Possessed (2000)

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

(THERE ARE SPOILERS) Said to be based on the only documented exorcism in modern time the movie "Possessed" in it's own crazy and mind blowing way shows it's audience just why exorcisms are so strongly avoided by the Catholic Church. They end up driving everyone involved in them out of their minds. The case of Father Willam Bowden, Timothy Dalton, is a perfect example in that when you play with fire, or in this case the Devil, you end up getting both burned and possibly committed.Father Bowden is troubled with an event that happened when he was a Chaplin on the Western Front for the US Army in WWII. On All Saints Day, November 1, 1944, Bowden freaked out and didn't come to the aid, in giving him the last rites, of a wounded comrade who was dying from a blast of lead he received from a German submachine gun. It's was moments later that Bowden himself was run trough with a bayonet that almost killed him.Back in the states in Saint Louis MO. Father Bowden gets himself involved in a case of demonic possession that has little 11 year-old boy Robbie Mannheim, Jonahan Malen,doing things that defy scientific explanation. Making furniture move at will and levitating off his bed as well as pucking and relieving himself with so much bodily fluids that even a full grown elephant's stomach or bladder couldn't hold has his parents Mr. & Mrs. Mannheim,Michael Rhoades & Phyllis Lawson, very worried indeed. They think that their little Robbie is going insane.It's only when Robbie attacked Reverend Eckardt, Richard Waugh, causing him to have 66 stitches in his right arm that it was decided to look into using the church, via a church sanctioned exorcism, to help the very troubled and disturbed young man.At first being against the exorcism Archbishop Hume, Christopher Plummer, agrees to it if only that it's kept from the public and the Catholic Church involvement is totally covered up. It's then that Father Bowden and his assistant Father McBride,Henry Czerny, are given the go ahead to preform the act. It takes a while until both Fathers Bowden & McBride realize just how difficult this exorcism of little Robbie will be. The two Catholic priests have to go through at least three different exorcism's until they finally get the Devil, who's trying to take over Robbie's body and soul, to show himself. This all leads to the movies unbelievable and shocking climax where Father Bowden acts and looks like a man possessed not by the Holy Spirit but the Devil himself!Timothy Dalton is without a doubt really enjoying his role as Father Bowden as he seem to be so into it that you don't for a moment feel that he's acting. The guy is so caught up in the role of the tormented, from his guilt feelings in WWII, Catholic Priest that he comes across even more deranged as well as possessed then the already off the wall Robbie ever was in the movie. Johathan Malen as Robbie actually does a far better job then even Linda Blair did as the possessed 12 year-old girl in the original "Exorcist". Without garish makeup and his head turning around in circles, which was far more comical then scary when Miss Blair did it, Malen was far more convincing as a child possessed by the Devil then Linda Bair ever was.The movie "Possesed" also has Piper Laurie as Robbie's Aunt Hanna who's part in the young boys problems, demonic possession, is never really explained. Aunt Hanna seemed to have gotten Robbie into the occult science's, with things like playing with a wee-gee board, but died too soon, about ten minutes into the film, to really account for the wild and crazy things that happened after she left the scene. Or did Aunt Hanna from beyond the grave orchestrate everything that happened to both Robbie and Father Bowden after her sudden demise?

This would have been a really fine telefilm if only the director and/or screenwriter had made up their mind what kind of movie they wanted to make of this story. A subtle psychological drama where possession was only hinted at? Or an all-out, balls-to-the-wall action/revenge film (with holy water instead of M-16's)? About three fourths of the way through, this movie changes rather ludicrously from the former to the latter. In one particular non-dialogue moment, shortly after the two priests' pre-game pep talk in the monastery chapel, I was like, "No way. They DID NOT just go there!" (I won't give away what this moment was, but if you watch the DVD you'll know exactly what I mean.) That said, this is a very well produced and well acted project. Even though the tone shifts all over the place and is seriously off the chain at the end. Timothy Dalton gives a fine and accessible performance (albeit, as the type of priest that exists only in Hollywood -- the studly, hardbitten, chain-smoking, foul-mouthed, whisky-drinking, punch-throwing cynic with a Purple Heart and PTSD). His sometimes-American, sometimes-British accent is all over the map but you don't really notice after a while. By the end of the movie he is channeling Harrison Ford big time. He looks good and has several terrific scenes before everything goes completely over the cliff into silliness (the script and direction's fault, not his).Dalton is ably backed up by Henry Czerny as another priest, by Christopher Plummer as an archbishop, and the actor playing the possessed kid is quite good too. It's just such a shame that as the film goes on, every scene seems to be taken out of a different playbook (Serious Drama! Psychological Complexity! Rambo!) and the actors have to all keep up as best they can. The fine cast isn't wasted, so much as they are thrown this way, that way and the other way from scene to scene by the unfocused tone of the screenplay.This movie could have been so much better if they just canned a lot of the suggestive music, kept the emphasis on the psychological and the subtle (there ARE some subtly creepy moments that really work, at least in the first half), and canned the whole misguided "Raiders of the Lost Souls" crap at the end.The best compliment I can give this film, is that I would have liked to see a weekly series with Dalton and Czerny as priests solving murder mysteries or something. They made a good team.

The action is set in the "duck and cover" epoch.All fear the "atomic attack".Bill Bowdern teaches at the Faculty of Theology,at "SLU";he was in the war and has his subsequent traumas;he drinks a little,knows much about comics and football.Bowdern defends the faith by fighting racism and gets arrested after punching a policeman.He's not afraid to use some bad language.One day,Bowdern is shown a house of the Alexian Brothers,as a terminus for the misfits.Robbie,eleven years old,is interested mainly in comics and tricks.He learns to be a ventriloquist.One day,at school,objects begin to move themselves by the boy;Robbie becomes morose,violent.He is seen by Rev. Roland Eckhardt ("a man of reason,a man of science,and a man of God",as he defines himself),who takes Robbie at his home and nearly gets killed by the boy.At first,Fr. Bowdern considers Robbie's "abnormal behavior" as "a lot of hearsay","mass hysteria".Then,he is asked to investigate the case.He does some research,finds out about Surin (as a Jesuit professor,he should have known already about Father Surin,at least as much as he knew about Lois Lane,I think).This movie is not frightful,lugubrious,scary,nor creepy,etc.;it seldom tries to be so,and in a naive,clumsy and conventional way.As a matter of fact,it bases upon facts,not upon fantasy.It tries to suggest the sinister,the horrible violence,the horrid,the fearful of the situation,by means of the reactions of those implied (W. Bowdern,Phyllis,etc.).I think it refuses to resort to cheap means in order to scare.The best actors of the show are Timothy Dalton,Shannon Lawson,Czerny and Christopher Plummer.Dalton utters sonorously,plainly,in his affected and theatrical way.W. Bowdern has a rough line:"Too many jackasses have made our decisions".On a TV in this movie we see a bit of a Bp. Sheen show ("higher than Milton Berle").

The biggest problem with this movie is the kid. Ginger hair and freckles? Possessed by the Devil. Its not scary, its hilarious. The kid does a decent job, but he is horribly miscast. Timothy Dalton redeems things a bit with a convincing performance, which must have been almost impossible given the obvious handicap.As a story it almost succeeds. As a scary movie it sucks.