The Possession of David O'Reilly DVD Movie Review
The Possession of David O'Reilly DVD Movie Review
2010 horror movie, directed by Andrew Cull and Steve Isle, starring Giles Alderson, Nicholas Shaw and Zoe Richards.
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David (Giles Alderson) has had a super stressful day. He’s just found out his beloved is cheating on him, he’s only got one friend he can turn to (college buddy Alex, played by Nicholas Shaw), he might be going insane, and… oh, yes: malevolent monster-creatures are stalking him (presumably to drink his blood, and perhaps do even worse).
The action picks up with David holed up at Alex’s impossibly dark home (note to Alex: the light bill is for paying, not making paper airplanes), much to the consternation of Alex’s live-in lady, Kate (Zoe Richards), who was looking forward to spending a quiet evening in. She goes off to bed alone, letting the two men talk – but it’s more like David ranting and Alex trying to listen but finding his friend’s pervasive paranoia more than a little off-putting. (Turns out David’s not so nutty after all, when the nasty fiends finally show up and start terrorizing everyone.)
The Possession of David O'Reilly (more aptly titled The Torment in its initial U.K. run) is a difficult film to describe; it’s sort of a cross between Paranormal Activity and Abominable, but without the cohesive storyline of either. There are an awful lot of blind corners in The Possession of David O'Reilly, with little-to-no payoff and even less resolution. There are both story, and cinematic, head-scratchers – for instance: Why show David warding off the monsters with salt, without explaining how he thinks this will work? Why film some of the movie Blair Witch style, without first introducing a handheld video camera?
Fortunately, the film is saved by good acting (Alderson is particularly watchable in his creative choices and innate likability), an interesting, old-fashioned practical monsters, multi-layered score and soundcape, plus some very well-directed scenes (even if those scenes don’t exactly make sense, they are spooky).
The Possession of David O'Reilly is worth watching once, but not worth possessing.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson