The Possession of Hannah Grace Blu-ray Review
Score: 63
from 4 reviewers
Review Date:
**Quote Summary:** "A decent but forgettable horror film buoyed by impressive Sony Blu-ray audio and video quality, though meager on extras—worth a rental at best."
Disc Release Date
DTS-HD MA
Video: 70
The Possession of Hannah Grace’s 1080p Blu-ray presentation is impressively clear for a low-budget film, showcasing deep black levels, minimal noise, and detailed textures, despite its dark morgue setting. The AVC encode effectively captures muted colors with occasional vibrant highlights, making for a solid HD experience.
Audio: 77
The audio track for 'The Possession of Hannah Grace' is robust and immersive, utilizing a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix that excels in delivering creepy ambient sounds, precise dialogue, and powerful bass, making full use of surround channels to enhance the horror atmosphere.
Extra: 38
The Blu-Ray extras for 'The Possession of Hannah Grace' include insightful featurettes on makeup and performances, notably Kirby Johnson's transformation into Hannah, but are marred by irrelevant deleted scenes and video logs, padded by numerous Sony horror trailers.
Movie: 41
The Possession of Hannah Grace combines demonic possession tropes with a unique narrative shift, opening with a failed exorcism and transforming into a supernatural monster movie within the confines of a morgue. Despite adept performances and practical effects, it largely suffers from a lackluster plot and repetitive scares echoing better films like The Autopsy of Jane Doe.
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Video: 70
Sony has ensured "The Possession of Hannah Grace" is presented with an impressive 1080p video transfer. The film's 2.39:1 (or alternatively noted as 2.40:1) framed AVC encode offers a visually compelling experience, particularly notable given its low-budget origins. Despite being shot with a Sony A7S II digital camera, which is typically prosumer grade, the resulting image quality surpasses expectations with minimal noise and superb clarity. The film's predominantly dark setting—mainly within a morgue—demands top-tier black levels, and this release delivers inky blacks with rare occurrences of banding. The colors are predominantly blue and metallic, punctuated by occasional splashes of vibrant colors like red blood and yellow EMT jacket stripes.
The film's textural quality remains consistent, highlighting fine details such as intricate makeup effects depicting wounds and burns, as well as actor facial features and clothing textures. The practical effects on Hannah Grace’s body, including deep burns and cuts, are detailed enough to show veins and arteries, enhancing the realism. Sony's AVC encoding on a BD-50 disc ensures that the 85-minute feature suffers no major artifacts and maintains a solid contrast throughout. Though the film exhibits a slightly flat glossy appearance in some instances, likely due to the absence of film grain, it does not detract significantly from the overall viewing experience.
In conclusion, Sony has provided a high-quality visual presentation for "The Possession of Hannah Grace." The detailed image quality, coupled with excellent handling of colors and black levels, demonstrates the potential of modern digital filmmaking even at lower budgets. Minor issues like occasional banding and slight black crush are negligible against the overall impressive video clarity and texture. This Blu-ray release offers a commendable visual experience that is both immersive and technically proficient.
Audio: 77
The audio presentation of "The Possession of Hannah Grace" is a standout feature of this Blu-ray release, offering a compelling DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that elevates the cinematic experience. Sony engineers have crafted a soundscape that is immersive and highly effective for the horror genre. The morgue setting provides a fertile ground for nuanced sound effects, ranging from eerie ambient noises to thunderous crashes and bone-crunching convulsions. The surround channels are actively utilized, creating an enveloping atmosphere that fully exploits the acoustics of the location. Notably, the bass is powerful and well-integrated, delivering impactful low-end support during intense scenes, adding a vital layer of depth to the overall auditory experience.
Dialogue clarity is uniformly excellent, ensuring that even during the most chaotic moments, speech remains intelligible and front-centered. The mix strikes a fine balance between prominent and subtle effects, seamlessly blending environmental sounds with the film's creepy score. Music enjoys broad fidelity and some surround integration, enhancing the haunting atmosphere essential for a horror movie. While it may not reach the unique heights of modern horror classics like "The Conjuring," the DTS-HD MA track checks all the necessary boxes for a fully engaging horror experience. It is a richly immersive surround mix, with precise imaging and dynamics that enhance both the film's scares and subtler moments.
