Skull: The Mask (2020)
Possessed Skull
Brazilian film about a possessed skull that inhabits a man to lay a gore-drenched trail across the city
Possession
Possession concerns the belief that the human body can be inhabited and control taken over by another entity. Ever since the massive success of The Exorcist (1973), cinema has been dominated by cliches of the demonically possessed being fought off by Catholic priests chanting rituals of exorcism.
Most commonly in cinema the possessing entity is taken to be a demonic force usually of the Christian variety, although there are many examples of possession that come from other cultures. There a good many other works dealing with possession by spirits of the dead or malevolent entities.
Possession is almost always something that is seen as an evil that necessitates a battle for the possessee’s body. More recent years have shown a tendency towards gonzo treatments showing everything from possessed vehicles, items of furniture and laundry presses.
For more detail and an overview of the genre see the Theme Essay Possession Films.
Slaxx (2020)
Possessed Jeans
A horror film about a pair of possessed jeans!
Solvent (2024)
Uncovering Nazi Evil
An Austrian film shot entirely using a GoPro camera where a team investigating an abandoned farm uncover Nazi artifacts and an evil that seems to possess the lead character
Someone’s Knocking at the Door (2009)
Demonic Rapists
A thoroughly demented low-budget exploitation homage about demonic rapists that only falls down when it comes to a cliched twist end
Soul (2013)
Taiwanese Horror Film/Possession
Taiwanese horror film about an elderly man who finds another soul is inhabiting his son’s body. A very different sort of possession story. While the horror element peters out in its third act, the film creates a very mysterious atmosphere and a series of tight thriller tensions and complications
Stigmata (1999)
Possession/Catholic Conspiracy
This seems caught between offering an earnest theological debate about Catholicism and being a standard possession film. The results are not entirely uninteresting
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977)
Possessed Housewife
An The Exorcist copy made as a tv movie – where The Exorcist shocked audiences with barf bag theatrics and obscenities, this merely has Karen Black shucking her staid fashion sense and buying a sexy red dress. Rather peculiarly, this becomes a possession story as women’s self-actualisation drama
Studio 666 (2022)
Foo Fighters vs Deviltry/Horror Comedy
A horror comedy starring the Foo Fighters where the band’s antics sit alongside some entertainingly outrageous gore
Suicide Squad (2016)
Team-Up of DC Comics Super-Villains
This team-up of C-list DC super-villains proved a surprise hit. The script is all over the place but Margot Robbie owns the screen as the gleefully insane Kewpie Doll gone wrong Harley Quinn
Supernatural (1933)
Possession by a Murderer's Spirit
Carole Lombard plays an heiress who becomes possessed by the spirit of an executed murderess. From the Brothers Halperin who were behind >i>White Zombie
The Supernormal (1992)
Chinese Supernatural Documentary
Mind-bogglingly bizarre documentary that conducts a tour of the bizarre practices of Chinese religion
The Sword of the Barbarians (1982)
Italian Sword and Sorcery
One of the various low-budget Italian sword and sorcery of the 1980s that borrows much from Conan the Barbarian
Tales of Terror (1962)
Edgar Allan Poe Anthology
The fourth of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films. This mixes it up slightly and adapts four Poe stories into three episodes, each of which stars Vincent Price
Talk to Me (2022)
Occult Artefact
An Australian film has been getting some great word of mouth, a teen horror that stands it head and shoulders above its contemporaries
Teen Titans Go! vs Teen Titans (2019)
Animation/Comic-Book Superhero Team
Here the less-than-serious Teen Titans Go! conduct an Into the Spider-Verse-type crossover with their serious counterparts from the multiverse
Teenage Exorcist (1991)
Possession Comedy
Written by and starring 80s Scream Queen Brinke Stevens, this offers an occasionally amusing comedy take on the possession and exorcism film
Tell-Tale (2009)
Possessed Transplant Organ
This is supposedly an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Tell-Tale Heart but it throws out all semblance to the story and instead tells a possessed transplant limb tale
Temptress (1995)
Erotica/Possession by Kali
Erotic horror film made by Playboy where Kim Delaney is possessed by an incarnation of Kali
The 3rd Floor (2007)
Haunted Apartment Building
A low-budget ingenue effort by three friends about a tenant who discovers that the third floor of his apartment building contains the ghosts of dead asylum inmates
30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2013)
Genre Spoof
Another crude and witless genre parody in the vein of Jason Friedberg-Aaron Seltzer of Epic Movie, Disaster Movie et al notoriety. I there is anything worse than that it is surely a failed attempt to imitate them
This is The End (2013)
End of the World Comedy
Several well-known actors hole up in a Hollywood mansion as the Biblical Apocalypse hits. While at first seeming a self-congratulatory exercise, this emerges as a raucously funny ensemble drama where each of the actors play to great strength. Seth Rogen may yet earn forgiveness for The Green Hornet
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Marvel Comics Norse God Superhero
Sequel to Thor that earranges the same basic elements much more satisfyingly than the first film – the actors (with the exception of a tranquilised Natalie Portman) seem more at home in their roles and a director who is more confident with the effects and superheroics. That said, it is starting to feel like Marvel is shuffling the same plot ingredients around between films
Tin Man (2007)
Modernised Wizard of Oz
Nick Willing conducts the first of his SF revampings of popular tales. Here The Wizard of Oz is reworked into a Steampunk fantasy with some startling reinterpetations of the familiar characters
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation/Haunting
The eighth and last of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. Some claim this tale of possession by a late wife is the best but it feels an uninspired rehash of the plot elements from Corman’s other Poe films.
