Interesting experiment to play exorcism as a social satire
This film seems to inspire wildly varying responses.The only respondent who comes close to my response was the one who asked if it was supposed to be a goof.EXACTLY! Yet this writer still didn't like it very well.I thought POSSESSED was hilariously funny in places (the "Union forever" shot that riffs on Citizen Kane was probably my favorite).Robbie's wisecracks were also often quite funny, as well as the satiric presentation of his penny-pinching TV-zombie father, and the hapless clergyman who tries to use Robbie to make a name in the world of parapsychology.The humor is consistent but VERY dry, so that a casual viewer not expecting this from a "possession" film might miss it altogether.
Yet despite the humor, the film did maintain an effectively creepy atmosphere, and it had something to say about the Cold-War Fifties.To me it was an impressive balancing act with fine acting from Dalton and Czerny, clever script, and nice directorial touches.
Mixing humor and terror goes back to Hitchcock, of course, but very few filmmakers can carry off effectively.M. Night Shyamalan is the current master of it, and POSSESSED isn't in his class.But it's definitely worth checking out!
score 8/10
apspr 12 April 2004
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0643669/34998
Pages:
[1]