69) Family Possessions (2016)

Some family secrets should remain...buried.

Director

Tommy Faircloth

Cast

Leah Wiseman - Rachel Dunn

Erika Edwards - Maggie

Jason Vail - Steve Dunn

Morgan Monnig - Sarah Dunn

Andrew Wicklum - Andy Dunn

Felissa Rose - Susan

Mark Patton - Tyson

Lizzie Mears - Tristen

I pulled this movie from the part of my horror library that increased slightly thanks to a subscription to horrorpack.com. 
I recently published a post on this blog, along with a podcast on anchor.fm, regarding the large number of exorcism horror movies there are these days. I thought this movie would land in the heap of such movies.
Family Possessions is an independent supernatural horror. The word "possessions" is a bit deceptive, though. The cover art didn't help correct my assumptions.

This isn't a demonic possession story as I initially assumed; however, there is a spirit attempting to influence a person from the outside. I believe this is referred to as demonic obsession. 

Rather, "possessions" refers to items handed down from grandmother to grandchild. It sure fooled me. 

Family Possessions, based on an allegedly true story, centers on a young girl named Rachel Dunn (Leah Wiseman) whose grandmother recently passed away. Rachel inherits her grandmother's house instead of her father. Both she and her father are a bit confused as to why his mother left her the house and all its possessions instead of her son.

Per her grandmother's wishes,  her family - parents Sarah (Morgan Monnig) and Steve (Jason Veil) and younger brother, Andy (Andrew Wicklum) - can live in the house as long as Rachel is living under the roof, too. If she decides to move out, as she is preparing to go to college, the house is to be liquidated and all money must be donated to charity. 

As the family moves into the new home, and tries to settle into the new town, they're treated rather coldly by locals. 

Rachel can't help feeling trapped by her new acquisitions. She wants to start asserting her independence, but feels owning a home is a heavy weight she doesn't want to bear.

Her parents are struggling in their marriage as well and that's weighing on her and Andy. 

Rachel heads out to look for a new job in the small community. She meets Maggie (Erika Edwards) during her walk into town to apply at a cafe with a "help wanted" sign. 

Maggie seems a bit odd at first but takes a liking to Rachel. Maggie also acts apprehensive towards the fact that Rachel moved into that specific house.

Erika Edwards (left) and Leah Wiseman.

They both walk to the cafe where the manager Tyson (played by horror icon Mark Patton - A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge) and mean barista girl Tristen (Elizabeth Mears) are cold and condescending to both girls. 

Rachel also meets Kevin (Michael David Wilson) as she fills out the employment application. He owns a club right next door, and offers her a job. The two fall in love, which later arouses jealousy in Tristen.

She and Tyson also ridicule Rachel for moving into the new house. It's clear that the house and her grandma have a less than savory reputation in the community. 

Rachel also begins noticing paranormal occurrences inside the home, which she dismisses as insignificant. 

But Maggie informs Rachel about what the locals thought of her late grandma as they believed she was an actual witch. Meanwhile, Andy also beginnings noticing ghostly goings-on, even catching a frightening glimpse of his dead grandmother.

Maggie, who lives with her verbally abusive alcoholic mother Susan (played by another icon of horror cinema, Felissa Rose - Sleepaway Camp) borrows a book of spells, written by grandma, which Rachel found in the attic. 

Maggie learns as much as she can about the grandmother, the house, and why she left it to Rachel instead of her own son. 

This leads Rachel to some hard truths about her grandmother, and what her intentions were with her granddaughter.

While Family Possessions has a suspenseful buildup which kept me invested throughout, it falls flat on its face in the last act of the movie. 

The ending was one big expositional pay off. I wanted to see the haunting bubble over into something frightening and unreal. Rather, it fizzled out with a lot of talk and little to no action.

This began getting serious with a twist in the second act. And when it comes to story telling, there's a solid rule that needs to be followed. Show! Don't tell. 

The writers for Family Possessions broke that rule like a clueless rebel. I understand that, perhaps, some exposition would have been necessary to a point. Still, there's room for a horrific, scary last act.  It was building up throughout, after all.  

Mark Patton in Family Possessions - his first role in 31 years.

In one scene, Tyson finds himself trapped in the kitchen of the cafe, staring at someone off screen as the audiences see a hand clutching a knife that's just about to be come down on him. It slices into his wrist, and a shrilling screams comes out of his mouth reminiscent of Patton's high-pitched scream as Jesse in A Nightmare on Elm Street II. 

In fact, this is Patton's first film in 31 years.

I couldn't find any articles or stories about the real events that inspired this movie. Nor did I find any reference to what those events are, or where they took place.

There's a parental theme in this movie that consists of parents lashing out at their children in some form or another. 

Maggie is verbally abused by her own mother. Steve is purposely overlooked by his mother when it came time to distributing her goods after her death. And Sarah seems to treat her son less fairly than she does Rachel. She's not cruel or abusive, but there obvious signs whom she favors more.

Family Possessions has good qualities helping it to be an intriguing horror story, especially as it claims to be based on true events. And with Mark Patton and Felissa Rose appearing in this picture, it has potential to be something fun to watch in the genre, until it deflates at the end. Show! Don't tell. How soon Family Possessions forgot this rule. And it forgot it at the end of the movie- the worst time to forget.