iPossessed

I felt the movie had a slow start but it definitely got better. I enjoyed the storyline. It certainly kept your attention and kept you guessing as to what was happening. There were a lot of little things to notice that were very cool. Once you got past the slow start, it got pretty exciting. The big negative for me was the acting - especially in the beginning and especially the main character. It felt like a bad horror film at first. Zoe and Buckley were top notch in their roles but Tad just didn't win me over. His acting felt forced. I really hope they have some success with this film as they have put their heart and soul into it.

First of all, I have to say that the movie's title sounds really stupid. But I still opted to watch the movie on account of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, nor actually ever heard about. So in a sense, directors Jerry Sommer and Carl Rimi had every opportunity to entertain and impress me.

Now, the movie has Carl Rimi as a director, writer and star, and that is just something that raises a lot of red flags for me, as movies with one guy filling out each role such as this tends to be questionable movies.

I have to admit that it was amazing that writers Carl Rimi, Javier Mayol and Maurice Jovan Billington collectively could manage to conjure up such a weak and thin script and storyline. There was very little to be enjoyed throughout the course of the movie, and lots of things made very little sense, often times feeling like the writers had been working independently of one another, and thus creating a rather disjointed storyline.

I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, and that was actually something that spoke in favor of the movie, as I enjoy watching new and unfamiliar talents on the screen. The acting performances were somewhat fair, though I failed to understand why writer, director and star Carl Rimi had to be taking off his shirt in nearly every scene; it was just ridiculous.

The movie doesn't really use a lot of special effects, but I will say that whatever effects were in the movie were fair enough. Not great, but fair.

If you enjoy horror movies, do yourself a favor and don't waste 104 minutes on watching "IPossessed". Some of us suffered through this ordeal of a movie, so you don't have to; you're quite welcome.

And the movie's title still made no sense, even after having suffered through what passed as a horror movie for some reason.

My rating of directors Jerry Sommer and Carl Rimi 2025 movie "IPossessed" lands on a three out of ten stars.

We saw this film at a screening with the producers and actors. I had seen the trailer and thought I already had it figured out. I was surprised more than once and didn't expect the ending. The musical score was really well done and kept me feeling nervous/unsure what was about to happen. It was really cool to hear the producers explain some of the behind the scenes work that went into the film. Seems they really have put a ton of effort into this project and paid attention to the details. I typically go for silly comedies but enjoyed this more than I expected and it did a good job of delivering different perspectives on some complicated topics.

After watching our hero chop wood for waaay to long to be interesting, interspersed with occasional shots of our heroine driving, their sexy banter reveals them to be brother and sister? It only goes downhill from there.

Despite the lowercase i in the title, no technology was harmed in the making of this film, and other than an occasional phone call and one text message, we get no explanation. A screening audience was told the original script featured a haunted iPhone, and though the movie changed, the title didn't.

The "twist" in the movie seems like they had to force it in with a crowbar, as it makes no sense and adds nothing to the story.

The lead actor is also the writer, and the producer, and with him phoning in a performance more wooden than all the logs he spent time chopping at the film's opening sequence, this comes off like a vanity piece, rather than the suspenseful supernatural thriller we expected.

Sadly, though the other actors are all much more equipped for the job, everyone comes off as very one dimensional and there is no character development. They are all good in their roles, especially the female lead, but she is underutilized and we don't get to know anyone else well enough to care what happens to them... A continuity editor could have helped with some scenes, but the camera work is great, and the score is wonderful.

Returning home from the war, a retired Army veteran decides to hold a housewarming party with his friends and family at a new farmhouse he's purchased, but when his struggles with the war threaten to interfere in the night, a demonic possession proves to be the least of his worries.

This was a fairly fun if somewhat flawed genre effort. When this one works well is due to the main setup involving the means of possession and how the group is caught up in the act. The initial gathering at the house and letting everyone go through their initial introductions showing them trying to bond over the past and what happened to them while they were in the war which starts to affect the rest of the trip gets this one off to a strong start with the whole thing bringing up the possession incredibly well. As the traumatic events in the past get shared and the idea of the possessed figure forcing them into the open to discuss the issues they've long since forgotten about and buried, it causes the film to delve into an uncomfortable series of discussions and revelations about what's going on that include infidelity, accidental pregnancies, and other incidents that are soon revealed leading to plenty of graphic deaths here for a lot to like about it. While these features come together rather well, the whole thing is soon undone by the inability to make the possession a prominent threat at the expense of the trauma porn the rest of the film delves into. After setting up the stages of the possession and whether it's true or not, the individual simply sits soundly doing nothing, letting the others play out their conversations without interference. This drastically reduces the tension and fear of what's going on by going for endless dialogue scenes about their tortured pasts and buried secrets, without getting the kind of supernatural action that was promised when it was initially brought about, that a demonic possession was bringing up. That causes the other issue here in that it focuses so heavily on these aspects of grief and trauma that it's not nearly as interesting or thrilling as it thinks it is going through the mindset as it falls into a series of cliches that are part of the genre inherently through using these tactics, all of which bring this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.