Saturday, July 18, 2020

The Possession of Michael King (2014)

I wasn't really sure what to make of this movie. A young man is spiritually lost, he has lost his wife and she believed in the supernatural world. He wants to prove there is nothing in it and chooses to make a film of his experiences trying to connect with the afterlife. He is a film maker by trade, so the film plays out in the style of found footage. A trope that is overdone in my opinion, especially in horror films.
So he visits a variety of fraudsters who make claims that they can summon demons or talk to the dead. After a few he starts to develop a ringing in his ears and strange things start to happen. His sidekick abandons the project, he doesn't like what is going on. It turns out that there is some entity trying to take charge of Michael.
This isn't an enjoyable film to watch, there are some unpleasant scenes (for example, he enters his sisters bedroom while she is sleeping and lifts the duvet to feel the top of her thighs) and I found it a bit on the long side. He does indeed seem to be possessed by the close of the film, so he got what he wanted I guess. I didn't like the character of Michael and that's quite important with a film like this. Perhaps others would like his character but I couldn't muster up any sympathy for him, if you go looking for trouble and then find it where you didn't expect to, more fool you.

Static (2012)

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. It manages to keep its surprise until the end, at least it did for me. A couple are seeking to get over the death of a child and have moved out to the sticks. A young woman knocks their door one night claiming to have broken down and that there are a gang of people after her. They bring her into their home and the husband immediately trusts her but his wife is more suspicious. They do indeed see the people who are tying to find them in their home, they are wearing strange masks.
The twist in the story is the same as The Sixth Sense from 1999. This 2012 film didn't get very positive reviews when it was released but it's not a terrible film, its just not a classic either.