THE POSSESSION DIARIES (2018)

Despite The Possession Diaries being his ninth feature I hadn’t heard of Juan Frausto before. He’s done several action films and comedies before switching to horror for his last couple of films. Here he puts a bit of a new twist on the Ouija Board possession much like The Evil Down The Street which I just reviewed. The twist is that everything is seen over a webcam.

Rebecca Clarkson (Katherine Munroe) made the mistake of playing with a Ouija Board and is now dealing with demonic attacks. In order to prove she’s not crazy, she starts using her webcam to document her experiences. The Possession Diaries isn’t found footage, although a lot of what we see is what her webcam records. We also get to see her nightmares and the occasional moment that her camera wouldn’t be able to capture.

Unfortunately, most of what we see isn’t particularly scary, or even interesting. Most of The Possession Diaries consists of Rebecca alone in her room looking like she’s about to cry. About thirty minutes in she starts acting possessed but that’s immediately followed up with more whining and crying. It’s much more irritating than frightening.

The script also has a problem with repetition. For example, at one point we see a possessed Rebecca holding a knife over her boyfriend Dante (Johnny Ortiz, Peppermint) as he sleeps. He wakes up and grabs the knife. They later talk about during a phone call. And then she goes and checks the webcam footage and we get a third go-round with the incident.

At other points, it just makes no sense at all. She stays online even as she gets trolled and accused of faking what’s going on. Which only makes matters worse. That’s the point I’d be signing off and dealing with my issues without the added bullshit.

The webcam angle lets The Possession Diaries be made on a very low budget. Apart from a couple of visitors, it’s basically one location and one-person show. We do get cameos from James Russo (Woe, Cerebrum) as a priest and Eileen Dietz (The Exorcist, Clownado). But that just reminds us of how scary possession can be when done right.

The Possession Diaries will be available on DVD and Digital June 4, 2019, from Uncork’d Entertainment. You can check the film’s Facebook page for more details.