It invariably happens in the horror genre: a concept that produces wildly positive results (or so the box office says) gets Xeroxed to death until people get sick of it. Then that concept is carried on even further by the low-budget filmmakers in an attempt to cash in on the “so bad that it’s good even though we’re sick of it” crowd. BUT! What if you mix TWO themes that have been done to death and throw them on the screen? Because that’s what Writer/Director David Jung has done with his film, The Possession Of Michael King. And the results? Definitely better than what you’d expect.

Michael King (Shane Johnson) is an atheist and documentary filmmaker. The dude’s pretty happy, until his wife Samantha (Cara Pifko) is struck and killed by a car. Overcome by grief, Michael decides to dedicate his new documentary to the proof that there are no such things as God or the Devil, and that there is no afterlife. To do this, King volunteers himself to be a guinea pig for demonologists and witchcraft practitioners to attempt to put some bad juju on Michael. Michael at first exposes some people for frauds, but unfortunately for Michael, one ritual results in him gaining a buddy inside his body. The new resident decides that the rest of Michael’s family needs to join Samantha, leaving Michael to battle his demon for control.

Right off the bat, the question of how Shane Johnson handles the brunt of the work in this film as our protagonist is answered pretty clearly with his grief-stricken monologue about religion in today’s society. It’s reflective and far more meaningful than your cliched angst-ridden response, and it provides a much stronger basis for Michael’s motivations than the typical reasons you’d find from certain people on YouTube. On top of that, Johnson displays a great acting spectrum: going from your skeptical, happy family man to your morose, hurt individual to finally your maniacal, tortured soul begging for death. Combine that with Johnson doing body contortions and snapping between one emotional extreme to the next, and it’s quite disturbing. As a unique twist throughout all of this, we get an adult male character being the subject of possession. It’s not a common thing to happen in horror, as that’s usually reserved for those character archetypes that are considered “weaker”, like women and children.

Okay, I’ll take my academic hat off. Seriously though, it’s a nice change, and Johnson gives a great performance.

Despite Johnson being the de facto star of the film, the supporting cast does an admirable job of being more than just background. Both Tobias Jelinek and Cullen Douglas turn in believable performances as a Satanist-turned-priest and a mortician who practices necromancy. The two roles could’ve given way to over-the-top theatrics, but are played straight and reserved, which heightens the unnerving mood during their scenes. Likewise, Dale Dickey’s turn as the fraud psychic could’ve been another exaggerated throwaway role, but the scene is played with such uncomfortable tension (thanks to Johnson’s calm yet direct criticism of her act) that you almost feel sorry for her. Great stuff by Jung to get his actors on the same page and clicking.

Unfortunately, Jung does have a lapse in keeping with the idea of the film being a documentary, with certain shots that are impossible to explain with the absence of cameras in the scene to capture said shots, or the editing of other shots. Although one could say that this was done purposely to give way to the storytelling, it does beg the question of why the documentary theme was used in the first place if in the end you end up cheating it? Also, the film does lose a bit at the end when it starts getting bogged down with night-vision shots of Michael being possessed and a “seen it before” ending. Thankfully, the film realizes this and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome with a brief 75-minute runtime. Finally, much of the jump scares are accompanied by loud ‘stings’, which while unexpected, quickly turned annoying and took away from the actual scares.

In spite of the missteps, Jung has crafted a disturbing and very unsettling film. Johnson’s performance is one that mixes shades of Jack Torrence with Reagan MacNeil, and does it’s job of scaring you. The mixing of the documentary style filming with the possession theme works really well, even if Jung at times does cheat it. Bottom-line, The Possession of Michael King is one film you should definitely see, even if you’re sick of the two genres that it mixes. It’s a remarkable debut with scares and enough disturbing content that definitely bears watching.