The last time I watched a horror this bad, it was probably a corny Bollywood horror film. Brent Cote’s Possessions can easily feature on a list of the worst horror movies of all time. Set in a storage facility, the director probably wanted to bring back the old-school trope of vengeful spirits taking control of kids. There’s nothing wrong with following tropes if they’re done right, but this film fails in every way it possibly could. While shows like American Horror Story thrive on the very same premise of spirits refusing to release their hold on a site, Brent Cote never fully commits to his own story. If not for Clive Standen’s brilliant performance, I wonder if one could sit through this film.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens in the movie?
Months after his wife’s death in an accident, Pete Thompson buys a storage facility and moves in with his son Tyler. Pete is a former alcoholic who is trying to not give in to his addiction again, and his drinking habits are certainly the main reason behind his wife’s untimely death. The real estate agent gives Pete a copy of the disclosure of death of the property. The previous family, who owned the place, had a tragic end. The mother killed the son before killing herself, and the father went on to hang himself in one of the units. Just when Pete and Tyler reach the new place, their dog Buddy starts barking vigorously. Unable to figure out what’s happening to him, Pete tries to calm him down. But moments later, Buddy jumps from the car while his leash is still on and snaps his own neck. This death just serves as a warning to Pete, as his whole life only gets worse afterwards.
What happens to Pete and Tyler after moving in?
Pete notices how most of the people who have rented the storage units are either dead or unavailable. The last owner had no family after his wife and son passed, and he left the house untouched before killing himself. Pete begins to find every little thing that the family left behind. Tyler discovers the bicycle Jake (the murdered kid) left behind, following weird voices. Pete hopes for a better life now that he’s going to be home all the time and take care of his son. But this place isn’t meant to be a paradise where a family can flourish, and soon Tyler starts having nightmares.
What does Dr. Young warn Pete about?
Pete sends Tyler to see a therapist named Dr. Young, who notices what Tyler is going through isn’t normal. Having counseled Jake years ago, Dr. Young senses the same pattern Jake went through. Meanwhile, Tyler finds the unit the last owner hung himself in and gets his hand on a copy of the Book of Genesis and a key that opens the lock of unit 105. Dr. Young comes to see Pete and tells him about the history of the last family. They were a happy family, and the mother had no record of drug abuse or mental instability. Jake, too, was a normal, happy-going kid until he started showing signs of PTSD. Jake’s condition got worse, and he’d have night terrors, speak in foreign languages, and show all the symptoms of being possessed. Dr. Young is afraid that Tyler might end up like Jake, but Pete dismisses her theories. Pete thinks that Tyler is just processing his grief, and even grown men wouldn’t be able to handle the things he’s gone through. He reassures Tyler that he won’t let anything happen to him.
Does Tyler mutilate the dead dog?
Pete doesn’t completely ignore Dr. Young’s words, and he starts to read up on Jake’s case file. Pete’s fight for sobriety ends, and he gives in to drinking again. He finds a bunch of recorded tapes where a certain Father Williams and Father Mann try to perform an exorcism on Jake. The next morning, Pete checks the CCTV recordings of the premises and sees Tyler digging up their dead dog from the grave and taking it inside unit 105. Pete runs to the unit and sees that Buddy’s corpse has been mutilated. Tyler has also put his mother’s pictures up on a drawer, along with the Book of Genesis. Pete runs to confront Tyler about it, but Tyler seems to have no idea what happened. Pete’s harsh treatment scares Tyler more, and he runs away. Pete senses that Dr. Young wasn’t wrong, and he calls her up to check on Tyler. Dr. Young tries to talk to Tyler, but he doesn’t respond to her. When she calls him Jake, he responds. Dr. Young once again tells Pete to send Tyler to a childcare facility where he could be treated back to normalcy, but Pete won’t listen to her.
How does Dr. Young die?
While cleaning up the disgusting mess Tyler left in 105, Pete finds a tape marked Michael Gibbons. After putting his son to bed, he takes his whiskey and cigarettes and settles down to listen to them. Pete listens to what seems like two priests performing an exorcism on a boy named Michael. When Michael resists in a demonic voice, Father Williams kills the boy in the name of killing Satan. Pete recognized Father Williams’ partner in crime, Father Mann. He gets Mann to call him, and he threatens to call the cops on Mann for what he and Father Williams did to the boy in the recording. Mann panics and tries to convince him to wait for him to come and explain things. Pete passes out while Mann’s pleading, and Mann rushes to get back to town and meet with Pete. Meanwhile, Tyler calls Dr. Young and asks for her help. He says that his dad is drinking again, and he’s scared, but he’s willing to go to the place where he can be treated. Dr. Young shows up at the plaza, and Tyler lures her into unit 105. Dr. Young tries to look into the unit through the half-opened shutter, and a ball rolls up to her. When she enters the unit, the door shuts on her. The next morning, Pete wakes up and discovers Dr. Young’s dead body. Not knowing what to do, he buries the body under Buddy’s corpse and rushes to clean the blood from the floor.
Was Tyler actually possessed?
In Possessions‘ ending, Father Mann arrives at the storage to talk to Pete after he threatened him. Pete is busy cleaning the blood, and he finds a crack on the floor. He tries to reach for the cracks and finds even more broken pieces of floor underneath the cupboard, which had been covering it all this time. He starts to dig into the cracks and starts finding human remains. Meanwhile, Tyler takes Father Mann right outside the unit 105, and Mann realizes that Tyler is possessed by none other than Michael Gibbons. Father Mann starts to recite the exorcism chants, and Pete tries to reach for him, but Tyler shuts the door on him. Worried for his boy, Pete uses every bit of his strength to try and open the shutter. He finally manages to open the shutter just enough to use the bolt cutter to cut Father Mann’s ankle. Pete thinks he’s saved his son, but soon the same bolt cutter will crush Father Mann’s head. Tyler wasn’t himself anymore, and the spirit of Michael Gibbons had taken over him completely. The cops take Pete in for the murder of Dr. Young and Father Mann, and the possessed Tyler looks at him with a satanic grin on his face.
Possessions would be a great film if it capitalized on its fresh premise. There aren’t many movies that have made horrors based on such a strange location, and storage units are often shown in crime thrillers. The bland cinematography doesn’t help the case, and the movie falls flat on the entertainment factor. The few jump scares barely manage to even shock you, and good job if you’ve actually managed to sit through the entire movie.
