The Possession of Hannah Grace is a new horror film that follows Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell), a former police officer and recovering alcoholic who takes up a night shift at the local morgue. Things go fairly smoothly until one night she receives the body of Hannah Grace (Kirby Johnson), a woman who died under mysterious circumstances, and Megan soon finds herself spooked as things in the morgue begin acting in even more mysterious ways.
If any of that sounded vaguely familiar, it’s because a curiously similar premise was explored in the excellent 2016 film, The Autopsy of Jane Doe. While there certainly are some differences between the two, much of The Possession of Hannah Grace feels like it’s shamelessly riffing on beats that were done in Jane Doe. It’s not even necessarily that it’s done poorly, but there is hardly a moment where this film springs to life in a way that makes you consciously separate the two. You’re always going to be reminded of a superior film pretty much every step of the way.
However, if you do manage to take the film on its own terms, it’s actually not as bad as you might think. Despite applying broader, mainstream horror sensibilities and lacking the tight script and methodical filmmaking of Jane Doe, The Possession of Hannah Grace is able to make a solid case for itself, mostly with the lead.
Megan is a fairly compelling character. We see a glimpse of her backstory where she ends up frozen, leading to a partner getting shot, and we see her in AA meetings, trying to put herself back together after dealing with her trauma through addiction, which ends up being the rather obvious, but still effective metaphorical demon that she has to overcome. The film is a swift and economic hour and 20-some minutes, which is best for the kind of roller-coaster horror this is going for. However, it does come at the expense of diving deeper into a flawed and complicated character. Writer,
Brian Sieve’s recent credits are largely TV work, where I imagine he’s used to giving his characters more room to breathe and grow. Mitchell is able to convey a lot here, making you buy into the history of that character because her performance feels so lived in.
The film, which is directed by Diederik Van Rooijen, has a slickness to it that works in its favor, especially when building up tension. There’s a number solid, creepy imagery when the demon-possessed corpse of Hannah Grace begins terrorizing everyone. Granted, this is probably the most egregious example of a horror movie demon that acts with little motivation and does whatever the plotting allows at any given point. But I suppose it still works as a metaphor on how addiction can destroy the world around you. The jump scares are fairly minimal compared to most mainstream horror, but it definitely indulges as things get crazier. Although, I wished the kills by the demon were more varied.
The film does scratch an itch, though. I honestly get a kick out of supernatural horror films that take place in an urban setting as opposed to the suburbs, countryside, or small towns like they usually are. The film is low budget, so things are restricted to the Boston Metro Hospital, but the filmmakers make the most of it. There’s one encounter that a character has with the demon on the roof of the building that was very well done.
The Possession of Hannah Grace isn’t a great film, nor is it a particularly good one. It’s just a middle-of-the-road riff on a far better film that is more worth your time. However, the film isn’t without merit. It nails most of the basic fundamentals – some engaging characters, a well established setting, a bunch of fun setups and payoffs, and it provides all these details in an uncomplicated and streamlined fashion. It’s hard to get worked up over any film that keeps things short and simple, and for what it’s worth, I had a pretty good time watching it. It doesn’t have the room to fully realize its themes and ideas, but it certainly puts in more effort to do something substantial, which is more than I can say for most of these disposable, studio horror films.
Also, please check out The Autopsy of Jane Doe. It’s really great, and criminally underseen.