‘The Possession of Hannah Grace’ review: Dead write

The problem with Diederik Van Rooijen’s The Possession of Hannah Grace is, it cannot decide if it wants to be a psychological thriller or a gore fest. Since it cannot make up its mind, it skitters from the jump scares to exorcism rituals complete with holy water and Catholic priests (no projectile vomiting thankfully) and then makes a stab at fighting addiction with a troubling detour at depression and finally serves up a muddled mess that no one will like.

Megan Reed is a former cop with a traumatic incident in her past and drug and alcohol addiction issues—not the right candidate for the graveyard shift at the morgue you would imagine. Her sponsor, Lisa, however thinks otherwise. When Megan takes delivery of a badly disfigured corpse, things rapidly go south.

There are things that work for the movie. Shay Mitchell creates an interesting final girl in Megan and the electronic sounds serve to highlight the isolation. Just wish Dutch director Diederik Van Rooijen’s Hollywood debute had committed to one of the tracks and seen it through. Then we would have had a genuinely creepy film.

Director: Diederik Van Rooijen

Cast: Shay Mitchell, Kirby Johnson, Stana Katic, Grey Damon, Nick Thune

Runtime: 86 minutes

Storyline: Demons take over the graveyard shift at the morgue