Movie Review: THE POSSESSION EXPERIMENT (2016)

Trigger warning: implied date rape, it’s not graphic, you don’t see anything, just a heads up.

As horror fans, we’ve all seen Bill Moseley as some pretty fucked up characters, but this one takes the cake! What role, you ask? A Catholic priest performing an exorcism.

Writer/director Scott B. Hansen, along with writer Mary J. Dixon have brought us THE POSSESSION EXPERIMENT. (Not to self, don’t eat while watching horror, this one almost got me in the first few minutes). THE POSSESSION EXPERIMENT starts in the recent past, where we witness an exorcism gone horribly wrong. A young mother, a demon, Catholic priests – is that a baby crying in the distance?

Cut to now, Brandon Jensen (a likable Chris Minor) has always been drawn to religious studies, and his solo project for his class has grown to include the skittish, and forever stoned, Clay (played by Jake Brinn). Together the pair stumble upon a mystery one town over, I’ll let you guess what that mystery is… Once the big mystery is unfurled, Brandon decides on a new project, The Possession Experiment, and, as you’ve probably guessed, all hell breaks loose (hey, why not use a cliche to describe a cliche?). Enlisting the help of a laid back med student Leda Morgan (perfectly played by Nicky Jasper) to keep an eye on Brandon’s vitals during the experiment, and Julie, a psychic (Pamela Myers) to attempt to make contact with the demon world. At first, there is no apparent change in Brandon, but demons don’t wear watches and like to show up fashionably late.

Enter the Catholic Church…or is it the Catholic Church? Lots of sinister looking men in robes and horns, chanting, blood…when you get to this scene you’ll know what I’m talking about. I REALLY liked this scene, the imagery was titillating, quite Satanic. The editing was superb and the effect it had on the entire movie really helped my opinion of the movie as a whole.

I love this genre of film, and the ensemble put together a decent movie; I just wish it wasn’t so predictable. THE POSSESSION EXPERIMENT isn’t bad, in fact, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it had a number of “Oh shit!” moments. The effects were impressive, the floating possessed look great and the acting for the main characters were all well done. It’s just, if you’ve seen a few possession/exorcism films, you know the drill, but that’s okay, the film is still a good time. I’d probably watch it again, just to take in the scene I mentioned and the gore effects again.

THE POSSESSION EXPERIMENT will be available On Demand, Digital HD and DVD December 6, 2016