Lionsgate recently released a final preview clip for Sam Rami’s creepy new thriller, The Possession.
Supposedly based on a true story, this film tells the tale of a family’s troubles when the daughter accidentally unleashes a demented evil upon herself.
A dybbuk (dibbuk in the film) is from the Jewish folklore tradition, and it a sort of corporeal spirit which can inhabit a living host in order to achieve some obsessive objective, after which time it departs on its own. The Dybbuk Box is a specific wooden chest which has changed hands several times, starting with an Ebay auction years ago, and which has generated several stories of possession and strange behavior. The movie is attempting to depict the specific case of the first time the box was purchased, which was written up at the time in the L.A. Times (thus the ‘based on a true story’ stuff).
This new clip shows us just how the Dibbuk, which is now in control of the girl’s actions is specifically seeking to manipulate the emotional bonds of the family, here specifically trying to turn the rest of the family against the girl’s father in punishment for hiding the box that started the whole thing.
It’s nice to see that the film will have some aspects which are scary for reasons other than just the terrible things the creature does. It will seemingly focus more on the terror of having one of your family members turn on you inexplicably. The family in the film is actually lucky that it turns out to be a monster controlling the girl’s actions. In real life such behavior can’t be so easily explained away at the end of the story.
Here’s the theatrical trailer:
and the synopsis:
Clyde and Stephanie Brenek see little cause for alarm when their youngest daughter Em becomes oddly obsessed with an antique wooden box she purchased at a yard sale. But as Em’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, the couple fears the presence of a malevolent force in their midst, only to discover that the box was built to contain a dibbuk, a dislocated spirit that inhabits and ultimately devours its human host.
It’s interesting how stark and clinical a lot of the setting seems to be – and I have no doubt that Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick, both actors that I have a fondness for, will deliver great performances.
The Possession hits theaters today.
