Not too many scares to be had in 'Possessed'<\/p>\n
By Tam Notosusanto<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The film trailer says it all. A rainy night with
\nthunder and lightning. A youngster in bed, writhing, as he is
\nshaken about by unseen, demonic forces. Cryptic signs appearing
\non his body. Priests shoving crosses in his face as they
\nfuriously recite spells. There's no doubt about it, this movie
\nlooks like a futile attempt to remake The Exorcist.<\/p>\n
Possessed, however, does not wish to be the 21st century
\nversion of the 1973 horror classic. The reason the two films look
\nsimilar is because they are both based on an actual incident that
\ntook place in America in the 1950s. The difference is William
\nPeter Blatty fictionalized the events in a novel, which he soon
\nturned into the Oscar-winning screenplay that William Friedkin
\ndirected.<\/p>\n
The filmmakers of Possessed chose to stay true to the facts.
\nThe movie is adapted from the book Possessed: The True Story of
\nan Exorcism by Thomas B. Allen. The book documents the events
\nsurrounding the attempts by priests to free a young boy's soul
\nfrom evil spirits.<\/p>\n
While in The Exorcist it is a 12-year-old girl (played by
\nLinda Blair) who is taken hostage by the devil, Possessed claims
\nthat it was actually a boy who was in distress, and although his
\nreal identity is never revealed, here he is identified as Robbie
\nMannheim (Jonathan Malen), an 11-year-old living in St. Louis.<\/p>\n
The first indication that something unusual is happening to
\nRobbie is at school, when he appears to fling some desks at a
\ncouple of bullies. There is a similar incident at home, when his
\nparents are witness to some furniture acrobatics that are clearly
\nbeyond Robbie's strength. Soon, the boy begins to yell and spit
\nout profanities from his bedroom.<\/p>\n
Mr. and Mrs. Mannheim (Michael Rhoades and Shannon Lawson)
\ncontact doctors and therapists, but nothing seems to work. They
\nfinally call in the Reverend Eckhardt (Richard Waugh), a priest
\nwho specializes in supernatural phenomenon. Eckhardt seems to be
\ngetting close to the core of the problem when he is attacked and
\nwounded by Robbie.<\/p>\n
The Mannheims then go to Father William Bowdern (Timothy
\nDalton), a professor at the Jesuit-run St. Louis University.
\nAlong with his colleague, Father Raymond McBride (Henry Czerny),
\nBowdern agrees to try to help Robbie by conducting a series of
\nexorcism rituals that were once used in 17th century France.<\/p>\n
Their superior, Archbishop Hume (Christopher Plummer), gives
\nthem his reluctant blessing, on the condition that the priests
\nkeep their work secret and never let the public know that the
\nRoman Catholic Church sanctions exorcism.<\/p>\n
So Father Bill and company begin their confrontation with the
\ndevil, with Robbie's soul hanging in the balance. The struggle
\nappears to be more than they can handle, especially when the evil
\nspirits dig up Bowdern's traumatic war experiences as a means to
\nweaken the priest.<\/p>\n
In addition to using the same story, Possessed inevitably
\nemploys the same theatrics that The Exorcist put to such good
\nuse, mainly in having the possessed youngster spew obscenities,
\nfloat in the air and speak in a voice not his own. Possessed,
\nhowever, never manages to be the effectively scary movie that The
\nExorcist is. But then again, maybe that's not what Possessed was
\ntrying to achieve. This TV movie (originally shown on the cable
\nchannel Showtime but blown up for the big screens of our local
\ntheaters) is a reminder that this incident really took place and
\nwas witnessed by several people. As a docudrama, it works.<\/p>\n
The movie is new territory for director Steven E. De Souza,
\nwho has worked on action movies for most of his career, directing
\nStreet Fighter and cowriting the action hits 48 Hrs., Die Hard
\nand Beverly Hills Cop III, among other projects. Adapting the
\nThomas Allen book with coscreenwriter Michael Lazarou, De Souza
\nconfuses us with the unnecessary addition of Piper Laurie, who
\nappears briefly in the beginning of the movie as the boy's
\neccentric great aunt who, it is suggested at first, is
\nresponsible for Robbie's predicament. De Souza also fails to
\nprovide a satisfying ending.<\/p>\n
Despite these hitches, overall Possessed is an enjoyable
\nmovie. The cast never disappoints, with Timothy Dalton, perhaps
\nthe only non-Canadian actor here, clearly leaving behind his
\nJames Bond days and returning to his Shakespearian roots. But the
\nspotlight should be directed on the promising Jonathan Malen, who
\nsteals the show every time he appears on screen. ** (out of ****)<\/p>",
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