The Possession of Michael King (2014) User Reviews

Nicely done possession flick

[hayduke05 · 7/10 · 6 September 2014]

I was highly skeptical (but also bored) and so I decided to give this film a try and I'm glad I did. After seeing the low score I was expecting something boring, with cheap scares and bad visual effects. But quite the contrary, the main character acting is believable, visual effects though scarce are well made and add to the scariness of some scenes, and it's overall a refreshing horror flick that makes good use (but doesn't abuse) of the "found footage" format that is so popular in horror movies these days.

The only thing that I found annoying it the LOUDNESS of some scary parts. I was watching this movie with headphones on and at a moderate volume and after the first official scare I was nearly deaf. I think they went a little bit overboard with the sound contrast, so be warned..

7.5/10

Worthy freshman effort from David Jung

[victoryismineblast · 7/10 · 20 August 2014]

After the death of his wife, non-believer Michael King sets out to prove that there is no such thing as the supernatural, God, or The Devil. He sets up cameras throughout his home and enlists his friend to film everything.

First, he tries to summon a demon on his own using a hokey kit he buys off the internet.

Eventually he goes to some real supposed demon summoners and engages in their bizarre rituals. He goes to a necromancer and tries to summon dead spirits using an equally crazy ritual.

Of course he becomes possessed, as we know through the title, and strange and really freaky things start to happen. This is all told in the now familiar found footage style.

This one has some original ideas and some really freaky scares. There are some of the prerequisite jump scares of course, and some scenes don't work as well as others, but freshman writer/director David Jung does a good job of keeping the viewer interested as the story progresses along nicely, and he doesn't wimp out with the ending. This is a nice refreshing possession movie, one of which I haven't seen in a while. I look forward to see what he comes up with next. 7.5/10.

Like having someone honk a car horn in your ear.

[rushknight · 7/10 · 2 October 2014]

A halfway decent plot is the only thing that really ties this movie together. The acting is actually pretty good, and there are even some very interesting characters that you can tell are having good fun with their parts. It's a simple plot, but grows on itself in an organic sort of way, consistently adding cohesive elements that work with the original idea. It's good writing.

Then there are two very real negatives to address. This is supposed to be a found footage feature, but when the camera hops too and fro and flips scenes so that you can see better, it really just destroys the illusion horribly. There are even instances where the camera appears to defy the action in the scene, such as remaining perfectly still while a crash has apparently happened. This sort of thing asks you to "turn off your brain" while you watch it. But honestly no one can really do that. There's always a little voice that says, "Hey, the camera can't do that! Oh yeah, this is a movie." It serves to impolitely yank you out of the immersion.

Make up your minds people. Is it, or is it not a found footage film? If it's not, then stop pretending that it's supposed to be.

Ultimately, the real problem is that this movie ends up being a simple jump scare feature. It's like having someone periodically popping a balloon in your ear while you are reading a scary book. Your adrenaline rushes, your heart pounds, your ears ring, and you exhibit all of the symptoms of "being afraid" without actually having a reason to be afraid. It's a cheap trick, and honestly it's very disappointing.

What's worse is that the "scare" volume is so incredibly high compared to the rest of the film that it's almost downright rude. After the first few times, I felt compelled to turn it off, but stuck it out instead only to have it periodically blast me throughout the rest of the feature. It's downright irritating.

All in all though, a pretty fun movie. I'm giving it a 7.

Not bad

[anasomar37 · 6/10 · 5 September 2014]

unexpectedly good.

I've watched this movie yesterday at night at 1 am .This movie was unexpectedly good ! I am not a fan of found footage movies but this movie entertained me .

The plot wasn't that good ! i've seen a lot of movies with similar idea and the movie isn't that scary but it was was entertaining from first to last minute with really good acting.

If you want to see a " good " horror movie that might scare you

i would recommend watching this movie.

6/10 for me.

