A Possessão de Mary

Okay, so there's nothing new here, or particularly original, but from the get go at least there are characters on display and they are behaving believably. Makes you a little more vested in the situation as it unfolds. I don't know that the flashback structure of it helped any, but what most folks want to know is "was it scary?" or "was it stupid?" For my tastes it was involving enough, with a few creepy vibes but nothing really exceptional. I could have done without the lazy go to of repeated nightmares in order to have something unnerving happen. Make the shocks part of the story! Make them part of the situation! We lose investment if we expect every unusual occurrence to just be a harmless dream. But that being said, at least it wasn't stupid the rest of the time and I never had the urge to fast forward thru it. Entirely acceptable. But I doubt I'll ever watch it again. There needs to be an option with the streaming services between "liked" and "disliked".

Gary Oldman what ya doing? I watched this because of you.

Mary is one of those films that sets sail but has no real sense of direction. Its biggest short coming in my opinion is the premise is sound but the setting is wrong.

A modestly sized family yacht, simply doesn't provide enough physical space and as a consequence scope, to meet the expectations, this horror aspires to. Its as if, for example, Friday the 13th, was set in a phone booth. its far too constrained and has to fall back on drawn out physiological tension, in a vain attempt, to compensate.

The result is a slow, predictable and ultimately, rather anti climatic film, that takes the viewer nowhere interesting. That's in spite of a strong cast, quality acting and decent cinematography.

Marginally watchable but that said, there are far better horror films with a nautical bent on offer, like 80's classic, The Fog. 5/10 from me.

It's actually not so much the ability of the actors to act (I don't think anybody will see Gary Oldman and doubt he can act), but it is the script and the horror movie cliches/tropes that will likely get you quite upset. To say the least. And you also have other people in here (Emily Mortimer), who are way above anything in depth, that the movie can offer them.

Having said all that and all the things that are predictable, the movie can still be enjoyable to a certain degree/level. You have to be a fan and not mind the flaws that are littered throughout the running time.

Mary is an unscary in-your-face horror that tries to be intelligent. It features the talent of Gary Oldman, and strong performances by Emily Mortimer, but even their dedication could not save this movie from sinking. There is a weak climax, and the lack of subtlety makes the story dull. It could have been more subtle by making it seem like one person is losing his or her mind, or focusing on how the characters descend to madness and culminate in a horrific climax. However, the story is weak and even the shots are done poorly. It fails to create claustrophobia or dread. The movie does deliver decent jump scares but its over reliance on this technique shows that it is not a scary story at all. If you are expecting a tense psychological horror on par with The Shallows, you will be sorely disappointed. If you are expecting a haunted house on water, it still fails. Don't waste time if you want to see it for itself. But if you want to see people screaming at the jump scares, you would probably enjoy it.