The Possession Of Hannah Grace (2018) Dir: Diederik Van Rooijen
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When the nights start to get darker and the weather gets a little colder, I like to delve into the world of horror films more and more often. On this occasion, I decided to watch Diederik Van Rooijen's 2018 supernatural horror. I honestly didn't need or expect much - as long as it did the basics well enough.
The sad truth is that the film failed to do even the bare minimum well. Not every film is gonna be a winner, but it's still frustrating when you watch a film that stinks up the joint so badly. It began with one of the most cringe-inducing horror openings I've ever seen, and never really picked it up from there.
Every action sequence looked positively awful, thanks to some pretty dodgy visual effects that did the film no favours. The repetitive, subpar jumpscares and horror sequences failed to illicit any suspense or fear. On the contrary, I found myself laughing at some of the attempted horror tactics - they were that bad.
The screenplay was abysmal, and the film, despite being less than ninety minutes long, dragged so heavily. I kept waiting for something - literally anything - to be interesting, but the story was so devoid of comprehensive writing that the moment I hoped for never arrived.
Shay Mitchell played a "generic cop with a past" type character, and provided the most generic horror protagonist performance she possibly could've. The writing may have sucked, but she really gave the film nothing to help it.
Kirby Johnson's performance involved some pretty substandard physical acting, which was hampered further by those aforementioned visual effects. Her character was woefully boring, and, unfortunately, so was her acting.
There were a few names from the supporting cast that I'll quickly give mentions to, though all their performances were adequate at best; Grey Damon, Stana Katic, James A. Watson Jr. and Louis Herthum.
Overall, this was a film that had a freaky premise, but failed to capitalise on it in the slightest. Rarely do I feel as though I've wasted my time with a film, but I really do in this instance. It's definitely one to skip, even for those who enjoy just about any horror film they watch.
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