Michael Ledo Five years after three year old Emma has died, the family holds a little get together. Two sisters, their husbands, the sister's mom and a friend/business partner of Hannah (Michele Hicks) mother of the deceased. They talk, try to have a good time and then things happen as this turns into an possession/exorcism film. In a subplot Eric Roberts, police psychologist is interviewing two individuals (we know they live) over the murders at the house (We know people die before they do.) Normally this is a film I run away from. It has all the bells and whistles of a mediocre film, especially with Eric Roberts being in it. However the film builds slowly. We got to know the characters, if only briefly, plus the aspect of secrets that one wouldn't expect a family to have so many added to keeping my interest. The acting wasn't half bad on what could have been a disastrous script.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

mojoguzzi-879-68498 Seeing in the credits that most of the lead actors also served as producers of one sort or another, I was shocked when I checked their credits to learn that they are all trained actors with hefty resumes. I was sure that one or more were simply wannabe movie stars with more money than talent. Although a few of the lead actors were attractive, on the whole the cast was dowdy and unengaging. One of the lead males looked like Ross from "Friends" if he'd put put in a trash compacter then dressed in an outfit designed for a five year old boy. His haircut didn't help -- it looked like he had an accident with a Flow-bee. His thick Gaelic accent made him stand out even more, not in a good way.On balance the lead female characters were more likable than not, despite the ham-handed direction. The rest of the cast were just annoying, from the "sassy" psychic to the harpy of a mother and the poorly cast priest. With his unkempt shoulder length hair and grubby whiskers he looked like the guy who'd bring a keg and an eighth of weed to the party, not the gravitas of an exorcist.The script starts off on a fairly solid collection of clichéd story points but halfway through the characters go off on illogical tangents and there's little suspense throughout. (What man wouldn't be tempted to French kiss his wife after she'd been possessed for a day, complete with deep processed demon voice.) Character emotions change erratically and the horror comes in choppy doses, but there's no one to care about anyway. Eric Roberts collected a day's pay for his wraparound stint as a police psychologist. Whatever they paid him wasn't enough.

GL84 Following a tragic car accident, a family trying to grieve over the death of one of their children who was involved learns that one of them has become possessed by a demonic being looking to torment them and causes them to rely on a priest to battle the evil.This was quite an enjoyable and highly surprising effort. One of the better elements present here is the fact that this one really does manage to work with the slow-building plot line rather nicely without really upsetting the film really working out a rather great way this goes about bringing the different details of what's going on here. Starting off with the freaky occurrences with the knife at the dinner table and the possession sequence in the bedroom, this turns out rather fun as it transitions away into the actual possession enables for the more lively as she turns against the family and begins not only tormenting them with the secrets and how the different physical torments she concocts makes for a really enjoyable time overall since this really makes the film pick up the pace with its action. Content to play it more low-key rather than going full-bore with the possession. There's plenty of great scenes here with the séance they conduct which comes off rather well with the demonic voices and blood-spurting around the room making for a great time along with all the different torments, the different confrontations along the way that makes for a great showcase of the demons' strength and vindictiveness and gives this one some pretty enjoyable moments throughout here with her attacks. As it slowly gets into the actual exorcism and the attempts to get her cleansed while she goes out on the rampage against the others it makes for a really exciting time here leading to some really fun action as they all continually stumble across her victims and kills piling up around the house which adds an extra urgency to the actual exorcism attempt, while all together having these help the film's pacing by having such great scenes play out in delivering a great bunch of action in the second half to counter-balance the somewhat slow beginning. That is one of the film's few minor problems, in that there's not a whole lot of action happening here in the first half which makes this tend to feature a somewhat lapse beginning where it doesn't quite get off to the start it really should. Focusing on the interspersed scenes of the psychiatrist that goes nowhere and the revelation of the investigation after-the-fact don't offer up any kind of emotional resonance that's being set-up with the storyline about the possession taking place due to the death in the family, a thread itself that isn't all that well thought-out since it's still a mystery why this one takes on the possession as it does here when being tormented would've been far more feasible so that doesn't really solve much of the problems here. The last problem with the film tends to revolve around it's rather confusing decision to keep almost all the deaths off-screen rather than up-front on-camera. Quite often throughout here they tend to stumble upon the mangled bodies of a friend and it leaves a big gaping hole as to why it never showed that occurring on-screen rather than doing it in this manner. Still, this one was quite a bit of fun.Rated R: Graphic Language. Violence, suggested Rape and strong adult themes.

jackmeat My quick rating 5,3/10. This time of year it seems the possession films come out of the woodwork. That being said, this movie does little to stand out from the others as far as the actual possession goes. A year after the death of one of the characters child, they all get together for the holiday and things go awry. The possession more or less just "happens" from there and the woman that ends up as the "host" (Sienna Guillory) does a good job acting a bit off the wall when need be. Some of the funniest lines do come from the demon but not in a comedic way. Meaning for me, timely swearing and divulging of peoples secrets. So as my one line states, the whole movies focus is upon ridding the demon from Bethany once and for all (without being killed) and of course all leads up to a climax. I will admit the trip is more or less just there for the means to getting to the destination. Enjoy.