Director: Diederik Van Rooijen
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 86 minutes
The Possession of Hannah Grace (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Some time ago we cast our eyes upon the first trailers of The Possession of Hannah Grace and we assumed that the finished product would be a horror fan’s delight. Sadly, many horror movies nowadays feel a bit generic, bland, uninspired and above all: not scary. We had high hopes for The Possession of Hannah Grace, but in the end we had to wade through something that was as lively as a day in the morgue.
The movie starts off with an intense exorcism scene where we see the struggles and untimely death of Hannah Grace (Kirby Johnson), who is possessed by an evil entity. The scene is somewhat intense but also rather predictable and bland, creating a somewhat meager intro for the movie.
A bit later we see Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell), who used to be a cop, but due to her inability to shoot a perpetrator, her partner lost his life in the line of duty. She has been trying to cope with this tragic event by partying, drinking and doing drugs. To finally get a fresh start, her AA sponsor offers her a new opportunity by doing the night shift at the local morgue. When doing the night shift, she is unable to go out and get drunk, as she is doing something productive. She is getting used to the job, but her past trauma makes things complicated. When, three months after the death of Hannah Grace, her body gets sent to the morgue, things turn from bad to extremely creepy, when it seems like there is still something alive in the mutilated corpse.
Overall the flow is quite alright. The movie isn’t too bland in terms of progression and the backstory of Megan is kept to a minimum, making sure the story of the movie is moved to the foreground. Sadly, the introduction feels a bit useless and generic, spoiling a lot of the things to come. It would have been better if they kept the story about the body of a Jane Doe or at least without the typical exorcism background. Nonetheless, the action starts fairly soon, the movie is somewhat okay in terms of what unfolds, but it just feels very predictable, and as stiff as a body with rigor mortis. The story could have been so much more, the frightening scenes could have been developed better and so on. Everything feels like a big budget production, but one where they had many good ideas but never truly finished working on one at a time.
We have to be honest, while the plot is somewhat bland and poorly executed, the acting performances are just fine. The two leading ladies do a superb job bringing their characters to life and Shay Mitchell is a good lead on the righteous side of the coin, with Kirby Johnson portraying the evil presence in the movie. There are supporting characters all around, but many of those are so underdeveloped that even the cast members couldn’t do that much to make them stand out. Nonetheless, the overall performances were handled in a proper fashion.
The special features on the Blu-ray version of the movie are quite slim. You’ll have a small bit about the cast, the special effects used and that’s pretty much all about the creation of the movie. Other than that, there’s one short deleted scene, and a small video diary of Megan who talks about her different night shifts at the morgue.
Conclusion
The Possession of Hannah Grace is one of those movies that is okay to watch once, but never mention again afterwards. The initial trailer showed a lot of promise, but in the end it’s not that much more frightening than poking a dead body in the morgue. If you like a predictable horror movie with a specific shtick, then this movie may provide a pleasurable evening. If you’re looking to be scared senseless and be amazed by a fresh breeze in the horror genre, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
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