An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2018’s The Possession of Hannah Grace
Troubled Ex-cop Megan Reed starts a new job working the overnight shift at a hospital’s morgue meanwhile the hospital intakes a young woman who died during an exorcism and may still be possessed. Hint: She totally is.
Is it Scary?
The Possession of Hannah Grace is more creepy than scary. The movie focuses more on the character development of Megan Reed creating more of a slow burn than a jump-scary movie. There are still a few jump scares but nothing major.
Detailed Plot:
The movie opens with the exorcism of a young woman named Hannah, who is tied to a bed in a badly lit church attic. In attendance are a couple of priests and her father, and it gets pretty exorcism-y pretty quick.
One of the priests tosses holy water on the flailing Hannah while the other aggressively reads from the bible causing Hannah to scream out in pain. Her father then sits on the bed and tries to reach out to Hannah telling her to fight it. For a moment it appears to work but then the movie wouldn’t be a thing so it doesn’t.
Also while he’s talking to Hannah, the priests stop the exorcism for some reason which I’m pretty sure allows this to happen moments later.
Using some demonic powers, Hannah launches one priest across the room, impaling a sharp spike through his forehead. She then lifts the other priest and starts to force choke him. Her father then decides enough is enough and takes a nearby pillow smothering his daughter to death.
We then see a fly land on Hannah’s hand causing it to twitch slightly, then BAM title card and time jump!
Three months later we open on our main character, Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell), in the middle of a workout, wailing on a punching bag. She then stops and stares blankly at it, telling us she’s going through something, and in case you didn’t get that subtext, we then see her stare at a picture of her, as a cop, with what appears to have been her partner. Clearly, something has happened that left her partner dead.
We next see Megan standing outside of Boston Metro Hospital looking like she’s planning a heist.
In reality, Megan is here to meet with her nurse friend, Lisa (Stana Katic), who has set her up with a job in the hospital. The next scene is a bit of a background exposition dump on Megan and her new job as she interviews and tours the hospital with her potential new boss, Dr. Lewis.
It appears Megan is no longer a cop due to some “issues” that made her leave the force. We also find out the job she is applying for is an overnight job in the morgue and that the last 3 people who worked there in the last 6 months all quit.
Megan gets the job easily in what is probably the easiest interview since Dr. Lewis basically just shows her how to use the machines and tells her she starts the following day.
As far as her new workspace, it appears to be almost the entire basement of the damn hospital, no one can get in or out without a security card, most of the lights are on sensors, and the intake bay is only for drop-offs with Dr. Lewis making it clear she is not allowed to leave the bay area.
We cut to opening credits for some reason, ten minutes into the movie. We see scenes of Megan out on an aggressive run (we get it, she’s going through some things) while the body of Hannah appears to be getting photographed on an autopsy table.
Cut to Megan arriving on her first night on the job meeting with security, specifically with one of the guards, Dave (Max McNamara), who awkwardly introduces himself.
A little while later Megan is doing some data entry in her little office and the lights go out due to the sensors, she gets out of her booth and waves her hands to turn on the lights. I’m sure this process won’t lead to some conveniently scary scenes later.
An unnecessarily loud bell (jump scare) then sounds and we hear an electronic voice telling her there is someone at the intake bay. At the intake bay, two paramedics deliver a body as Megan ominously stares at the hall lights that have turned off due to the timer.
Megan does the intake procedures, taking pictures of the body, fingerprinting, and then entering them in the police database. There’s a quick jump scare when Dave pops up from behind one of the morgue lockers, which Megan yells at him for. Dave genuinely apologizes for scaring her saying he didn’t intend it but what did he think would happen?
We then see Megan back in her booth starting a rubber band ball. In the next scene, the rubber band ball is larger showing us a considerable amount of time has passed in the same night so it’s time for the spooky shit to start.
Megan leaves the bathroom and while walking down the hallway sees a man with his back turned toward her. She yells out to him and it’s revealed he’s a hallucination. Turns out those issues Dr. Lewis didn’t ask Megan about earlier include post-traumatic stress, including hallucinations, of the day her partner died in a shootout. We don’t get much more information at the moment except some flashes of a flashback in a red hue.
