The Possession of Hannah Grace Parent Guide

Traumatized by the murder of her partner, former police officer Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell) is a recovering alcoholic who needs a job. With some help from her friend Lisa Roberts (Stana Katic), a nurse at the local hospital, she gets hired as the night-shift intake assistant in the morgue. Aside from the usual creepiness associated with being alone in a dimly lit basement full of corpses, things seem to be going well until she admits the remains of Hannah Grace, a badly mangled blonde woman who was reported dead three months ago, after a failed exorcism…

Given this introduction to The Possession of Hannah Grace, its Restricted rating does not come as a surprise. The real surprise is its comparatively low levels of obscene language or sexual content. Horror movies seem to accept the inevitable “R” rating from the MPAA for violence and frightening imagery and figure they may as well pepper in some profanity. Aside from frequent terms of deity – which are not surprising in a possession film – there are about a dozen other curse words. Of course, the film makes up for these relatively minor content concerns with some gruesome, violent, and disturbing imagery- more or less of the kind you would expect from a horror movie dealing with demonic possession and taking place in a morgue.

For many parents, demonic possession is an obvious deal breaker in any decision about movie watching. This film is obviously unsuited for family entertainment or most older teens and adults who aren’t fans of the genre. Hardcore horror fans, however, will probably find this fairly tame. Most of the scares come from some long, quiet, and intensely ominous shots that draw in some good atmosphere and keep the audience waiting for their “real” scares. Slasher fans will be generally disappointed in the lack of…well, slashing. Those interested in exorcism movies will be irritated by how little of the movie focuses on the exorcism. But those with an interest in watching frightened people meander around dim corridors while ominous music plays will probably have a lovely time. This movie only managed to get me good and scared two or three times in its 85 minutes. (It’s worth pointing out that the primary advantage of this brief runtime is that the pacing is consistent, and the film doesn’t get a chance to drag on too much.)

Overall, The Possession of Hannah Grace comes in middling-to-low in the hierarchy of scary movies. It’s not a bad diversion, but you’re not going to lose any sleep over it. Probably. Unless you work in a morgue. Or somewhere with a lot of motion-detector activated lights. I left the theatre wishing the movie had possessed a stronger story, and fewer shots of empty hallways.