Additional features include an impressive array of subtitle and dub options—28 different subtitle choices and 7 secondary audio tracks—thus accommodating a wide range of audiences. The subtitles remain within the widescreen frame and use an easy-to-read white font. Altogether, the sound design of "The Possession of Hannah Grace" contributes significantly to the film's terrifying appeal, making it a must-listen for fans of horror audio excellence.
Extras: 38
The Blu-Ray extras for "The Possession of Hannah Grace" offer a mix of insightful and less compelling content. Featuring three notable featurettes and one inconsequential deleted scene, the extras delve into key aspects of the film's production, particularly focusing on makeup and character performances. "The Killer Cast" provides valuable insights from the cast and crew about their experiences on set, while "An Autopsy of Hannah" delivers a fascinating look at the makeup and transformation processes for the character of Hannah Grace. "Megan's Diaries" is a brief addition offering fictional vlogs that contribute minimally to the overall experience. A collection of trailers for other Sony horror titles is included but may not add significant value for all viewers.
Extras included in this disc:
- The Killer Cast: Cast and crew discuss character details and performances.
- An Autopsy of Hannah: A closer look at the Hannah Grace makeup and Kirby Johnson's performance of the title character.
- Megan's Diaries: Fictional video logs featuring the title character talking about what's going on at work.
- Deleted Scene: One inconsequential scene.
Movie: 41
"The Possession of Hannah Grace," directed by Diederik Van Rooijen and written by Brian Sieve, offers modest intrigue within the well-trodden domain of demonic horror. Unlike traditional exorcism films that conclude with the climactic battle against dark forces, this film initiates with a botched exorcism, setting the stage for a narrative rooted more in supernatural monstrosity than theological struggle. The primary setting, a Boston Metro Hospital morgue, serves as both a chilling character and confinement for Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell), an ex-cop with substance abuse issues trying to reclaim her life. Her night shift becomes a descent into horror as the demonic body of Hannah Grace (Kirby Johnson) exhibits eerie signs of regeneration, challenges reality with malfunctions of electronic devices, and propels Megan into confrontations with her literal and metaphorical demons.
The film's atmospheric tension benefits considerably from Van Rooijen's decision to prioritize story development over a deluge of jump scares. The suitably eerie morgue setting, along with restrained yet effectively unsettling cinematography, creates an engaging claustrophobic environment. Cinematic techniques such as flickering lights and ominous corner-of-the-eye visuals are employed to sustain suspense without overwhelming cliché. Although the film features genre staples like telekinetic violence and unsettling contortions (performed practically by Kirby Johnson), these elements are integrated organically into the plot rather than forcefully inserted. However, the narrative does suffer from predictability and repetition, invoking casual comparisons to superior works like "The Autopsy of Jane Doe."
Despite shortcomings in originality, repetitive plot points, and occasional reliance on familiar horror tropes, Shay Mitchell's portrayal of Megan adds character depth, rendering her plight empathetic and relatable. While "The Possession of Hannah Grace" may not redefine the genre, it introduces intriguing structural deviations and presents an engaging mix of psychological thriller and supernatural horror. For aficionados seeking an atmospheric horror experience with elements of character study, it delivers sporadic but genuine frights bolstered by effective practical effects and competent performances.
Total: 63
"The Possession of Hannah Grace" delivers a rather formulaic entry into the horror genre, primarily focusing on demonic possession and supernatural elements. Despite its lack of originality and a tendency towards rehashing familiar tropes, the film does benefit from certain technical strengths and notable practical makeup effects that enhance its visual appeal. The portrayal of the possessed character is a standout, showcasing strong physical performances that elevate the narrative slightly above its mundane plot. However, Shay Mitchell's performance, though competent, cannot inject life into the otherwise uninspired screenplay and predictable scares.
Technically, Sony's Blu-ray release of "The Possession of Hannah Grace" is commendable. The video presentation maintains a high level of clarity and detail, particularly impressive given the film's predominantly low-light settings. The audio mix is another highlight, delivering a haunting and immersive experience that effectively complements the film's eerie atmosphere. The disc includes DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks in various languages, ensuring a broad accessibility. However, the supporting bonus features are somewhat sparse, with only a couple of worthwhile extras focusing on behind-the-scenes content related to makeup and stunt work.
In conclusion, "The Possession of Hannah Grace" may not redefine or significantly contribute to the demonic possession genre, often feeling like a subdued version of more impactful predecessors like "The Autopsy of Jane Doe." Its technical merits somewhat salvage the viewing experience, making it a decent option for a rental but hardly essential for horror enthusiasts or collectors looking for something groundbreaking.