Megan runs to her booth and contemplates taking some pills (medication?) before she decides not to. We then see a flashback of Megan in an addiction anonymous-type group where we find out through more flashbacks that her partner was shot and killed by a man they stopped.
Megan had her gun out but didn’t pull the trigger in time to save her partner, this led her to develop an alcohol and pill addiction. Afterward, in the flashback, another cop, Andrew (Grey Damon) who we later find out is her ex-boyfriend, consoles her as paramedics take her partner’s body away.
Back in the present, the following morning, Andrew picks up some items he left and we learn her addictions pushed him away, forcing him to move out.
That night, while at work, Megan gets an alert to the intake bay but doesn’t see an ambulance. In a jump scare, a stranger pops out, stating he forgot his ID and wants to be let in. Since Megan isn’t an idiot she doesn’t let the hooded stranger in regular clothes trying to come in through the back door, into the building.
A few minutes later a paramedic, Randy (Nick Thune), arrives at the intake bay and asks for Megan’s help to get the body out of the ambulance since he’s on his own. Megan at first refuses because of the rules, but Randy convinces her to fuck them rules, in a nice way.
Megan agrees to help and, unsurprisingly, while she helps pull the body out of the ambulance we see the stranger sneak into the hospital through the now open door.
Turns out the half-burnt body Randy is dropping off is Hannah dun dun DUN. But Hannah has been through some stuff since we last left her, Randy tells Megan, the police found Hannah as her killer was still in the middle of slashing her. She had also been poisoned and had her head smashed in which is totally not the suffocation death we saw Hannah go through at the start of the movie.
Randy leaves and Megan attempts to fingerprint and take pictures of Hannah but all the machines start to malfunction.
With no other option, Megan attempts to put Hannah’s body into the morgue locker but glass items from a tray nearby, rattle and drop to the ground breaking into pieces. Megan cuts herself on one of the glass pieces, slides Hannah into a locker, and tends to her wound. As she wraps up her cut, the locker Hannah was in, opens.
Seeing nothing weird, Megan brushes off the clearly weird incident. She then logs into the police database using Andrew’s credentials and looks up Hannah’s ID. She realizes that Hannah in the morgue locker has one brown and one blue eye but the picture in her ID only has brown eyes.
Megan pulls out Hannah’s body and notices a fly just hanging out around her very blue eye. She shoos the fly away but then notices a hell of a lot more flies. She jumps back as they all fly out of Hannah’s body.
Megan attempts to run but it turns out it was just a hallucination. Megan returns to her booth but then hears sounds coming from the empty hall. She returns to the lockers to see Hannah’s body is now missing. Back in the hallway, she sees her body being dragged away and chases after.
She’s then attacked by the stranger from earlier, who threatens her with a knife. Megan is able to fight him off and take his knife but when she turns around he’s gone. Leaving Hannah’s body in the hallway, Megan runs to her booth and calls security.
She runs back to where Hannah’s body was left to find it once again missing but hears sounds coming from the room with the incinerator. She rushes and stops the stranger from attempting to incinerate Hannah’s body.
Megan approaches the man who once again attacks her and takes back his knife. Just then, Dave and the other security guard Ernie run in and save Megan but not without Dave getting slashed in the arm.
As he’s dragged away the stranger yells that Hannah’s body has to be burned and that she is not dead. As the police arrive to take him away it’s revealed the stranger is Hannah’s father.
We then see Megan attempting to place Hannah back in the locker but her body jerks causing Megan to inspect the body. A phone call from Andrew interrupts her and while her back is turned Hannah’s body jerks again in a very obvious fashion.
Megan takes a closer look at the body and Hannah’s mouth opens, appearing to take a breath causing Megan to freak out slamming her back into the locker. She rushes out of the room and is visited by Lisa who attempts to convince her to go home but Megan refuses. She tells Lisa about Hannah’s breathing but Lisa chalks it up to bodies sometimes expelling air which calms Megan down.
A little while later Dave covers for Megan as Andrew pays her a visit upstairs. Andrew accuses her of taking a bottle of Xanax he had in his box of stuff but Megan gets angry and denies it. These are actually the pills we saw her have in her bag earlier in the movie. Megan then asks him to run Hannah’s prints back at the station since her machine broke down earlier.
