Grace: Possession

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.

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.

The sub-genre of 'Demonic Possession' has become most frequent in recent horror movie releases & most of them turns out average or below average time-wasters. So I was quite skeptical about it, mostly after watching the trailer. The weird thing about this movie is it isn't a found footage flick but the entire film shot on POV format...from the first-person perspective, mostly of a possessed person. Now, as a POV flick with such a common subject matter, surprisingly it still turned out intelligently well made & very decent overall. The reason it works mostly for keeping all things together pretty simple with good cast & characterization and its decent flow or execution of the story.

Instead of that bad trailer that not only gave too much away but also kind of provide a wrong impression about the movie, the trailer for it required to be short & cleverly done, IMO.

The eighteen year-old Grace (Alexia Fast) is a Catholic teenager raised by her grandmother Helen (Lin Shaye) since her mother died giving birth to her and her father is unknown. Grace joins the university and has frequent blackouts. The doctor diagnoses her and tells that she might have a mental condition, suggesting her to visit a psychiatrist. However the pious Helen brings her granddaughter home and forces her to frequent the church. Soon Grace discovers hidden secrets from her mother and the priests tell that evil is inside her.

"Grace" is a boring, unoriginal and lame low-budget horror movie of exorcism. The movie is destroyed by the awful and irritating camera work. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "O Mistério de Grace" ("The Mystery of Grace")

This is the story of Grace (Alexia Fast), an orphan whose mother died in childbirth and a father she never knew. These are her experiences in her college days and the terrible things that happen soon after.

Up front, it must be said that this "Grace" has nothing to do with the film "Grace" from 2009 starring Jordan Ladd. This shared title is unfortunate, as it will likely confuse horror fans. On the plus side, this is probably the better of the two films, so if the two are going to be inevitably compared, at least it will be favorable.

Viewers should be warned that this is a POV film, shot from the vision of Grace. Now, to be clear, it is not found footage and is not supposed to be a camera filming -- it is merely what Grace's eyes see during different events, including tug of war, meaning we only ever see the title character if she looks in a mirror. (The mirror moments provide for some interesting camera tricks, and whether they are practical or not are a good feat.) Besides the mirrors, another interesting element is that even dreams are from Grace's point of view. And these are terrifying, realistic dreams.

As much as POV can generally be a hindrance, or even annoyance, director Jeff Chan was clever enough to take it in some new directions here and should be complimented on his efforts. (The drinking scene is reminiscent of The Prodigy's music video for "Smack My B* Up", in a good way.) The POV even pays off later on, with a slight twist that may be the most clever of all. (Unfortunately, it would be impossible to reveal that plot point, so you will just have to watch and see.) We also get some better than average possession effects, including burns, vomiting blood and the loss of teeth. The scares grow as the film moves along, and the suspense is built up quite nicely.

In a supporting role, we have Joel David Moore as a deacon and youth group leader, which is a much more serious role than he is known for playing in such films as "Dodgeball" and "Hatchet". In the second half, he becomes the object of Grace's questionable affections. In some ways, this is the most troubling and gets into the dangerous territory of priests and sex.

Another supporting role has Lin Shaye as an ultra-religious grandmother (or foster mother). Shaye has been a horror staple at least since "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and she is fine form here, even if her role is rather small.

Is this worth checking out? Yes. While maybe not the hit of the year, it is not a film that should be going under the radar and it would be great to see where Alexia Fast goes next. (She is already carving a nice horror niche with films including "Fido" and "Last Kind Words", not to mention her appearance on "Masters of Horror".)