Grace: Possession: Cool Concept, No Bones

Grace: Possession (2014) is standout because it's shot entirely in first person. But is this enough to make it an interesting movie?

The plot is a run of the mill possession story: Grace (Alexia Fast) has escaped her overly-religious Grandmother to go to University and finds herself catching a demon friend.

As said above, what makes this demon movie interesting is that its shot entirely from a first person viewpoint. This makes for some interesting shots and filmography. You can see the intention was to unnerve the audience into feeling as if they are falling prey to a possession. What's real and what's not? Can we trust our eyes? It's not a terrible concept.

But it does feel like there should be a ten second pause every five minutes or so, in order to choose a dialogue option. Overall, it feels like watching a very long Telltale game cut scene, only you're strapped in for the whole ride. It's also worth noting that it feels uncomfortable watching a teenage girl get undressed so many times, especially from her own point of view.

It doesn't help that Grace is very bland. This may be an effect of getting the audience to project onto her, but the poor girl has nothing to do. Her reactions are never quite strong enough, leaving her coming across as rather too passive for a main character. (!!) carries most of the film, and she's doing the best with what she had, especially as she's mostly a voice over.

Once Grace heads back home, it feels more like a video game than ever, as we're trapped in Granny's house. This is where the movie drops a lot of threads and becomes a mess of spooky scene after spooky scene with no clear direction. Sure, Grace is learning the truth about her mother, but its a truth that's easily guessed. (And that she isn't allowed to react to.)

Which is a shame, because the university elements were the most interesting. For once, the fake-out scene was the most interesting part. It gave both characters depth and played on the subtext of previous scenes to make itself believable. If there were more of this, and less CGI demons in the mirror, the film could earn its place among the art house flicks. Because, yeah, the effects aren't great for how heavily they're being relied upon to be spooky.

As it stands, the pay off, and exorcism (when we finally get to it) just aren't enough to feel satisfying. In fact, Grace is so dull that you're wondering why anyone would sacrifice themselves for her.

An interesting concept for a movie, desperately trying to do something different. But it just doesn't have the bones or structure to justify the camera choice.