Meanwhile back in the morgue, Hannah’s locker has opened back up. Dave is in the hallway tossing around the rubber band ball and doesn’t notice something pass by in the distance. Hearing sounds he wanders into the lockers and hears scratching coming from Hannah’s locker. Instead of saying “nope” and leaving, he opens the locker finding it empty.
For some reason, he sticks his head inside allowing two arms to grab him as he screams. He’s then tossed across the room and lifted by some force. We hear his bones breaking as he’s dragged across the ceiling and dropped into Hannah’s locker. The drawer closes and we hear a demonic growl along with more Dave screams. They suddenly stop when we hear one last bone break.
Megan then returns to the morgue just in time to miss everything. She calls out for Dave but since he doesn’t answer so she gives up and goes to the bathroom. In the stall, she hears the bathroom door open and the hand dryer turns on. She calls out to Dave thinking it’s him but stops when the rubberband ball rolls into the stall.
She peeks under the stall door and doesn’t see anyone but Hannah’s burnt arm grabs the ball. Luckily Megan was already in the bathroom and won’t have to shit her pants.
Megan checks the other stalls and leaves the bathroom believing it was another hallucination. She then gets a call from Andrew who tells her he ran Hannah’s prints and discovered they belong to someone who died three months ago but he tells her it must be a glitch.
After a quick “not legally Google” search, Megan finds an article about Hannah’s death and an apparent demonic possession. Instead of leaving, she goes back to Hannah’s body and finds drops of blood in the plastic covering despite there not being any earlier. She also realizes Hannah’s body is now missing the huge gash on her side which appears to have healed.
She heads to the security desk to ask about where the fuck Dave went. Oh, wait no instead, she asks if she can look at camera footage of the hallway. Security guard Ernie instead asks her where the fuck Dave is since he was last seen covering for her at her station.
Oh wait, he actually doesn’t mention Dave at all and gives Megan the manual on how to watch the footage.
Going through the footage, Megan looks for Dave and sees him attacked. Oh wait, she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Dave and instead just looks at the hallway footage. She is shocked to find what appears to be the body of Hannah crawling through the hallway.
Megan freaks out and almost takes the Xanax but controls herself deciding not to. Instead, she finds Lisa and shows her the footage but Lisa dismisses it as a shadow. While Megan tries to convince her something is going on, Lisa finds the bottle of Xanax which is bad news since Lisa is also Megan’s sponsor.
Megan tells her she didn’t take any and while Lisa trusts her, she also tells Megan she is seeing things that aren’t there as a way to cope with the stress.
Lisa angrily leaves and goes to the staircase to have a cigarette but before she can light up, a few drops of blood fall on her hand. She looks up and sees what appears to be Dave several flights up.
Heading up she finds the clearly very dead body of Dave leaning against the wall and then screams as the very not-dead body of Hannah jumps out from the shadows.
Lisa runs up to the roof with Hannah giving chase and finds herself with nowhere to go since she can’t fly. Hannah appears at the other end of the roof and using her demonic powers, starts to force choke Lisa. As Hannah’s bones crack so do Lisa’s in unison until her neck snaps killing her.
Back at the intake bay, Randy has returned and Megan decides to tell him about all the weird shit going on. She shows Randy Hannah’s body and he confirms the large gash she had on her side is missing but for some reason, he says there is a rational explanation for it. What?
Randy reveals he used to have a drinking problem and was an all-around bad guy until his son showed up and he cleaned up his act. All this character development tells us, it’s not going to end well for Randy.
As he’s talking to Megan we see parts of Hannah’s body heal itself, which is pretty ballsy for her to do out in the open like that. Randy surprisingly gets on the elevator alive while Megan calls Andrew and comes clean about the Xanax.
While she’s telling him, Hannah, pretty calmly, crawls to the elevator.
At the intake bay, Randy packs up and starts to drive off but a loud thud stops him. He gets out of the car and tries to find the source but doesn’t see anything. He then hears sounds and decides to follow them.
Back upstairs Megan is looking through the camera footage and sees Hannah crawl past her and into the elevator while she was on the phone. Knowing Randy is in danger she heads up to the intake bay.
