Possession?
Starring: Carice Van Houten, Jenn Murray
Writer Director: Agnès Merlet
DVD Release: February 10, 2009
Origin: Ireland
I watched this movie last night with my wonderful Mom (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!) and was a bit apprehensive about it because the cover of the DVD described the film as “A Modern Version of The Exorcist“. Now that is quite a claim to begin with. The Exorcist is widely believed to be one of the most horrifying films ever made, so to make that kind of comparison and advertise it is not necessarily something I would recommend. But still I had read a few decent reviews of Dorothy Mills from my favorite horror sites around the web and wanted to see what it was about.
The movie starts out a bit slow and honestly doesn’t really pick up much from there. It’s an interesting and somewhat unique concept for a plot line but not at all in any comparison to The Exorcist. Basically Jane is a psychologist who is hired to evaluate a teenage girl named Dorothy Mills in a small town who is accused of molesting and injuring an infant. Jane travels to the town where it’s occupants are extremely strange and uncooperative from the get go.
Jane's Freaking Out
About 30 minutes into it I was totally sure that the plot was going down a certain line with Dorothy having DID or Multiple Personalities. But of course, that is what the writer and director want you to think until it is revealed that her personalities are those of dead teens who are seeking vengeance on the town’s secrets. That gives away some of the plot but not enough to keep you from seeing it because there is a lot more to the story than just ghosts.
Unfortunately not the entire story gets explained in the end and it leaves you with a lot of questions. And to me it seemed pointless to try so hard to make an audience see things one way for half of a film only to have it completely flipped and in the end still not make sense. It was worth the rental but I think that it could have been done better. The acting by Jenn Murray (Dorothy) and Carice van Houten (Jane) is excellent even if the story line was a bit lacking.
Bottom Line: WORTH THE RENTAL
Toni Collette
Okay, so I don’t mean to chug the hater-aid or anything on this one site’s post but it honestly was a bit upsetting. It was regarding the new Showtime Series The United States of Tara. The site “Videogum” posted a blog about how the show was completely unbelievable and made no sense. This blogger hinted that the medical condition itself (DID aka Dissociative identity disorder) made no sense or, if you read between the lines, that it is made up. These kinds of criticisms really bother me because there are a lot of people out there who think that actual medical conditions that people have are “made-up” or “all in their heads”.
Let me just say this…if you are not a medical doctor then you cannot tell any other living being that a medical condition they have been diagnosed with by a medical doctor does not exist. End of story. Doing this makes you look completely ignorant and arrogant. Not to mention when I browsed around the other areas of the site it was nothing but negative comments about pretty much everything. Each post was downing someone or something.
Seriously, if you’re that negative about life get some meds for your head and a tissue for your issues. Nuff said.
As for the show I mentioned, I have watched all of the two episodes that have aired and think it’s a great show. It has a very talented cast and then of course there’s Diablo Cody who is truly gifted at writing. I think the show gives others a glimpse into what it’s like to truly be in a family where a medical condition changes every persons life but still manages to bring them together. Plus it’s pretty funny too. But of course all of the above is just my opinion and not intended to start a web-feud. So save the drama for yo mama.
