Grace: Possession

Wasn't terrible, but the first half was better than the second. The whole exorcism bit felt a bit overplayed and took away from the eeriness of the film.

POV or point of view or call it whatever you want, it's something I will never get why you would want to shoot a movie like that. I can't stand that first person view, the only time I can stand it is when I play a first person shooter game on my console. In a movie it's just a technique that doesn't work. In fact I never saw a good movie made like that and I watch a lot of movies. The story itself is also pretty lame. When I read possession in the title I imagine immediately things like in the classic The Exorcist (1973) from William Friedkin. In that movie Linda Blair gave the best possessed performance ever and the special effects for that time were pretty good and special. For this movie, made in 2014 by the way, the special effects are laughable. It's not even a matter of budget as I'm sure any kid with a bit of technology knowledge can do better nowadays. As a horror it was also laughable. I could watch this movie on Halloween in the middle of the woods, alone at night, and still it wouldn't have any effect on me. It's boring, not scary, and the POV is boring as hell to watch. The acting was okay though, but that's about it.

A POV possession is a great premise but they severely missed the mark here.

The acting is atrocious and cheesy and I laughed at most of it.

Don't bother.

Or POV in this case ... if I'm not mistaken the Maniac remake with Elijah Wood was around the same time this came out ... maybe a bit later. So this camera thing seemed to be the flavor of the month for a bit. Like a found footage with a twist sort of thing I reckon.

Having said that, this has quite the interesting cast to boost. Of course you can never compare any movie to the Exorcist. Or rather you shouldn't - whatever movie you take and try to compare with one of best movies ever (not just in the horror genre) ... it's going to lose for sure.

Having said that, this is a decent low budget effort - once you wrapped your head around the style it was shot - no pun intended.

I was really pleasantly surprised. The first-person POV is well done, the cast can act, the story is complete, and there isn't a single wasted moment.

What may turn some potential viewers off is that this movie is also Lifetime-channel-ready, as there is no gore or nudity (at least in the version I saw), which normally would be fine for me, because I don't need the typical tacky tropes of horror movies to be able to enjoy a horror movie.

However, in this case, the lack of nudity and gore is actually too safe and too tame, as it detracts from the movie's overall impact, especially with the back story glimpses and progressive changes in the lead character, but that's hardly a reason to stay away. And there must be the inevitable director's cut available sooner or later...