AV Nirvana review by Michael ScottRead review here
Video: 90
There’s a few light shiny spots in the film, but 99% of the movie takes place underground, at night, in the middle of a morgue, so rest assured that this is a DARK movie....
Audio: 90
The underground morgue is a bit quiet at times, but you can hear all of the little background clinks and hums of fluorescent lights throughout the background channels....
Extras: 40
...
Movie: 50
Part of the reason is to get out of the slump she’s in, and part of the reason is so that as an ex addict she can stay away from the allure of the drug/alcohol infused nightlife that entraps so many ex...
Total: 70
Technical Specifications: Starring: Shay Mitchell, Grey Damon, Kirby Johnson, Nick Thune, Louis Herthum, Stana Katic, Jacob Ming-Trent, Marianne Bayard Directed by: Diederik Van Rooijen Written by: Brian...
Blu-ray.com review by Martin LiebmanRead review here
Video: 80
The image is texturally sound, appearing a little flat but certainly finding the appropriate level of clarity and complexity within the morgue itself and certainly along various character and clothing...
Audio: 90
Lighter but mood-critical environmental effects help give a realistic sonic signature to the morgue location during more standard character and plot building scenes....
Extras: 40
Megan's Diaries (1080p): Fictional video logs featuring the title character talking about what's going on at work....
Movie: 60
Fortunately, and despite the trite open and fairly clich� finale, there's a decently atmospheric and character-driven movie in the middle, following a young woman who is battling her own demons, demons...
Total: 70
The Possession of Hannah Grace doesn't do anything to redefine its genre, but credit the filmmakers for at least shying away from an excess of genre sights and sounds allowing them to, for the most part,...
DoBlu review by Christopher ZabelRead review here
Video: 60
The tight 2.39:1 digital cinematography is sharp and captures gruesome bodies in the morgue with abundant color....
Audio: 80
Dubs include French, Hindi, Hungarian, Spanish, and Polish, not to mention an English Descriptive Audio track....
Extras: 40
The Autopsy of Hannah (06:36 in HD) – A smart look behind the scenes applying make-up to actress Kirby Johnson and transforming her into the demon....
Movie: 40
The real frights are few and the creature is practically given superpowers never seen before in a possession movie....
Total: 55
Former television star Shay Mitchell can’t save this tedious demonic thriller from its lame scares and timid brand of horror....
High-Def DigestRead review here
Video: 80
Colors aren't exactly bright either, but rather a mixture of blues and metal grays with some pops of red blood and yellow stripes on paramedic jackets when they come to the morgue with new bodies....
Audio: 80
The robust noises of bones crunching and necks breaking are top notch as are the creepy sounds Hannah actually makes throughout the movie....
Extras: 40
There are four bonus features here, two of which are short, but great looks inside the making of the film with an emphasis on makeup and stunt-work....
Movie: 20
There are a sea of demonic possession movies out there and it's difficult to find one that has an original bone in its contorted body....
Total: 60
The film doesn't add anything original or honest to the genre with the exception of a talented possessed character and her body work along with some very good practical makeup effects....
Director: Diederik Van Rooijen
Actors: Shay Mitchell, Grey Damon, Kirby Johnson
PlotMegan Reed, a former police officer grappling with trauma and addiction, lands a job working the graveyard shift at a hospital morgue. Seeking to rebuild her life, Megan is determined to prove her reliability and competence. However, her routine duties take a dark turn when the disfigured corpse of a young woman, Hannah Grace, is delivered to the morgue under mysterious circumstances. As Megan works through her shift, she begins to experience eerie and inexplicable occurrences centered around Hannah's body. Strange noises, flickering lights, and unsettling visions start to plague her, weaving an atmosphere of escalating dread.
As the night progresses, it becomes apparent that Hannah’s death may not have been merely a tragic incident. Megan's strong sense of duty compels her to stay vigilant, but she soon discovers that malevolent forces are at play, exploiting Hannah's lifeless form for their sinister agendas. The boundaries between reality and nightmare blur, and Megan is forced to confront not only the horror in front of her but also her inner demons. Mysterious deaths and chilling revelations unfold within the morgue's claustrophobic corridors, leading Megan into a battle against unspeakable evil that pushes her sanity and resilience to their limits.
Writers: Brian Sieve
Release Date: 30 Nov 2018
Runtime: 86 min
Rating: R
Country: United States
Language: English