DVD Review: The Possession of David O’Reilly
The Possession of David O’Reilly (2010)
Studio: MPI Home Video
Release Date: November 16, 2010
Directed By: Andrew Cull & Steve Isles.
Cast: Giles Anderson, Nicholas Shaw, Zoe Richards & Francesca Fowler.
Review By: Annie Riordan
Well, it’s been a week and the annual poppyseed-strudel/cookie/cake and Toblerone orange binge (known as “Christmas” to some) has come to an end. Back to work, slogging through amateurish crap and painstakingly penning reviews…because I love you.
Thankfully, The Possession of David O’Reilly is not crap. It’s a tad amateurish (in a likable way) and perhaps a bit derivative of Paranormal Activity (1 or 2, take your pick) but it tries its very best to be the best it can be within its limited budget.
Our story takes place entirely within the confines of a London flat which cannot be called “squalid” but which has most certainly begun its gradual and inevitable decline into squalidity. For now, however, it’s perfect for young married couple Kate and Alex, a pair who enjoy the simple pleasures of take-away dinners and late night telly. But their happy, comfortable routine is soon interrupted by Alex’s old college mate David, a troubled young man whose resemblance to Crispin Glover in both facial structure and nervous twitches is unnerving at best and downright distracting at worst.
David has left his cheating girlfriend and needs a place to crash. Being the kindhearted couple they are, Kate and Alex offer up their couch without hesitation. But what seems like a run-of-the-mill sleepover soon turns weird, with weird soon giving way to alarming and alarming quickly being overtaken by horrifying. The row with his girlfriend is only part of the reason David has fled his home. It seems he is being stalked by some very grotesquely twisted creatures who look like they were birthed in Silent Hill before defecting across the pond. There is nowhere David can hide. Wherever he goes, they find him. Now they’re creeping around outside of Kate and Alex’s place.
Or are they? After catching David sleepwalking in their bedroom, Kate becomes dubious about allowing him to remain another night. David is clearly not right. He’s paranoid, sleep deprived and is becoming increasingly hostile. Indeed, he is a man possessed, but by demons or insanity?
The biggest problem I had with this movie was the age-old argument of: “Why the fuck don’t you people just get out of the house?” It’s not as though David is holding them hostage. Not at first, anyway. They had plenty of opportunities to cut and run through the front door, but instead they linger and agonize over what to do and fail to call anyone for advice/assistance/help. And though everyone here seems very much at ease in their roles and present believable characterizations, at times the exchanges of dialogue seemed either overly rehearsed or ad-libbed in a panic.
Those are my two biggest gripes with the film. Other than that, it’s quite impressive for a zero-budget, no-name effort. The creature effects are – to quote from Lovecraft’s archaic file – squamous and noisome, squishing about unpleasantly and producing unsettling sounds which I can only compare to the torture of a harbor seal in a machine shop. There’s lots of splashy blood and things writhing in the gloom. All it lacked was Marilyn Manson crouching in a corner, singing about the beautiful people.
Giles Anderson as the possessed David really hollows his character out and crawls inside. David is far more frightening than any of the monsters that his psyche could ever produce, and Anderson does a balls-out, bang-up job of bringing that character to life. He’s a sniveling wreck, a slap-worthy whiner and a truly frightening psychotic. David’s descent isn’t so much a decline as it is a revelation of just how disturbed he’s always been, and how scary-good he is at hiding it when need be. He really is the sort of guy you wouldn’t think twice about allowing in to crash on your sofa. And that’s precisely what makes this true horror.
You think about that the next time your buddy/BFF drops by to sleep it off. And think about giving this a view when you get tired of watching stupid teens getting knifed off by a masked killer with no motivation.
