Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Possession of Hannah Grace Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 5, 2019

It's been more than 45 years since William Friedkin's The Exorcist perfected the "demonic possession" Horror subgenere. Many films have tried to replicate that success in that time; many have failed miserably and only a few have approached that top echelon. There's no reason to expect anything beyond "miserable" with The Possession of Hannah Grace, a film with a title that promises another genre rehash and promotional materials that suggest a copycat film in every way. Dutch Director Diederik Van Rooijen, working from a script written by Brian Sieve, best known for his work on the Scream television series, crafts a film that largely shies away from a total embrace of genre trope, teasing more of the same in the first minutes but building a Horror picture that is less a by-the-book jump-scare-a-thon and more of an intimate character study within chilling, close confines. The film is certainly unremarkable and unmemorable, but it is a welcome step up from the sort of empty genre filler that is understandably the baseline for movies like this these days.

A demon possessing a girl named Hannah Grace (Kirby Johnson) telekinetically impales one priest attempting to drive it from its human host and nearly strangles another. Hannah's father (Louis Herthum) suffocates his daughter's body to save the priest's life. Three months later, Hannah's body arrives at a Boston morgue. Working that overnight shift is a young recovering alcoholic named Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell, Mother's Day) who has just started the job in an effort to keep out of nightlife trouble and maintain her sobriety. She is an ex-cop who lost her partner in the line of duty a year ago and has struggled with the personal ramifications ever since. Megan notices various inconsistencies in the body and equipment begins to break down. She is also forced to keep a violent stranger out of the morgue, but it is not long before Megan realizes that Hannah's body is not like the others. Quickly, a body count mounts and Megan is forced to accept the unacceptable truth that there's a dangerous demon in her midst.

It doesn’t take but two minutes for Hannah Grace to start hitting all of the tried-and-true genre tropes: closed eyes jump open with a striking musical cue. A body contorts in painful and unusual ways while tied to a bed, accompanied by bone-breaking sounds. A priest praying for the demon to leave the possessed is lifted off his feet by some unseen force and thrown against a wall, where he is impaled through the forehead. The film might have been more effective had it forgone the generic forward and simply delivered the body to the morgue and built the background from there. Fortunately, and despite the trite open and fairly cliché finale, there’s a decently atmospheric and character-driven movie in the middle, following a young woman who is battling her own demons, demons which lead others to disbelieve her when she claims that a real demon is in their midst. Through this middle stretch a few classic moments of “fright” remind viewers that that the film is about possession, not a character drama, including a swarm of flies and a twisted demonic face suddenly appearing on screen in a flash of light, but for the most part Van Rooijen keeps the film honest, working as much towards characterization and atmosphere as reinforcing recycled genre requirements.

Much of the film's modest successes come from Van Rooijen's reserved approach in which he favors atmosphere and story over endless jump scares. He does his best to build an honest narrative rather than simply craft the movie while checking off a bunch of boxes. The nighttime morgue setting lends an appropriately creepy vibe all its own, with the cold, steely cases and the bleakly colored and undecorated walls instantly creating a feeling of death and confinement both, which are of course themselves key properties of any genre film. Add in the sparse skeleton crew to the already unsettling locale and the stage is set for a preset scare affair. Van Rooijen necessarily introduces and works through various additional and expected odds and ends as the plot dynamics require. While he doesn't go out of his way to dismiss them, he doesn't go out of his way to include them, either. Most of the scares come naturally within the story's evolution. And at a quick sub-90 minute runtime, he and Editors Stanley Kolk and Jake York keep the story moving at a quick pace that gives just the right amount of screen time to both traditional scares and the more interesting location atmosphere and character constructs. Shay Mitchell delivers a quality performance as the protagonist, building a persona from the inside out and proving equally adept at tackling her own demons while both physically and emotionally dealing with the demonic realities as they manifest throughout the night.

The Possession of Hannah Grace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Possession of Hannah Grace was digitally photographed with a prosumer-grade Sony A7S II full frame mirrorless digital camera. But that does not translate into a poor image. On the contrary, the resultant 1080p image is certainly proof of that camera's video capabilities, producing a handsome and healthy image that exhibits surprisingly little noise for a movie set in a fairly bleak and low-light location. Likewise, banding is only of minimal concern. The image is texturally sound, appearing a little flat but certainly finding the appropriate level of clarity and complexity within the morgue itself and certainly along various character and clothing details. The Hannah Grace makeup is notably manicured, with the prosthetic wounds and burns appearing tangibly grotesque and authentic. Colors fare well. The primary location is limited to shades of blue and gray and metallic, for the most part. There's not much intense color beyond a few standout examples, like blue gloves, the yellow safety bars on Randy's EMT jacket sleeve, and of course red blood. Skin tones appear accurate within the image's lower light and deliberately bland context. Black levels and shadow detail, critical to the movie's visual tone, are handled very well. This is a very good presentation from Sony.

The Possession of Hannah Grace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Possession of Hannah Grace scares up a well-rounded DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The morgue setting yields some enticing sound effects, compliments of quality sound engineering that takes full advantage of the location's acoustics. There's often very good, positive depth to various effects, from crashes and bone-crunching convulsions to less dynamic but no less sonically enticing elements, such as when a shellshocked Megan bounces a rubber band ball against a wall towards film's end. The stage feels frequently full with surrounds seamlessly and regularly engaged in support of both prominent and subtle effects and with the subwoofer adding just the right level of appropriate depth in support. Lighter but mood-critical environmental effects help give a realistic sonic signature to the morgue location during more standard character and plot building scenes. Music enjoys fruitful fidelity, width, some surround integration, and a healthy low end support. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized from a natural front-center position.

The Possession of Hannah Grace Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Possession of Hannah Grace contains three featurettes and a deleted scene. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. The release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• The Killer Cast (1080p, 6:31): Cast and crew discuss character details and performances.
• An Autopsy of Hannah (1080p, 6:36): A closer look at the Hannah Grace makeup and Kirby Johnson's performance of the title character.
• Megan's Diaries (1080p): Fictional video logs featuring the title character talking about what's going on at work. Included are Night One (0:50) and Night Two (0:44).
• Deleted Scene (1080p, 0:44): I Lied to You.
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

The Possession of Hannah Grace Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Possession of Hannah Grace doesn't do anything to redefine its genre, but credit the filmmakers for at least shying away from an excess of genre sights and sounds allowing them to, for the most part, organically flow from the story rather than force them in to elicit cheap scares every few minutes. Hardly compelling, never memorable, but pleasantly satisfying in-the-moment, The Possession of Hannah Grace gets just enough right to warrant a watch and a recommendation, particularly considering Sony's Blu-ray is of good quality all-around.