Demonic possession films centered around family are meant to stir a heightened sense of drama. When filmmakers establish family characters, presenting them in a light that allows us to connect with them, we become concerned when they are endangered by evil forces. We have seen films explore family dynamics through possession narratives, some providing a unique angle that encourages us to champion the survival of the possessed victim and their family. Behind You (the feature debut from Andrew Mecham and Matthew Whedon) wants to accomplish this, but fails due to weak writing and an overall lack of horror.
The film follows two sisters, Olivia (Addy Miller) and Claire (Elizabeth Birkner), who come to move in with their Aunt Beth (Jan Broberg) after the passing of their mother. It isn’t long though until the girls learn of the dark past that haunts Beth, as well as the demonic presence that lives within the house’s mirrors. When the demon shows interest in possessing Claire, the family, along with Beth’s past boyfriend Charles (Philip Brodie), must work together to defeat it.
As far as positives in the film, there are some interesting moments of special effects. Small signs of Claire shifting in personality (such as how her eyes dilate) are cool touches. The film also has a couple moments of tense atmosphere. And on a technical level, the cinematography is serviceable to the experience.
Where Behind You shows issues is in its writing (and somewhat the acting). In general, much of the film’s dialogue is awkward in its efforts to convey seriousness; numerous lines are delivered devoid of feeling or just generally come across goofy. You can tell the actors are doing their best with the script, though some of the acting is a little stiff.
Beth and Charles are both serviceable to the narrative (though Beth can be a little hit or miss when it comes to serious moments). It is Olivia and Claire that make for the weakest characters. Which is ironic, given that they are the central characters the film wants you to feel for.
Both Claire and Olivia are super flat when it comes to acting and personality. Neither ever develops in any unique way, with Claire only meant to be present as the quiet child with a stuffed animal who eventually gets possessed. A small effort is made to convey she is grieving for her deceased mother, but this is touched upon briefly and then dismissed for the most part. There is never a genuine means to connect with her pain. That same lack of connection is also the issue with Olivia. Though she does become more active later in the film, she starts out super dull and passive. When it comes to both Olivia and Claire, we never get a sense of who these girls are; we never get a deeper sense of their past or personalities.
At certain points in the film, we see a mix of secrecy and deception coming from Beth and Charles regarding their intent towards handling the demon. In this approach, Behind You offers an intriguing family dynamic. However, when it does decide to go for sentimentality, it doesn’t come across all that sincere. We get one moment with Charles that shows how Behind You could have handled each character’s pain and past; instead though, the film spends a good deal of time ignoring that significant exploration. Again, the script appears to be the main problem here. If more depth had been provided to developing the characters and giving them more personality, we may have had more of a reason to care for them.
But maybe if there is some solid horror, one could forgive the dull characters? Well unfortunately, Behind You misses that mark as well. Along with strong uses of horror tropes (lots of “creepy” music and doors randomly opening), the film does little to provide substance to its demonic presence. When it comes to demonic possession narratives, Behind You’s story is as generic as it can be; it plays out to a narrative structure you and I have seen a hundred and one times. We are given a vague backstory to the demon, along with brief visuals of its appearance. There is nothing that truly sells the demon’s evil nature because we don’t get any sort of depth to it. It’s just an evil force that just wants to do some evil things.
This lack of depth, along with the poor character design, is what hurts the film’s efforts to convey horror. Because we have no real connection to the characters, there isn’t much reason to care; because the lore around the demon is so vague, we never obtain a real sense of concern and are left asking questions rather than feeling immersed in the story.
At the heart of the film, one can see the desire to present an intimate story about family striving to survive against evil; in the end, though, that emotional core just can’t hold up. Besides some interesting special effects and moments of atmosphere, Behind You makes for a lackluster demonic possession experience.
Behind You will arrive on VOD platforms April 17, 2020.