Transylmania (2009)
Frat Rat Horror Comedy
A excruciatingly unfunny film that feels like one of Abbott and Costello’s monster bashes played as a crass frat comedy
Transylvania Twist (1989)
Horror Parody
A Roger Corman produced horror parody that conducts send ups of most of the horror icons of the 1980s – Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, Michael Meyers etc – without being particularly funny
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Twin Peaks Prequel
David Lynch’s cinematic prequel to his cult tv series critically divides people. Charting the last days of the doomed prom queen Laura Palmer, Sheryl Lee gives a tour-de-force performance
Ultramarines (2010)
Animation/Wargame Adaptation/Space Marines vs Demonic Forces
Animated film based on the popular fantasy wargame. The set-up is a fascinating mix of SF and mediaeval religion but the plot rehashes Aliens without much payoff and the animation is B-budget
Umma (2022)
Vengeful Ghost Mother
Undeniably effective ghost story where Sandra Oh plays a woman who is haunted by the ghost of her abusive traditional mother
The Unborn (2009)
Haunting/Possession
Scriptwriter David S. Goyer takes the director’s choice to make a possession film. The one distinction here is that Goyer draws from Jewish mythology, otherwise this feels like another canned teen horror film
Undertone (2026)
Sinister Audio Recordings
A really quite spooky film about a series of audio recordings send to a podcast that seem to contain evidence of a possession. A film that almost entirely has its effect relayed by sound
The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1993)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
A sequel to the earlier H.P. Lovecraft adapted film The Unnamable. Despite having a bigger budget, this is no more of an improvement over its predecessor
The Vatican Tapes (2015)
Possession and Exorcism
The exorcism film has made a big comeback in the 00s. From one of the co-directors of the Crank films, this only offers up the same mix of cliches as usual – indeed, often seems like a series of random jump scares without any rationale as to why they would be happening
Veronica (2017)
Haunting/"True Story"
Paco Plaza has become one of the premiere names in Spanish horror due to the [Rec] films. Here he attempts to follow in the footsteps of The Conjuring with a film based on a supposedly true supernatural incident in 90s Madrid but fails to make a terribly interesting work
V/H/S/99 (2022)
Anthology of Found Footage Horror Tales
The fifth film of the Found Footage horror anthology series, including one episode that is among the best of the series so far
The Violent Kind (2010)
Home Invasion by Resurrected 1950s Gang
Strange but by no means uninteresting film that takes several weird doglegs going from biker parties to a possession film and then a home invasion by seemingly resurrected 1950s rockers
The Visitation (2006)
Christian Film/Ambiguous Miracle-Healing Stranger
The novelty of the first Christian horror film. As opposed to much of the message-heavy tripe that usually gets peddled in this niche market, this is actually well structured with a number of interesting ambiguities and engaging as a story for the better part
Voodoo (1995)
Voodoo Fraternity
A low-budget film where Corey Feldman is a university student who signs into an oddball fraternity only to find that it practices voodoo rites and he has signed away his soul
The Wailing (2016)
Korean Horror/Possession/Mysterious Stranger
South Korean horror film that generates a more than effectively creepy atmosphere. The downside is that you reached the end of the show with no clear idea what is going on and why things are happening
Wandering Rose (2014)
Pregnancy and Possession
Neither of this film’s titles do it justice – Wandering Rose seems either about a girl who hitchhikes or is very promiscuous, while Demon Baby pushes it over into a devil pregnancy film. What we instead have is a film set in the Scottish Highlands that creates a great sense of dis-ease, even if it never fully delivers on it
Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006)
Teenage Girl Martial Arts Warrior
Disney Channel film where a modern teenager finds she is the reincarnation of a martial arts warrior
White Noise: The Light (2007)
Premonitions of Death
A sSequel in name only to White Noise, this is a very silly film with Nathan Fillion returning from a near-death experience able to see the auras of those about to die
Willy’s Wonderland (2021)
Possessed Animatronic Robots
A horror film premised around Nicolas Cage beating the crap out of a series of possessed animatronic robots, a fairly blatant copy of the Five Nights at Freddy’s videogame
Witchboard (2024)
Occult Witchboard
A remake of the 1980s horror Witchboard. The original was just a VHS release and here is given a better budgeted workover, but disappears among a host of ouija-titled films of recent years
Witchslayer Gretl (2012)
Faiirytale Adaptation
A low-budget film that prefigures the big-budget Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters in turning the fairytale brother and sister into witchslayers in a generic fantasy adventure plot
Wonder Man (1944)
Ghost Twin Brother/Screwball Comedy
Madcap screwball comedy with Danny Kaye required to pose as his dead twin brother who is then taken over by his ghost during a trial
World Apartment Horror (1991)
Strange Apartment Building Comedy/Haunting
After making the groundbreaking anime Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo then chose to direct this oddity – a live-action comedy about a frustrated Yakuza enforcer trying to evict an apartment of foreigners that turns into a horror film in its last third
XX (2017)
Women-Directed Horror Anthology
As directors, women are underrepresented – in terms of the content listed on this side, for example, probably less than 5% has been made by women. As a believer in equal opportunities for all, one can only cheer on XX where five women have gotten together to make a horror anthology
You Might Be the Killer (2018)
Slasher Deconstruction/Possession by Indian Mask
There have been some clever and witty deconstructions and parodies of the slasher film in recent years. This starts in with an immediately captivating hook where the title phrase is turned around on the protagonist
Youth Without Youth (2007)
Man Regains His Youth
Francis Ford Coppola film that came out the same time as The Case of Benjamin Button where Tim Roth regains his youth after being hit by a lightning bolt
Zombi Child (2019)
Voodoo Film
An extraordinary French film that has nothing at all to do with flesh-eating zombies but delves into voodoo religion that expands out to makes contrasts with French colonialism with striking results