2. How does the film use, develop orHow does the film use, develop or
challenge conventions if the genre?challenge conventions if the genre?
Use conventions of horror:
-Creepy Old lady
-Dark hospital rooms
-A religious Jewish Priest
-Whispery voices
-Possessed girl
-scary music
-Villain and victim
-Loud screams
-Based on a true story
How the film develops conventions of
horror:
The story is based on the allegedly
haunted dybbuk box.
-The box is possessed
and the house becomes infested with
moths. This is a developed convention as
normally the in horror the house gets full
with ghosts.
-Develops conventions of the character as
the family are not a proper family as the
parents are newly separated making the
family already look not normal and face
problems.
How the film challenged conventions of horror:
-The film is shot in the daytime which is a challenging convention as it shows the girl going to school is shot in the house at
daytime whereas most scary films are shot at night.
- Normally at the end of horror films the (villain) gets defeated but in this film as the demon in the box was still alive as the
family threw it in the ocean and thought that they got rid of it but it escaped and was lurking around.
3. Structure
• Starts off happy when the separated couple take their children to a yard sale to pick up vintage items.
• Girl (Em) becomes intrigued by a dybbuk’s old box that has “Hebrew” inscriptions engraved on it. She finds the box
magical so her dad buys it for her.
• Problem starts to occur That night, Em hears whispering coming from it. She opens it and finds a tooth, a corpse of
a moth, a wooden figurine, and a ring, which she begins to wear. Em becomes solitary and her behaviour becomes
increasingly sinister, to the point where she stabs her father in the hand with a fork and continuous violent behaviour at
school.
• The parents find that the girl is possessed by the spirit in the box and get a Jewish priest to help the possessed girl be free
from the spirit. But then the spirit goes inside the dad and causes problems
• Finally when the spirit is out, the priest throws the box into the ocean
• Little do they know that the box and the spirit has escaped and ready to be haunted again.
•
4. AudienceAudience
• The Possession is a PG-13 film squarely
aimed at the tastes of tweens and
teenage females, carefully crafted for
emotional issues that would best
resonate with them. It’s solidly crafted
in the style of modern horror movies, if
lacking that edge which might interest
older audiences. The director even
laments that one scene was scarier in
his first cut of the film, but had to tone
it down to obtain the PG-13 rating.
• Age rating- 15 for the UK and is high as it
contains haunting content and can
leave young people terrified as it is
based on getting possessed.
• Responses to the film:
The Possession has already received a
reputation in the popular press as the
Jewish version of the horror classic, The
Exorcist.
• Good online reviews as people thought
the film related well to “The Exorcist”.
Mainly above 5 star ratings out of 10
which shows people enjoyed this film
due to “good storyline” and “interesting
to watch.”
•
5. Production
• Shot using the Super 35 film format, The Possession displays excellent detail in its picture quality with a
hint of grain and noise in the darker scenes. Facial close-ups manifest extraordinary levels of high-
frequency content, down to the pores. Like so many other modern horror movies, the colour palette
has been drained of the brighter primary colours. That creates slightly bleached flesh-tones and
subdued colours dominating the film.
• Sharpness and dimensionality consistently outperform the average new theatrical release on Blu-ray,
rarely allowing the picture to lose focus or definition. The contrast is nearly perfect, especially in
exterior shots, though a few scenes display poor shadow delineation and a touch of black crush. Clyde’s
jacket becomes a wall of impenetrable black in one scene, when the daughters get scared about the
possibility of an intruder in their house.
•
6. Reflections – Reasons for the films success!
• Got people interested as it was based on a true story
• Very unique storyline as the film was based on a the allegedly
haunted dybbuk box.
• Box office -The film ranked #1 in its opening weekend, taking in an
estimated $17.7 million, and an estimated $21.3 million for the full
Labor Day Weekend.
