"The Possessed" is a really old and clichéd slasher film with a few redeeming qualities.
**SPOILERS**
After the death of their lead singer Cassidy, (Kacia Brady) remaining band members Victor, (Edwin Lachenaumer) Donnie, (Jeff Van Atta) and Neal, (Jason Dibler) along with new singer Dora, (Jill Small) decide to finish her last record. Staying at the recording studio with workers Rex, (Jon Christian) and Madison, (Amanda Carraway) they begin completing the album. When they start to disappear one-by-one, they realize that a killer is locked in the studio with them. When they realize that the killer is one of them, they struggle to stay alive and escape from the studio.
The Good News: Even though there isn't a whole lot here that's great about it, there's still a couple positive notes here. The kills in here do resort to having some gore in the film, and there is some nice blood flow from them. The fingers being bitten off looks pretty nice, the several stabbings always have some blood around the entry wound, and the fact that several of the victims are killed by having parts bitten off makes for some good gore scenes. Bite marks appear on the face, neck, chest and other parts in that area, and they do look pretty nice. The real gore highlight, though, is the discovery of one victim inside a bathtub with slash marks, stab wounds and more, all inside a blood-stained tub with some more all along the walls. It's a real sight to see, even if only fleetingly. The other cool thing about the film is the location. The locked-off, closed down recording studio setting gives it a great ambiance and a feeling of isolation. Other than these two factors, there isn't a whole lot of other factors in here that's worthwhile.
The Bad News: There is a whole lot wrong with this one. The major one is that there isn't a whole lot that happens in here. The action scenes are few and far between, and aren't very spectacular when they occur. All of them are pretty lackluster, and have almost no suspense or tension involved at all. They just sort of happen with nothing really memorable about them. This extends to the kills as well. While they are pretty gory, there's nothing that makes them stand out at all. All of them are delivered with a ho-hum style and all that occurs is stuff that's been done before. Bitings, some stabbings, and a gunshot comprise the majority of the deaths on-screen, the rest aren't on-screen. That they have to have the kills off-screen is a really big cheat, and it makes the movie a little more intolerable. With the low body-count in here to begin with, having off-screen deaths is a major error that doesn't really have any purpose. The main fault is that there's simply no action at all. There's no chasing, no stalking, just having the characters die off and that's it. That leads most of the film to have long conversations to fill up time, and with the lack of great kills and no suspense, the film is just one long bore-fest. With these two factors, they hamper the film the most. With these in tow, there's not a lot about this one to like.
The Final Verdict: With a lot of very wrong things in here and only small redeeming factors, there isn't a lot to like in here. It's really only recommended to the most hardcore slasher fans around, while the other horror fans will find this boring.
Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and some drug use
