Director: Stephanie Hensley
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Possession
Plot:
Tired of living her life, a disaffected teen trying to deal with the problems she has in life manages to display a series of unconventional and unnatural behavior that clues others in to her potential possession by a demonic spirit as a result of a cellphone, forcing her friends to save her.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly solid genre effort. One of the better elements with this one comes from the strong setup that provides a fun starting point for the eventual supernatural shenanigans to take shape. The initial introduction of the film to her character involving the teen and her dissatisfied life, where her troubled home life with parents unwilling to help her, a series of bland and dull friends unwilling to help her, and a school life involving plenty of other teens bullying her for her outsider status, all create the kind of sympathetic character that creates about here. With the different interactions here focusing on the disenchanted nature of her personality confronting those around her, it all sets up the kind of scenario where her being possessed and influenced by the demonic forces feels quite logical and well-intentioned.
With everything coming together to give the possession some tangible weight behind it, this sets about utilizing the kind of expected interactions that point to her condition. From violent acts against herself, turning on friends with unconventional outbursts, and then leading to the usual series of possession setpieces, ranging from the distorted voices, guttural growling, and other strange behaviors that denote supernatural strength or maliciousness that doesn’t feel normal to those around her, leading to the different attempts by the various authorities trying to control the situation unaware of the demonic being inside her that sets up this rather fun finale where the full confrontations are brought about that combine with these other factors to give it a lot to like.
There are some big flaws here that manage to bring it down. The main detrimental element against this one is the wholly lackluster and underwhelming possession setup that manages to highlight nothing of any real interest for long stretches of time. The idea of the demonic entity utilizing a cellphone to target and ensnare a teen in her condition is a novel enough concept, yet here it manages to get sidestepped quite frequently as if it’s more of a manifestation of the negativity in her life coming together to control her. It doesn’t have much that really signals this is the starting point for her possession, based on how low-key the whole thing is presented, and infrequently it all gets brought up, and while also being somewhat obvious about the low-budget origins present, do hold it back the most.
Overview: ***.5/5
An intriguing and likable enough genre effort, there’s a lot to like here that keeps this one going, which is enough to counter the few slight issues that are present here. Those with an interest in this particular style or who enjoy this kind of storytelling will have a lot to like here, while most others out there turned off by these kinds of issues will want to heed caution.
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