The Possession (2012)

A girl on the cusp on puberty is possessed by a demonic spirit and spills familial terror as her soul goes dark and her body gyrates in inhuman forms. Familiar? “The Possession” is another spawn of diminishing returns and scene-for-scene re-dos from “Exorcist,” the demon queen of spiritual horror. Here, the girl (Natasha Calis) happens upon an antique wooden box with Hebrew engravings at a yard sale. It calls to her, quite literally. Daddy (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) quickly obliges daughter’s purchase as he wants to soothe her woes as he and mom (Kyra Sedgwick) sign divorce papers. (If the real horror on screen is divorce then it is badly, badly handled.) Emily is taken hold by the box and starts to splinter, distant, silent, and prone to stabbing dad with a fork. All this leads to a finale involving exorcism and a man of God, here a rabbi rather than a priest. (Jewish reggae star Matisyahu plays the role, oddly tone deaf.) Every scene here was done better in 1973, save one: Morgan as the desperate father begs a room full of religious elders for help. One old crow coldly replies, “It is up to God.” That’s chilling. The rest… C+

6 Souls (2013)

You cannot go wrong with Julianne Moore. Even in lesser films -- “Lost World: Jurassic Park” -- she gives her all. So goes “6 Souls,” a possession horror film once titled “Shelter” with a belated release behind it. Moore is Cara, a psychiatrist reeling from the mugging death of her husband who sees herself as a doctor of science and woman of God, conflicted between pure logical analysis and God’s will. After Cara dismisses multiple personality disorders, it comes to no shock that she meets a patient (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who is many sided -- a gruff Yankee, a paraplegic Appalachian, and so on. The trick: All of his personalities stem from dead people. Interesting so far. But hold on. Cara’s psychiatrist father (Jeffrey Dunn) is so keen on a one-upper, he pushes daughter into dire situations, a move that almost stops the film cold. Is he nuts? More questions abound, such as –- avoiding a spoiler -– really, only six souls? And, how come white people get to just walk around anywhere, in strange homes? And not get shot? The climax is a letdown with a foot chase through woods, an idea not scary since, well, the Jurassic age. B-