Well Done (to the director)

[baphorock · 6/10 · 27 August 2014]

It is a fresh new air for this kind of movie, and im not a fan of found footage movies, i love horror movies, and this is exactly what you want to watch with some friends on a night indoors. Im more for thrillers, but this movie was entertained, fast, always something was happening, i would stay with the feeling of the extasis experience, or make every experience a bit more important. Characters a bit more developed, but again, this work perfectly OK for this movie. i didn't knew this was the first movie that Jung directed and that's amazing, looks really professional, nothing to envy to top chart horror movies! I gave it a 6 cause it filled my expectations )i was hopping for more than a month to watch this) still think that could go a bit more serious and scary. Congrats anyway to the Director, big future!

Sucked in again

[lauriey-61827 · 3/10 · 14 July 2019]

Well I read some of these reviews and went by all the good things that were said. I did not enjoy it at all. It started out ok with a good premise to the story. Half way through it was going the way of the rest of the possession movies. Very silly and laughable.

Great premise

[selfdestructo · 7/10 · 25 December 2021]

If I find a movie with an intriguing premise, I ignore the reviews and give it a shot. An interesting story that begs you to find out what transpires, goes a long way. Michael King, an atheist, finds himself a widower as the result of his wife's trust in a spiritualist. So he sets out to prove all such people wrong, that there is no such thing as God or the devil, by making a documentary debunking the existence of the paranormal. He uses himself as the victim (er, subject), where he invites all sorts of practitioners of the occult to try and do their worst.

You can see where this is going just from the title. The Possession of Michael King, genre-wise, falls under a few catagories: It is part faux-documentary, part found footage, and part Paranormal Activity voyeuristic camera monitoring. Anyone on here complaining this is just another found footage movie is incorrect, and it's actually one of the things I DIDN'T like about this movie: It breaks from all these formats to go full-on cinematic. I think this would have been more effective had it been filmed by someone (fictitiously) inside the movie, not a cinematographer and director trying to find the right angles. I also found fault in the ending, where they spoon-feed you something that happened earlier in the film... which I felt they had already clearly spelled out before.

However, I did enjoy the story and the performances, and especially liked that Michael couldn't figure out which ritual actually caused the possession. That was a nice touch. Overall, as a descent-into-madness/"Possession Of" movie, this one fares pretty well.

tired, corny and cliché...

[krenwregget · 4/10 · 22 August 2014]

I've always liked the possession sub-genre of horror. There's something entirely unnerving about an internal tormentor that can't be fought with weapons but can only be defeated in a battle of faith.

The problem? There just aren't very many GOOD possession movies out there. 'The Exorcist' is obviously the gold standard (still gives me the willies) and films like 'the Exorcism of Emily Rose' and 'the Conjuring' are well worth watching.

So what about "the Possession of Michael King'? Yeah.... not so much.

This is supposed to be another "found footage" style movie, but no one finds the footage. Instead, we are watching this all happen via cameras that the main character has set up as he conducts these evil spirit experiments in an attempt to capture footage of the paranormal. The problem? We see things other than what is just being filmed by the character, we see what is being shot by the actual film crew, immediately dismissing the idea of this being a "found footage" or "documentary". Example: the last scene. Are there cameras set up in his front yard? Sloppy consistency there, fellas.

Then we have the main character who comes off like a bad, reality game show host. It's so painfully obvious that he's acting that it completely pulls you out of the experience. This is bad enough just watching him interact as a normal person, but as he descends into madness, it becomes so cartoon-ish that it's laughable. Much of the film is just him alone in his house, acting crazy and it's pretty embarrassing to watch.

Other than the acting, we have all the tired possession clichés. Jump scares? Check. Ghostly figure in upstairs, child's bedroom window? Check. Creepy voices? Check. See figure reflected in mirror to turn and nothing is there? Check. Static shot of kitchen framing the knife block at the centre, setting up for later when one of the knives is missing? Check. Evil spirit is a 'stealer of children' and wants the guy to kill his daughter? Check. And the list goes on.

Any horror fan has seen all this before; a statement I'm making far too often with modern horror films. It's been a long time since I've seen anything original, as "the Blair Witch Project" was probably the last film that brought something new to the genre. And with Hollywood's predilection for all things 'rebooted', originality is not a priority.

One Of The Better Shaky Cam Possession Horror Movies.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 7/10 · 4 August 2017]

This film surprised me... and in a good way... I liked it!

