The Possession of Michael King (2014)

The Possession of Michael King: Directed by David Jung. With Shane Johnson, Ella Anderson, Cara Pifko, Julie McNiven. After poor advice from a psychic leads to the death of his wife, a man vows to disprove the existence of the paranormal by allowing himself to be possessed by demons.

“A halfway decent plot is the only thing that really ties this movie together. The acting is actually pretty good, and there are even some very interesting characters that you can tell are having good fun with their parts. Itu0026#39;s a simple plot, but grows on itself in an organic sort of way, consistently adding cohesive elements that work with the original idea. Itu0026#39;s good writing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThen there are two very real negatives to address. This is supposed to be a found footage feature, but when the camera hops too and fro and flips scenes so that you can see better, it really just destroys the illusion horribly. There are even instances where the camera appears to defy the action in the scene, such as remaining perfectly still while a crash has apparently happened. This sort of thing asks you to u0026quot;turn off your brainu0026quot; while you watch it. But honestly no one can really do that. Thereu0026#39;s always a little voice that says, u0026quot;Hey, the camera canu0026#39;t do that! Oh yeah, this is a movie.u0026quot; It serves to impolitely yank you out of the immersion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMake up your minds people. Is it, or is it not a found footage film? If itu0026#39;s not, then stop pretending that itu0026#39;s supposed to be.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUltimately, the real problem is that this movie ends up being a simple jump scare feature. Itu0026#39;s like having someone periodically popping a balloon in your ear while you are reading a scary book. Your adrenaline rushes, your heart pounds, your ears ring, and you exhibit all of the symptoms of u0026quot;being afraidu0026quot; without actually having a reason to be afraid. Itu0026#39;s a cheap trick, and honestly itu0026#39;s very disappointing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhatu0026#39;s worse is that the u0026quot;scareu0026quot; volume is so incredibly high compared to the rest of the film that itu0026#39;s almost downright rude. After the first few times, I felt compelled to turn it off, but stuck it out instead only to have it periodically blast me throughout the rest of the feature. Itu0026#39;s downright irritating.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll in all though, a pretty fun movie. Iu0026#39;m giving it a 7.”