Meanwhile, Randy sees Hannah and tries to run until he is pinned by two ambulances which Hannah has the ability to move apparently. By the time Megan arrives, Randy is already dead with Hannah making it look like his head was smashed by an ambulance.
Megan finds his body but gets a frantic call from Andrew telling her Hannah’s dad has escaped police custody and is probably on his way to the morgue. Before Megan can respond, Hannah’s dad attacks her, dragging her by gunpoint into the morgue.
They pull out Hannah’s body which has healed itself more and Megan tells him she believes him causing him to lower his gun.
He then asks the same question I’ve been asking, why hasn’t Hannah killed Megan? We sort of get an answer when Hannah’s father tells Megan that Hannah was suffering from depression and anxiety and the demon took the opportunity to break her down to possess her. Once possessed her eye changed color to a deep blue signifying the demon’s mark.
The two head to the incinerator with Hannah’s body and in what feels like a very rush set of events it all goes wrong.
Before they can put Hannah’s body in the incinerator, Hannah attacks her father tossing him aside and is about to kill Megan but her father jumps back in between. Hannah grabs him and throws him into the incinerator.
Megan runs out of the room and into the elevator. Hannah slowly crawls after her because I guess she forgot she can force choke people.
Meanwhile, Andrew arrives at the intake bay and finds Randy’s body and Megan’s phone. He calls for backup and heads into the building. Megan appears to have a panic attack and falls unconscious as Hannah approaches her. Instead of killing her, she drags her body away as she hears Andrew approaching.
Megan then wakes up inside the morgue lockers, sees the dead bodies of Dave and Lisa, and kicks the door open. The sound calls over Andrew and Ernie who were finally looking for Dave. Before Megan can warn them the alarms start blaring and the three see Hannah crawling along the ceiling.
Ernie attempts to run to the door but Hannah telepathically shuts them. Andrew and Megan run to the other side of the hall but stop when they hear Ernie scream. They turn around in time to see Hannah slash his throat open.
Andrew then pulls out his gun but is stopped telepathically by Hannah and raised in the air as Megan watches.
Megan grabs Andrew’s gun and shoots Hannah multiple times killing her. Megan sends Andrew in the elevator to get help and drags Hannah’s body to the incinerator. Before she can fully slide Hannah’s body in, Hannah wakes up and tries to drag her in with her. Megan is able to fight her off and close the hatch.
Sometime later we see Megan on a run, aggressively boxing, and in the shower, as she narrates how long she’s been clean and how nothing will stop her. As she stares into the mirror with one of her eyes conveniently covered by her hair, a fly lands on her mirror and she kills it.
So What Happened in the End?
The ending appears to try to leave it ambiguous as to whether Megan was now possessed by hiding her eye where she might have the demon’s mark but it’s pretty clear she’s not possessed.
The movie appears to be more about overcoming addiction and depression and if in the end Megan is possessed then that defeats the whole purpose of her character’s journey. Also, she was monologuing in the end and that would be weird if it was the demon talking.
Review:
The Possession of Hannah Grace is not a bad movie, it’s an alright movie to watch if you’re going on a horror movie binge or if you’re looking for a not-too-scary film to watch. The only real problem with the movie is that it’s pretty predictable but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. For example, you can tell when a character is about to die because they wander off alone.
The downside to a movie being predictable, and it’s on display here, is that the main character has plot armor and the ending falls apart. There are clearly several times the demon could kill Megan but chooses not to.
The movie tries to give a thin reason for it by implying the demon is trying to break Megan down using her depression but that doesn’t explain why the demon doesn’t use its powers to stop her from shooting it. The ending tries to be ambiguous as to whether the demon did possess her but clearly it didn’t as that would invalidate her whole character arc and the speech she gives at the end.
Either way, you’ll know what you’re getting and you’ll be entertained, it’s not revolutionary and I’m an average movie-goer looking for a movie to watch, not something that will blow my mind. If you’re looking for a creepy movie that’s not boring, has some good acting for the most part, and doesn’t rely on cheap scares, I recommend it.
Notes
The camera work for Dave’s death was so frantic with flickering lights, building music, his screams, and quick cuts that made it lose its horror so much I actually made a note of how ridiculous it was. Compare that to Lisa’s death which is very well done
Cast IMDB