I was interested in the concept of the story and this brought me to view the film. A family man loses his wife and is understandably absorbed by the deep loss he feels. He believes that her death could have been negated: They had previously been to a fortune teller-come-medium who had informed them to stay at home when they should have been on vacation. Had they ignored her advice his wife would still be alive. This sets off a train of thought in his brain and he decides to prove that the occult and paranormal are not real. Being a documentary film maker he resolves to get the evidence on film.

You know that he's going to be proved wrong and in a very dark and nasty way. Though, this is the case you don't know exactly what is coming. King then heads off to different people and groups who purport to be able to conjure dark entities and demons.

What I liked most about this film was the standard of acting which is of a high standard. Shane Johnson does well to hold the story and the film together as the lead. His portrayal of King and the many emotions he goes through is believable. There are also a couple of actors you may have seen before - Dale Dickey who plays the Fortune Teller and Cullen Douglas who is the mortician, he gives the character a suitably creepy feel.

I also loved the fact that on his visit to the Satanists they tell him what to expect from the demon he has chosen through psychography... and then we see this manifestation appear and grow slowly... then when they are later confronted we learn they never believed in it, it was just a way to get laid - a bit of kinkiness. This was just a little thing but it added a depth and a moral.

The drawback is that the film is done similar to found footage films so there is a lot of shaky camera work. Though there are some nice camera angles which add to the atmosphere of the film. There's also an overuse of grey filters. I know this is to create a bleak atmosphere but it would have been nice if this could have been done differently. Coloured filters are tired and old - they need to be retired or at least take a rest. God gave you an imagination and artistic licence, come on and use it.

There are some scenes that run on too long when the action should be starting to pick up and a couple which appear superfluous to the film. These just niggled me as they felt like time fillers - we could have had character and story development instead.

The special effects are superb and the pentagram carving is disturbing. I don't squirm much - I would have normally said, at all - but this had me agonizing with him; so a big thumbs up for that.

This isn't the best possession film out there but it is worth a viewing and I would recommend all fans of horror and possession flicks to give it a watch. I may even give this another viewing sometime.

A man embarks on an underwhelming journey to find proof of the supernatural

[hollyhiginbotham · 4/10 · 28 December 2014]

I found this movie extremely underwhelming as far as the story goes. It lacked in a lot of areas including scare factor. The only time I truly jumped was when the sound of the movie was raised 20 times its original amount just to get a shock. I found it irritating personally. There was a major gross out factor which I think would be a better way to advertise this film. I don't mind the gore personally but I did find it a little over done after a while. This film definitely does bring a level of uniqueness and also tailors to the fans of the possession genre but it is definitely NOT for the squeamish. If you want to watch a movie with a underwhelming plot and plenty of grotesque scenes then this is the movie for you.

Well above average found footage horror

[dkeller522-242-31684 · 9/10 · 21 May 2015]

The Possession of Michael King is an entertaining, thrilling, and well thought out horror film. I was hesitant to watch at first, expecting another generic possession movie, but the premise is original and catches your interest off the bat. Instead of the typical wrong place wrong time possession this is a case of curiosity killing the cat. There are a few scattered jump scares but seeing Michael's descent is what sticks with you after the credits have rolled. Overall this was well shot and acted, my only real complaint is that they could have taken their time and dug more into the religious exploration scenes in the first act.

Not your usual possession film!

[anikb-87099 · 7/10 · 30 May 2021]

Initially, i thought this film would be anything like a normal possession based film but its quite different.

This is a possession film tied up with found footage concept but what happens when the devil possesses you and there is no one to exorcize you? This is exactly what this film is!

The actor naturally has large eyeballs making you give the feeling he is already possessed right from beginning. His extraordinary performance makes sure you creep out each time he narrates something weird is going on with him.

A lot of gory and disturbing sequences are the highlights. What is good is it does not heavily rely on cheap jumpscares but more on tension bulding.

However, i still give it a 7 star considering it's story is still not that great and that it definitely has its cringy moments as well where i could not help myself go LOL!

Overall, you can definitely watch it.

