The Possession of Michael King (2014)

Wow! Such a good movie.

A different way of telling a story

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

After losing his beloved wife, a man determined to make a mockery of the paranormal slowly begins to suspect that he's being enveloped by supernatural forces out to play with him for tampering in their domain and must try to remain in control to save his family from the demons.This here wasn't all that bad of an effort. One of the few solid aspects of this one is the rather creepy work done here in regards to how the supernatural rituals are conducted. The variety of different performances conducted here, from the opening showing him subjected to the ritual where he has to be tied down and subjected to the presence of the demonic figure flashing over him to the encounter at the graveyard where he's trapped inside the coffin in the graveyard where he confirms the situation with his wife that propels him to keep going deeper into the world of the black arts, give this one plenty of starting points to get going later on with more intense sequences. Those are more prominent in the second half, where it abandons much of the rather stylish build-up in favor of more overt and obvious genre tropes. This relies specifically on the ranting and contortion he displays while possessed which has some traditional moments here, from how he freaks out on the daughter and chases her around the house to the rather enjoyable series of chase scenes featuring the deformed victim chasing others around in rabid fashion. It's quite thrilling to see this as it adds a different vibe to the film which is quite fun to see play out. That these are shown to come after the work done to showcase the skepticism he exhibits early on, from treating the different rituals with a sense of disdain or outright mockery where he's not surprised at all that the process doesn't work, creates a nice opening to then slowly lead him into far more dangerous rituals that actually do manage to prepare this one for the far more deadly preparations. As he gets swallowed up by these forces the deeper into the film and running through a wide range of experts and their treatments, it leaves quite an impression. These are what really help make this one enjoyable. However much good these positives are, the fact that this one is still quite flawed is quite apparent. The film's main problem is that it just doesn't do much of anything for such long stretches of time as he stands around trying to come to terms with the effects of the possession. A large majority of these scenes aren't in the slightest bit scary or chilling, and the fact that almost all of these are committed with the first-person camera technique examining the fake documentary approach of the whole film really takes this one down considerably by rendering most of the actions quite lame and blase. That the format itself is the real problem here with the majority of the film not in the slightest bit interesting as when it focuses on the guy going around with the camera interviewing various practitioners of these rituals or showing the daily life with his family as these really didn't need to be filmed in that manner to have their impact. It just comes off as unnecessary and just really makes this all the more confusing as to why it chose that format. Still, these are really the only real detrimental angles with this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and children-in-danger.

This film surprised me... and in a good way... I liked it!I was interested in the concept of the story and this brought me to view the film. A family man loses his wife and is understandably absorbed by the deep loss he feels. He believes that her death could have been negated: They had previously been to a fortune teller-come-medium who had informed them to stay at home when they should have been on vacation. Had they ignored her advice his wife would still be alive. This sets off a train of thought in his brain and he decides to prove that the occult and paranormal are not real. Being a documentary film maker he resolves to get the evidence on film.You know that he's going to be proved wrong and in a very dark and nasty way. Though, this is the case you don't know exactly what is coming. King then heads off to different people and groups who purport to be able to conjure dark entities and demons.What I liked most about this film was the standard of acting which is of a high standard. Shane Johnson does well to hold the story and the film together as the lead. His portrayal of King and the many emotions he goes through is believable. There are also a couple of actors you may have seen before - Dale Dickey who plays the Fortune Teller and Cullen Douglas who is the mortician, he gives the character a suitably creepy feel.I also loved the fact that on his visit to the Satanists they tell him what to expect from the demon he has chosen through psychography... and then we see this manifestation appear and grow slowly... then when they are later confronted we learn they never believed in it, it was just a way to get laid - a bit of kinkiness. This was just a little thing but it added a depth and a moral.The drawback is that the film is done similar to found footage films so there is a lot of shaky camera work. Though there are some nice camera angles which add to the atmosphere of the film. There's also an overuse of grey filters. I know this is to create a bleak atmosphere but it would have been nice if this could have been done differently. Coloured filters are tired and old - they need to be retired or at least take a rest. God gave you an imagination and artistic licence, come on and use it.There are some scenes that run on too long when the action should be starting to pick up and a couple which appear superfluous to the film. These just niggled me as they felt like time fillers - we could have had character and story development instead.The special effects are superb and the pentagram carving is disturbing. I don't squirm much - I would have normally said, at all - but this had me agonizing with him; so a big thumbs up for that.This isn't the best possession film out there but it is worth a viewing and I would recommend all fans of horror and possession flicks to give it a watch. I may even give this another viewing sometime.

THE POSSESSION OF MICHAEL KING is a found footage horror flick about a grieving widower who decides to disprove the existence of the paranormal by allowing a supposed demon to enter his body. You can guess where it goes from there. I was hoping for some B-movie fun with this one, but what I got was a noisy little escapade that only succeeded in giving me a headache. The main actor shouts and screams and gnashes his teeth a lot while failing to elicit the viewer's sympathy, while the rest of the movie is shot with a dull, greyed-out colour palette and a lack of vitality. Overall, the only thing this film did was depress me.

This contains a very good central performance from Shane Johnson, playing Michael King, who gets … you guessed it … possessed! After his idyllic life is shattered with the death of his wife, he and his two young daughters try continue with their lives. Michael decides to make a documentary, using himself as guinea-pig, to prove there is life after death, while his daughters' grieving is ignored. After various experiments involving characters of varyingly dubious quality, it would seem that a demon has gained possession of the rapidly degenerating Michael. Understandably, the daughters leave. Less understandably, despite Michael's frighteningly upsetting behaviour, it is a very long time before anyone comes to see what all the noise is about. By this time, the house is a bloody wreck.This is good, quite unsettling story-telling. Events happen at a brisk pace, and we lurch with Michael, from one horrific incident to the next. Johnson is excellent throughout, and it is just as well - you do get the impression the entire film hangs on his acting at times.During one of the hallucinatory sequences that may be a dream, a very curious thing occurs. Scenes from Richard Driscoll's notorious 2008 film 'The Legend of Harrow Woods/Evil Calls: The Raven' are inserted for no reason whatsoever. Featuring characters and events that have absolutely nothing to do with anything – which could arguably said about their context in their original surroundings – the effect is so jarring (probably because I am so familiar with the Driscoll film) that I suspected a possession on behalf of my DVD player! It is a very strange occurrence, and I would love to know why such scenes are included here – mind you, if it provides funds for a further Driscoll project, then all the better.Director David Jung does a good job with the jump scenes, and the more subtle effects are highly successful (an ant crawling out of an eye at an unexpected moment, etc), but one gets the impression that the price paid for such slick pacing is that once King is possessed, there's nowhere for the story to go other than repeatedly perverse stunts for the unfortunate titular character.