The Possession of Hannah Grace - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Possession of Hannah Grace

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Supernatural horror flicks are a dime a dozen, with greats like The Exorcist, and a million rip offs and sequels (The Exorcist II is widely considered one of the worst horror movies of all time for a reason), and The Possession of Hannah Grace isn’t going to blow your socks off either. But on the other hand, it does have some nifty twists to the story line that changes it from your typical exorcism type flick and instead almost morphs it into a demonic monster movie. Something which actually caught my attention during the film, and the more I think about it, a rather inventive move in an otherwise stale genre.

Most possession films END the film with the obligatory exorcism of the demon (with mixed results depending on how they want to end the movie), but The Possession of Hannah Grace OPENS up with the movie’s only exorcism. A botched one at that as the demon inside of young Hannah Grace (Kirby Johnson, an actual contortionist and dancer) twists refuses to leave. In an effort to stem the demonic possession, her father (Louis Herthum) smothers her to death. The film then segues over to our ACTUAL main character, an ex-cop who is suffering from addiction issues after allowing her partner to die a few years back named Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell). Megan is taking up a job at Boston Metro Hospital as their over night morgue attendant. Part of the reason is to get out of the slump she’s in, and part of the reason is so that as an ex addict she can stay away from the allure of the drug/alcohol infused nightlife that entraps so many ex users back into the fold.

Things start to get a bit weird when Megan accepts the body of a young girl who is badly burnt and mutilated (we can already guess that it’s Hannah Grace), and things only get weirder as the night goes on. First mechanical instruments start to malfunction. The camera won’t work, and even her finger print scanner fails at the computer. As Megan struggles to keep her panic and mental issues under control, she starts to doubt her own sanity as the body of Hannah slowly starts to change. Scars are vanishing, wounds healing, and Megan SWEARS she is seeing things out of the corner of her eye. As the night continues on Megan has to face her own fears and demons in order to fight one that is slowly regenerating itself to it’s original powers and very well may continue on with a reign of terror that has been unprecedented.

The Possession of Hannah Grace uses the typical jump scares and “boo!” moments that we all know from these demonic possession movies. Flickering lights allows for characters to move forward in startling locations, we see glimpses of things out of the corner of our eyes, and the internal demon somehow is pretty much super powered in the young girl. What makes the film a little bit unique is HOW the story line is structured. As I mentioned above, the only exorcism in the film takes place at the beginning of the movie, and is an utter failure. What takes place is almost like a supernatural monster movie, with Hannah slowly munching and crunching her way through victims left and right (for some reasons always sparing Megan), becoming stronger and more powerful as she gets older.

As fun as this is, the concept is a bit repetitious as this type of movie has already been done before with the MUCH better Autopsy of Jane Doe (which was actually my first review on AV NIRVANA if I remember correctly). Shay Mitchell does a really decent job as Megan, and Hannah’s background as a contortionist really sells the creepy little girl aspect without resorting to too much CGI. We even get a brief role from Stana Katic (of Castle fame), but overall The Possession of Hannah Grace is a middling supernatural horror movie with a few neat twists.




Rating:

Rated R for gruesome images and terror throughout




Video:

While I can fault Sony for their taste in producing films at times, I can almost never fault them for their day and date Blu-ray and 4K releases. The Possession of Hannah Grace comes to Blu-ray with a stunning 2.39:1 framed AVC encode that just shines in every aspect. There’s a few light shiny spots in the film, but 99% of the movie takes place underground, at night, in the middle of a morgue, so rest assured that this is a DARK movie. Black levels are inky black at all times (I only noticed a flicker of banding once and that was only about 2-3 seconds of the entire movie) and the colors are sterile and deeply blue tinged due to the lighting. Clarity is still spot on though, and you can see quite a few details in the lab, as well as the creases and lines on Stana Katic’s face (I forgot how long it’s been since she started Castle). There’s some mild black crush, but nothing too egregious, and overall this is a fantastic looking Blu-ray for a low budget horror movie.







Audio:

The audio for a horror movie is always a key element in the story (sometimes it MAKES the story a bit more palatable) and Sony once again delivers the goods with a rock solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA track to enjoy. It’s powerful, bassy, and very aggressive when Hannah starts hunting down her victims for sure. The underground morgue is a bit quiet at times, but you can hear all of the little background clinks and hums of fluorescent lights throughout the background channels. Surrounds are used quite actively with those ambient noises, as well as the use of the creepy score. It’s not a wildly unique track, but Sony checks off all the proper boxes to make a fully engaging horror track that really is a blast to listen to.







Extras:

• Deleted Scene
• An Autopsy of Hannah
• Megan's Diaries
• Killer Cast

Final Score:
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The Possession of Hannah Grace is a fairly “paint by the numbers” horror film in regards to the actual scares, but making it a sort of supernatural monster movie as well kind of added a nice flair to it. However, when all is said and done it feels like a ripoff of The Autopsy of Jane Doe (which is not horrible, as that was an amazingly fun horror film). Sony’s technical specs are fantastic though, with amazing audio and video, but a decidedly meager list of extras to fill out the home video package. While a bit repetitious comparatively, The Possession of Hannah Grace is pretty decent for a rental, which is what my recommendation will be at.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Shay Mitchell, Grey Damon, Kirby Johnson, Nick Thune, Louis Herthum, Stana Katic, Jacob Ming-Trent, Marianne Bayard
Directed by: Diederik Van Rooijen
Written by: Brian Sieve
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1, AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Hindi, Hungarian, Polish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, Turkish
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 86 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: February 26th, 2019

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out once available on netflix/amazon prime.

 

[Asere]

Thanks for the review. I will read your review after I watch it to avoid spoilers since you mentioned a twist.