Annoying Camera with Unoriginal Story

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 16 December 2015]

The filmmaker Michael King (Shane Johnson) is grieving the loss of his beloved wife that died a couple of months ago. He is atheist and decides to make a film about the existence of the supernatural. He challenges the evil using people that worship the Devil to show that the belief in religion and the supernatural is superstition. However something goes wrong and Michael is possessed and becomes a threat to his little daughter.

"The Possession of Michael King" is another film with annoying camera associated to an unoriginal story of possession. The storyline is interesting since the lead character does not believe in God, Devil or supernatural and decides to challenge the dark forces. The trailer shows a scary scene – when his daughter tells that he is a monster. But the film is totally disappointing. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "A Possessão do Mal" ("The Possession of the Evil")

A good way to spend the evening

[PatrickP · 7/10 · 29 August 2014]

I'm not a huge fan of found footage flicks, but I really don't hate them outright. All it really takes is some suspension of belief, and considering the types of films that usually use this tactic, I'm already suspending some belief in the first place.

The movie has a really intriguing setup: a man loses his wife in an accident, and becomes more disillusioned than he already was regarding the presence of God. Already having no faith in God, He decides to devote his time to disproving the Devil....by inviting any and all demons and other nasties to take over his body and soul.

Mayhem ensues.

The premise is fun, and even though you know what's going to happen (by the title alone) it's fun watching it all unravel. Good acting, effects and atmosphere make for a fun 90 minutes.

Try it, you'll like it!

Good for a first feature

[michael-3204 · 6/10 · 27 August 2014]

I might have given this a 5 instead of 6 were it not for this film being director David Jung's first directorial effort. It is a well constructed film that shows a lot of promise, even if it doesn't quite deliver a completely satisfying experience. Jung, though he limits himself somewhat with the quasi-"found footage" conceit employed here, has good instincts about how to create a chilling atmosphere and doesn't overdo all the tricks and clichés of horror film making these days. He uses them, but not to excess.

Unfortunately, the story and screenplay (also credited to Jung) could have used more work. A lot of the scenes and shots are composed as if they are supposed to be captured by either cameras rigged up in the house or characters in the film, but then some aren't. It's not really clear what we're supposed to think. The lack of scenes with any meaty conversations means that most of the cast doesn't make much of an impression. Only an early scene where Michael King confronts a psychic "spiritual adviser" about her fakery is particularly effective, and actually gives Dale Dickey, as the psychic, something good to work with. Most of the film rests on Shane Johnson's shoulders as the titular character, and he does a good job given how much he has to sell here (practically the whole movie). We don't get much back story, it's not even clear how these people (a documentary filmmaker and an aspiring actress waiting for her big break) have so much money that they can afford a big atmospheric horror movie house and tons of expensive A/V and computer equipment. It just doesn't seem like Jung thought much about what kind of life these characters have when they aren't on screen. That means it's hard to get invested in what happens to them and that much harder to get scared by the action, because these folks just don't really come to life as much as they should.

This is pretty much a film I'd recommend only to horror fans who want to keep up with the genre and check out promising new filmmakers. I'm not sure anyone else would particularly enjoy watching this.

Clichés, cheap

[tbahri-380-572824 · 2/10 · 21 August 2014]

When I saw this movie it was rated 6.5 on IMDb , by around a hundred users, after I saw the movies I made an opinion about those users who gave this movie a high rating, they have either participated in the movie or knows someone who did ...

This is a very cheap movie, which has a good starting that developed into one of those cheeseburger movies ... full of Clichés about believing in God and the American family and all kind of these things that seems to be the only thing that Hollywood can make in the last 5 years apart from the Super hero movies ...

If you have around 2 hours of your life to waste, then believe me there are at least a hundred more exciting things to waste them on except watching this movie.

By the way, the Director is also the writer and the screen play guy (who did nothing apparently as this is one of the very cheap footage style movies).

2 out of 10 (instead of 1) just because the first 10 minutes of the movie were slightly fine

Better than a lot of f.f. films. Still not great though.

[frankblack-79961 · 6/10 · 15 September 2020]

Starts out pretty well. About half way through it just started losing me. Was too on the nose and it became less a found footage film and more an exorcist type film and shows the audience way too much in the way of camera angles ect. Stopped feeling like a f.f. movie.

