The Demonic Possession

The Demonic Possession is a 2017 supernatural drama film written and directed by Ifan Barber. It stars Kata Mara, Ian McKellen, Jenna Coleman, Casey Affleck and Maisie Williams with Cate Blanchett and Ifan Barber. It premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and was released worldwide later that year.

Plot
In 1917, a seance by a poor war-torn family to contact their deceased patriarch drags a demonic spirit into the mortal realm and possesses the youngest child, to which the entire family is oblivious, apart from the elderly catholic grandmother. After multiple exorcisms, she frees her grandson from the demonic spirit and traps it in a vase and hides it in the attic, dying shortly after.

In 2007, the eldest child is now a grandfather himself, with no recollection of the events of his youth. He dies peacefully and leaves the house he was born in and all its possessions to his granddaugher, Veronica (Kate Mara). With the help of her psychic-medium mother Caroline (Cate Blanchett), brother Matthew (Ifan Barber) and husband Jackson (Casey Affleck) he begins to clear the house, once the entire house is emptied they reach the attic, which has been sealed for 70 years. Jackson cracks it open and with the force of opening the entrance, the attic floor violently shakes and a vase falls and smashes. Jackson becomes possessed with the spirit that possessed Veronica and Matthew's grandfather years previously.

At the funeral, Veronica becomes distressed by Jackson's odd behaviour since cleaning the attic. The couple have two children, a 10 year old girl and a 7 year old boy. After the funeral concludes, Veronica decides to speak to their pastor, an elderly English vicar Horace (Ian McKellen), who is accompanied by his granddaughters Beatrix (Jenna Coleman) and Helena (Maisie Williams). Horace shows an interest in the situation, but being an avid historian, Beatrix shows her doubts and tells her grandfather of the acts of one of Horace's predecessors, a catholic priest who performed an unlicensed exorcism on Veronica's grandfather 70 years previously. However, his curiosity gets the best of him and he agrees to meet Jackson.

At the wake, Horace arrives with Veronica and notices Jackson twitching in the corner, he takes him to another room and they speak together. Jackson discusses the pain he's feeling in his chest before the demon overtakes him and brutally murders Horace, draining his soul in the process, Veronica and Beatrix walk in just as the demon is returning into his human state and Jackson is later arrested for murder after a skeptical Helena calls the police after finding her grandfather's corpse, despite Veronica and Beatrix's protests that a higher being had carried out the attack.

Beatrix continues her research into the records of the unlicensed exorcism while Veronica and her mother visit Jackson in prison. He tells his side of the story while Veronica records the conversation, but Caroline has a vision and witnesses the possession of her father 70 years previously, she notes several details and even the demon's name, Abaddon, but once she comes through, she forgets the vision. They leave Jackson and promise to free him soon.

Once they leave and Jackson is returned to his cell, one of the guards begins to harass him for allegedly murdering a pastor. The demon, who feeds off negative energy, releases itself and brutally kills the guard and traps his soul. It escapes the prison and attempts to draw multiple other demonic spirits from the beyond.

Caroline, while sleeping, returns to the exorcism and immediately begins to sleep walk, she slits her wrist and begins writing the demon's name in blood. When she wakes up, Veronica insists on taking her to hospital, but seeing the name on the wall, Caroline instead insists on returning to prison instead.

When they arrive, they're joined by Beatrix, Helena and Matthew. They're told by a warden that Jackson has escaped. Caroline reveals to Beatrix and Helena that the demon possessing Jackson is Abaddon, one of the knights of hell. Helena reveals that there is only one way to destroy a knight of hell, and it is by drenching him in holy water.

While Beatrix and Helena return to the church to collect the holy water, they find Jackson/Abaddon has opened a portal at the altar to drag demons from the beyond into the mortal coil. Beatrix contacts Veronica and she, Caroline and Matthew soon arrive. Veronica takes a vial of holy water and walks up to the altar and tries speaking to Jackson, reminding him of their children and their marriage. Abaddon turns back into Jackson's form and turns to Veronica, just as he goes to strike her, she throws holy water over him and he bursts into flames, his spirit flying into the vial. The portal seals and Jackson's ashes fall to the ground. A heartbroken Veronica collects Jackson's ashes and returns home to the children. She vows that the children must never know the truth of their father's demise and as she heads bed that evening, she opens the door and screams, leaving her fate unknown.

Cast
Kate Mara as Veronica

Casey Affleck as Jackson/Abaddon

Ian McKellen as Horace

Jenna Coleman as Beatrix

Maisie Williams as Helena

Cate Blanchett as Caroline

Ifan Barber as Matthew

Development
The Demonic Possession started as novella written by Grant Chester in 1962, New Line Cinema bought the rights to the novella in 2014, shortly after Chester's death, and Ifan Barber began developing a script in early 2015.

Pre-Production
Pre-Production began in mid 2015 and Ifan Barber was confirmed as a director in June 2015. Later that month, Kate Mara and Casey Affleck's were cast as the film's leads. Acclaimed actors Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett joined the cast in secondary roles soon after, joined by Jenna Coleman and Maisie Williams. Ifan Barber confirmed he would star in a supporting role.

Filming
Principal photography began in Pennsylvania in October 2015 and concluded 2 months later in December. Unlike many films, the film was shot in chronological order. The church featured in the film is located just outside Philadelphia.

Post-Production
The film was in post-production in March 2016 and around 19 - 25 minutes of footage was dropped, primarily from the films prologue sequence set in 1917. After positive test screenings, the final version of the film was locked in July 2016, set for an early 2017 festival premiere at Sundance followed by a worldwide release in April.

Marketing
The first promotional imagery was released in November 2015 and featured most of the primary cast at the church. It was followed by a short teaser trailer in January 2016, kicking off the film's marketing campaign. In the weeks leading up to the film's release, many of the cast did an international promotional tour, appearing at junkets, conventions and talk shows to discuss the film.

Theatrical Release
New Line Cinema released The Demonic Possession on April 14th 2017 worldwide.

Home Media
The film was made available on DVD, Blu Ray and digital download from October 22nd 2017 onwards. It was released on Netflix in the US and the UK the following week.

Box Office
The Demonic Possession grossed $139.7 million in North America and $188.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $328.3 million, against a budget of $17 million.

Critical Response
The Demonic Possession received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 88% approval rating, based on 202 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.2/10. The site's consensus reads, "Well-crafted and refreshingly creepy, The Demonic Possession ratchets up dread through a series of effective old-school scares alongside an interesting new take on the horror genre." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film an "A-" grade on a scale of A to F, with critics noting the creepiness of the storyline as well as the attention to detail of the 2007 setting.

The Demonic Repossession
A sequel, titled The Demonic Repossession was announced shortly after the commercial success of the original film. It was confirmed it would take place 10 years after the previous, and Veronica's children would be the protagonists, with the plot addressing the end of the original film. Kate Mara and Cate Blanchett would return in supporting roles. Ifan Barber would return to direct and write, but not star. The film has a release date of March 2019.

Untitled Third Film
A Third film, currently untitled, was confirmed by New Line shortly after the confirmation of the second. Ifan Barber will return to write and direct once again, the cast will remain unconfirmed until the release of the second film to avoid potential spoilers.

Abaddon
New Line Cinema confirmed a Supernatural Wartime movie set within the same universe featuring the original film's antagonist, the demon Abaddon. Production began in early 2018 and is scheduled for a late 2018 release. Ifan serves as a producer, while James Wan writes and directs. A sequel, set shortly before the events of The Demonic Possession, was confirmed in early 2019.