The Top 10 Best Possession Movies
Make Sure You Have an Exorcist on Speed Dial Before Watching these Terrifying Possession Movies!
Possession movies are one of the great pillars of the horror genre. Which makes sense since there’s something absolutely terrifying about losing control of your mind and body to an evil entity. Hell, even those of us who don’t attend church every Sunday get a little jumpy at the idea of it. So, it makes sense that Hollywood would take advantage of this since it is in the business of trying to scare us, and there have been dozens and dozens of possession movies over the years. Of course, that means there are plenty of god-awful ones out lurking out there in the ether, but luckily for you, I took the time to sort through them all and put together a list of the Top 10 Possession Movies to help you avoid the truly cringe-worthy ones out there. All these flicks feature an evil spirit (demon or otherwise) that forcefully inhabits the bodies of unwilling hosts. So get ready to recite a few Our Fathers and Haily Marry’s because this list of possession movies is coming for your very soul!
10. Fallen
While some of Denzel Washington‘s more recent films have left something to be desired, his addition to the possession movies is nothing to scoff at. Sure Fallen is not exactly what one might call a traditionally “good movie,” but I certainly like the twist it puts on possessions in general. While most films feature one person inhabited by an evil spirit, Fallen shows what might happen if that spirit treated the planet like his own personal version of Grand Theft Auto. In other words, he goes bouncing around from body to body and is not afraid to drive the people he inhabits like he stole them. This creates quite a problem for Washington who is trying to catch a killer but has no idea who might be the spirits current vessel. A game of cat and mouse ensues, but if Hollywood has taught us one thing over the years, you don’t mess with Denzel Washington.
9. Night of the Demons
When it comes to possession movies, none of them embody everything I love about 80’s trashy horror movies quite like Night of the Demons. I’ll admit that this film makes little to no sense at times and a lot of scenes feels like the director just shrugged and told the actors to “just wing it.” Despite all that though, this is a movie that features some tremendous makeup effects that are so over the top that you simply can’t look away. Plus, it has a whole slew of demons who all want to take over the bodies of boozed up horny high schoolers. I would feel bad for them but that’s what you get for partying in a notoriously haunted house on Halloween. Night of the Demons is an incredibly campy triumph of 80’s horror and one that I wouldn’t mind seeing a (legitimate) remake of. Until then, I’m happy to watch it as part of my own personal Halloween playlist every year.
8. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
More often than not possession movies usually feature a happy ending where some priest simply strolls on in and does his whole “the power of Christ compels you’ spiel and sends the demons packing. However, the truth is that a lot of people have actually died in the process of IRL exorcisms and that’s where The Exorcism of Emily Rose comes in. For the most part, the film follows the trial of a priest who is blamed for the death of a young girl he was attempting to save from a demon. It’s an uphill battle for the priest as the prosecutor claims that Emily was just the victim of mental illness and epilepsy. While the audience gets a first-hand look at the actual exorcism it turns out that its hard to prove in a court of law that there was a demon inside the now deceased Emily Rose. It’s not like he left a forwarding address for the corner to find.
7. Session 9
Continuing the trend of demons being mistaken for mental illness in possession movies is Session 9. The film stars CSI: Miami’s David Caruso, but alas he doesn’t wear sunglasses and make morbidly inappropriate puns over dead bodies. That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of bodies in this film though. Session 9 centers around a group of men cleaning out asbestos from an abandoned mental hospital (big nope already) when one of them discovers recordings of a patient who suffers from disassociative identity disorder. As the film goes on it slowly becomes apparent that one of these personalities is actually an external force that inhabited and pushed the patient to kill her family. The really freaky part is that whatever it is, it might still be lurking in the halls of the mental hospital.
6. Ava’s Possession
So many possession movies out there start rolling the credits as soon as the priest drives the demon out of its victim. But what comes next for those that survive (no offense to Emily Rose)? Ava’s Possession offers insight into exactly that as it tells the tale of a woman trying to put her life back together after being possessed by a demon. Of course, she has to answer for the crimes she committed while “under the influence” and finds herself sentenced to a mandatory 12 step program for the formerly possessed. As the film goes on, she slowly pieces together everything that happened during her possession and finds out that the demon who inhabited her might not be as gone as she hoped. Luckily, she’s got a sponsor she can call when it starts whispering in her ear again.