Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Natasha Calis, Kyra Sedgwick

Director: Ole Bornedal

Rating: 3.5

The Possession is a Jewish-themed Exorcist that, if nothing else, should discourage the practice of buying antique wooden boxes at flea markets. The possession of the title is an actual object, a dark-brownish wood box skillfully locked. It has engraved inscription in Hebrew notifying the finder that the box contains a dybbuk, an evil spirit that will stick to the soul of anyone unlucky enough to release it. Bybbuks are a familiar element in Jewish myths.

The box comes into the possession of the Brenek family, or rather the splintered Brenek family, since father Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has been separated from his ex-wife Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick) for a year, causing predictable emotional difficulties for young daughters Hannah (Madison Davenport) and 10-year-old Em (Natasha Calis).

Em persuades her dad to buy the ominous looking box, unaware that its previous owner, an elderly woman, has wound up immobilized in bed after being handled rather violently by the dybbuk inside it. Dybbuk soon finds a new host in the innocent young girl who, like Linda Blair Regan (The Exorcist), starts displaying violent, anti-social behavior. But while at first her symptoms prove hardly distinguishable from those of a typical troubled adolescent, an invasion of giant moths in her bedroom prove the need for drastic measures, or at least a good exterminator.

After a quick consultation with a professor, Clyde heads to a synagogue in  Borough Park, Brooklyn, where he found out that the box resembles a 19th century Polish vice. There he enlists the aid of a rabbi’s son, Tzadok (played by the Hasidic hip-hop/reggae star Matisyahu).

After a medical procedure that reveals that dybukks are visible on MRIs, they get down to the inevitable business of a Jewish exorcism, performed in perhaps the most poorly securitized, empty hospital in North America. Director Ole Bornedal indulges in the usual scares induced by ear-shattering bursts of volume, frequently punctuating scenes with blackouts and ominous piano chords. But despite young thespian Calis impressive ability for malevolent staring, her character is never all that frightening, with her possession often signaled by dark eye shadow that makes her look mainly like a young goth chick.

The Exorcist has inspired many films and this is one of the better ones without going wacky with special effects.