These kinds of possession movies really haven't gone very far since The Omen and The Exorcist. It's hard to come up with a fresh take on it, and that's why not too many possession movies stray very far from their roots. Well, you need to introduce this kind of movie to the modern audience with more sophisticated tastes and relatively limited attention spans, so let's cut down the scenes with priests and stuff, and let's give them what they really want: found footage!
I hate found footage style movies. Maybe it was because one once punched me in the nose, or it might be because they are a cheap way of making movies that really kind of suck, but the audience is a willing participant in ignoring the flaws held within. So, you have the obsessed guy who has something to prove, so he carries a camera around with him everywhere, installs cameras all over his house, and most people don't even really question him about it.
This camera obsessed guy is dealing with his wife having died in the only sane, rational way a man could - by confronting every purveyor of supernatural goods and challenging them to curse him, summon a demon, or do whatever they think they can to illicit a response from the "other side." As his infatuation increases, supernatural beings start to take hold, and he finds himself having to try to prove what is happening to the few people in his life that he hasn't alienated. It's all standard fare for this kind of ride.
I would say that this movie is slightly better than other efforts, but that doesn't make it a good movie. Compared to the debacle that was Devil's Due, most movies are starting off on the right foot. This movie had an underlying theme, tried to build on it, and tried to get some creepiness factor going. It wasn't all that creepy, and it really was never scary, but it tried.
They went with reliable old tricks like jump scares, live video that turns into a demon-faced guy laughing menacingly at the hero, a creepy bug that shows up again and again no matter how many times you kill it, a guy carving stuff in his own skin, loud screaming coming from nowhere, unhappy pets, junk strewn all over the lining room, bloody hand prints, and ruined family dinners.
Turns out, tricks only get you so far. You eventually need more substance than that, and this movie just didn't have enough of it. Instead, it relied on these tricks. These tired, old tricks. It wasn't the worst movie of this type, but it surely wasn't the best.
Direction was not good
Acting was okay
Story was bland
Dialogue was pretty bad
Effects were okay
Editing was not great
Bottom Line: If it happens to be on TV, and you literally have nothing else to do, it's not completely terrible.
1.25/5