Beware of the fake reviews, one of the worst found footage films ever.

[Manpreet_S · 1/10 · 13 October 2018]

In the beginning, movie shows a little promise, but soon after the bad acting, bad direction, bad cinematography, bad script and very bad visual effects take over. Every few seconds, there is some extremely poor and cheesy forced camera glitch effect which becomes highly annoying. There are some completely pointless jump scares, which don't even work. The whole film feels very amateurish. I don't recommend to anyone.

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 7/10 · 7 July 2017]

This contains a very good central performance from Shane Johnson, playing Michael King, who gets … you guessed it … possessed! After his idyllic life is shattered with the death of his wife, he and his two young daughters try continue with their lives. Michael decides to make a documentary, using himself as guinea-pig, to prove there is life after death, while his daughters' grieving is ignored. After various experiments involving characters of varyingly dubious quality, it would seem that a demon has gained possession of the rapidly degenerating Michael. Understandably, the daughters leave. Less understandably, despite Michael's frighteningly upsetting behaviour, it is a very long time before anyone comes to see what all the noise is about. By this time, the house is a bloody wreck.

This is good, quite unsettling story-telling. Events happen at a brisk pace, and we lurch with Michael, from one horrific incident to the next. Johnson is excellent throughout, and it is just as well - you do get the impression the entire film hangs on his acting at times.

During one of the hallucinatory sequences that may be a dream, a very curious thing occurs. Scenes from Richard Driscoll's notorious 2008 film 'The Legend of Harrow Woods/Evil Calls: The Raven' are inserted for no reason whatsoever. Featuring characters and events that have absolutely nothing to do with anything – which could arguably said about their context in their original surroundings – the effect is so jarring (probably because I am so familiar with the Driscoll film) that I suspected a possession on behalf of my DVD player! It is a very strange occurrence, and I would love to know why such scenes are included here – mind you, if it provides funds for a further Driscoll project, then all the better.

Director David Jung does a good job with the jump scenes, and the more subtle effects are highly successful (an ant crawling out of an eye at an unexpected moment, etc), but one gets the impression that the price paid for such slick pacing is that once King is possessed, there's nowhere for the story to go other than repeatedly perverse stunts for the unfortunate titular character.

"The Possession of Michael King" mistakes loud for scary

[samgiannn · 3/10 · 4 August 2015]

This is just one of those movies I found on Netflix that looked slightly interesting. In this sudden resurgence of the possession genre, The Possession of Michael King is just another lame entry. The Possession of Michael King concerns an atheist who is making a documentary trying to disprove the supernatural. He participates in multiple satanic rituals to show that even the darkest magic is fake, and realizes that it's actually real. And then demons. Despite its admittedly interesting premise, The Possession of Michael King is just another boring assault on the ears since every five minutes the movie decides to throw in an unnecessarily gratuitous jump scare without any sort of suspense leading up to it. I actually had to turn the volume down on my computer so low that I could barely hear the dialog. Instead of delving into the science vs religion themes presented in the first act, the film just goes straight to the satanic rituals, bodily deterioration and gross-out scares. It never really entertains, scares or gives the viewer something original and rather gives us a barrage of pointless jump scares and a been-there- done-that story. If you want an exorcism movie that does the science vs religion trope correctly, I suggest The Last Exorcism. Otherwise, stay away from this generic and dull flick.

Yes...

[lucas-scott-rodriguez · 8/10 · 15 August 2014]

Watch this one. Just another possession flick right? Nope. Hard to synopsize too much without revealing plot points, but just know that this is a "found footage" flick in the best way. No shaky hand-held stuff. The film follows a film maker that uses multiple cameras. So that gives us different angles and legitimate cinematic quality that sets this miles ahead of your average POV flick. In fact, its very rare that there are 1st person POV shots. Excellent writing. Excellent production, Excellent acting.

I gotta say - Im tired of found footage and possession stories, but I'll be damned if this doesn't prove there is still room for both if done correctly.

I cant wait to see where David Jung goes from here.

Fun ride, but doesn't stick to the rules of found footage.

[j-nickturner · 6/10 · 3 April 2020]

This was pretty good! Story plays out in a fast-paced and exciting way. The ending was kinda meh, but that's just kinda par for the course it seems. Wasn't really all that scary either. But like I said, it's fast paced and fun.

My biggest gripe is that it doesn't really stick to the rules of found footage. Lots of soundtrack music and added sound effects to build up to pretty annoying jump scares. Now if the music where "in world" or if the sound effects were "in world" (a few were but the volume was amplified for no other reason than to startle you), I wouldn't have a problem with it.

It works despite it's flaws, but it really feels more like an action movie built on horror elements... if that makes sense. All in all, I definitely think it's worth a watch.

warning to avoid

[dwuksta · 1/10 · 29 August 2014]

This review may not contain a spoiler, but I ticked it anyway. This is a cheaply made, badly acted and scripted, possible student film.

It is completely unoriginal, except for the fact that the main character purposely tries to become possessed as opposed to unknowingly. This may be because of his wife accidentally dying, but it's never made clear why, seem to be just an experiment he's performing on himself, out of depression maybe, we don't know, he seems fairly chipper in the beginning. Since when do things happen for a reason in C grade films? He has a young daughter still living with him, but he continues on his course of trying to become even more and more possessed, till he gets out of control, trashes the house, and his sister takes his kid off him. The talking was too quiet, then sound effects were way too loud and abrasive, trying to maintain their cheap 'jump' scares that always fell flat. People connected with the film have once again inflated the scoring, it's definitely a one star film, avoid this poor excuse of a movie.

I would like to offer a way it could have been better, but the story and plot were weak, the acting was weak, writing was dull, the look of the film was not consistent yet the settings were pretty much all in the house. The grave scene with the priest, that kinda went in another direction there where he was getting teeth sewn into his belly to summon the spirit of a dead corpse. Then it was back to the house for the rest of the film till its inevitable end. Please stop making this type of complete crap, conning the general public to rent or buy it, nobody in the real world would rate this stinking movie, nobody.

Not The Normal Possession Film

[Foutainoflife · 7/10 · 7 February 2019]

Michael King is a man struggling to cope with the death of his wife. He comes across as an atheist or agnostic. Atheists have faith in one thing more than anything else, when you die, that's it. There is no afterlife, no need for prayer or the practicing of religious rituals. All that is the stuff of fairy tales. Things we have come up with to help us cope with death and the stresses of day to day life. Agnostics are a bit different in that they open to the idea that something might be out there but no one knows what it is and all the religions in the world attest to that. Therefore the practicing of religion is pointless. (This is my understanding of these ideals and if I have misspoken, please forgive me. I'm in no way trying to be disrespectful towards anyone or their beliefs.) Between the two, I would say that Michael is an atheist.

Michael is a man who is extremely agitated with all forms spirituality and he has taken the position that it is directly associated to his wife's death. He has decided to expose the fraudulence in the practices of religion and spirituality by recording himself performing the most powerful and dark rituals. He is smug, arrogant and condescending in his approach but before long things start to go bad and he becomes a threat to his young daughter who he has vowed to protect.

At least for me, this is a different approach. Most possession films fall into one of two distinct categories. One being a random possession of someone innocent and the other being an accidental possession of someone naively playing around with dark rituals, seances or ouija boards, things of that nature. Having someone knowingly beg for possession or proof in this manner is a fresh take for me and I like that.

I thought the story was interesting and for the most part, it was scripted and acted well. The special effects and CGI stuff was just okay for me. I thought they were a bit over done in a way that took away from a more realistic and frightening look. This was much more personal look into a possession experience and I liked that.

This doesn't rise to the levels of being as good as films like The Exorcist or The Exorcism of Emily Rose but this is a lower budgeted film. For lower budget, I thought this was a decent movie. If you like possession horror check this out. Just keep in mind that it's not big budget or top notch and simply enjoy it for what it is.

Well done!

[hannah0820 · 7/10 · 11 January 2021]

I consider myself a veteran of horror flicks...great story line, well thought out! Good job