Possession is a remake of a Japanese thriller called Jungdok (or Addicted). It was also scheduled to be released a year ago, but was pushed because the original distributor went bankrupt. Eventually, after a dozen set backs and push backs of the release date, it was given a straight to DVD release here in the states. Was it worth the wait and hassles?
If you were to pick up this DVD, you might assume a few things from the cover art. Maybe it’s a horror movie? The picture on the front is a ghostly looking female face with sunken and darkened eyes. Oh spooky! The tag lines “What if the person you loved, became someone else?” or “Fear never dies.” might give you even more of a horror feel. Wow! And from the executive producers of The Grudge and The Ring?! Really scared now. It’s just too bad whoever designed the cover art, clearly had not watched or even read about the movie. You sir, fail.
The movie starts by following Jess (Sarah Michelle Gellar) as she is reading over a case file for a man accused of aggravated assault. Picture shows a man who looks to have been in a bar brawl. She heads home and walks in the door to find the power is out. She wanders around the house to find her husband Ryan (Michael Landes) but can’t find him. Of course she wanders into the basement, and just as she gets there, guess what? Yep, lights come back on, and bam! We meet Roman (Lee Pace), Ryan’s little brother (who doesn’t look so little by the way…), who was the man in the mugshots at the beginning of the film. He tells her to meet her hubby at a ferry (after he pounds his wrench into something causing it to break), and she is gladly on her way. In fact, I was waiting to see her dance out of the room because she looked so terrified of him.
She meets him at the ferry, where its very rainy and dark. He slips something into her pocket, and they head home. Jess is blabbing about a case she was assigned, when Ryan asks her to check her pocket. She pulls out a small package and inside is a glass blown necklace with a little piece of paper inside. They are lovey for a minute when he leads her into another room, full of candles, and a cake with their names on it. It is their anniversary, and for once the man remembers and the woman forgets (as if that would REALLY happen * rolls eyes *). He mentions that its dark outside, and when they look, strand of lights come on. Awww! Crash! The troubled brother is standing in the door with a beer right on cue to interrupt their play time. Ryan thanks him for rigging up the lights, and disappears to change. Roman corners Jess and blows smoke from a lit smoke into her face after she asks him politely not to smoke in their house. So much for that!
Next we (at least sort of) meet Casey (Tuva Novotny) for a brief moment as she has some naughty time with Roman (Woosa!). At the same time back at the homestead Jess and Ryan have their naughty time, and it cuts to the next morning. Jess is in the kitchen making tea when her necklace breaks. Ryan claims he will save the day and fix it for her, oh what? Wait? Are they gonna get all lovey again? Crash! Roman is at the fridge chugging down the last of the juice from the jug, after putting the empty jug back into the fridge he lets them know they are out of juice and disappears. Jess tells Ryan that she can’t handle having Roman there anymore because she doesn’t trust him and is afraid of him. They agree to find him some other place to live and go about their day. Roman is on the steps and overhears them. Dun dun dun!
Jess is in her bedroom on her bed, appears to be doing some work, when she hears a noise and heads out into the hall to see Roman leaving, with all of his things in trash bags. She goes to the window to watch him peel out and leave. She calls Ryan to let him know what she saw and to remind him that Roman cannot leave the state. Ryan assures her that he will find Roman, he hops in his truck and heads off. The next thing we see is Roman speeding down a very fog filled Golden Gate Bridge (A very bad CGI job on the bridge by the way). The view flips to Jess looking at a photo of the two men, all of a sudden she drops the frame, and it shatters on the ground. The camera view hits the floor and follows the shattered glass till it becomes shattered glass on pavement, then you see two vehicles crashed. Roman and Ryan wrecked into each other on the bridge.
Cut to Jess running down a hall in a hospital. Both men are in a room together, and are seemingly in comas. The doctor informs Jess that they are not likely to wake up but Jess stays for a while, then leaves eventually for home. During the next bit we watch Jess go through a whirlwind of emotions. They even show shots of the kitchen in a complete mess with dishes all over, a living room covered in stuff, not very cozy. The mailman rings the doorbell because her mail is backing up, and she finds a love letter written by Ryan. Awww! Now she is sad panda, and cries herself to sleep reading past love notes. Cut to hospital? Uh oh, one of them wakes up! Who could it be?
Roman. That’s right. Roman awakes, but something is… different. The doctor asks him what he remembers, his response? His wedding. But oh what? Roman wasn’t married! Oh noes! Roman now swears that he is Ryan. They call in Jess, and she wants nothing to do with him, she believes he is lying, and this whole story makes her despise him even more than she already did. But she is his closest living relative, so they make her take him home to try and jog his memory. She tries showing him a few pictures, his old room, and even calls in his old flame Casey to try and put him back into his own mind, but all seems to fail, and Roman goes around the house doing things that Ryan once did.
Is Roman possessed? By his still alive and breathing brother who is in a coma? Or is this a sly way to get into the Vampire Slayers underoos? I meant… heart! Only watching the movie will tell you (unless you are a cheater and go read some spoilers… bad movie review reader! Bad!) what happens next. The movie isn’t all together bad. The time line is an issue. You never see a clock, or calendar, so although you might think all this happens in a short time, this story spans over a time period of around a year. The acting by Sarah Michelle Gellar was decent, and Lee Pace was really good. But Lee couldn’t pick up all the gaps with his good acting and schmexiness.
This was also a screener copy, which was too bad, cause I would have liked to have kept this rather than shred the disc, but it wasn’t good enough for me to buy it. Special features were the usual trailer, featurette (trailer + some interviews), deleted scenes, and an alternate ending. Deleted scenes were meh at best, however, the alternate ending was good. Personally, they should have used this ending. It was more twisted and fit the movie better. So, if you pick up the disc, make sure you check that out. Buy if you are a fanboy of the Slayer, but otherwise, I would say rent or Netflix it.
