality that sets this miles ahead of your average POV flick. In fact, its very rare that there are 1st person POV shots. Excellent writing. Excellent production, Excellent acting.

I gotta say - Im tired of found footage and possession stories, but I'll be damned if this doesn't prove there is still room for both if done correctly.

I cant wait to see where David Jung goes from here.