Michael Goi's career has been linked to highly successful titles in the television world, such as "American Horror Story", "Sabrina's chilling adventures" or "Nashville". With Possession of Maria He returns to the cinema, with a story that begins with a premise already known, but that had all the elements to offer a higher quality result. First of all, Anthony Jaswinski's libretto fails to take off and remains in a position based on the cliché of the horror genre. Along with this, the plot twists hardly surprise any part of the audience, if they do, because they are predictable and follow an excessively basic narrative line. Therefore, nor does it function as an entertainment in itself, as it is producing water as the film plays.

The characters featured in the film have no credible motivations and are approached from an excessively superficial perspective. Despite the data that is released from their personal lives, it becomes an impossible mission to empathize with them. So, the magnitude or nature of the events and the mysteries that attack the ship are not fully defined. Consequently, at the climax of the film, the end is resolved quickly and predictably and without falling further into the topics of horror cinema. Besides that, it's very defined where to put the scares, the pieces that create tension and that means that, after the first third of the film, the audience has enough information and cannot watch a horror movie. Very unlikely.

Having Gary Oldman himself in its main cast, along with Emily Mortimer, a well-known name in the industry, is what attracts the most attention from Possession of Maria. First of all, Oldman is brilliant, extracts all the limited juice he can for his character and performs a chiaroscuro interpretation. Unfortunately, his acting effort is not enough to build a film with the script gaps it presents. Even so, it is undeniable that it is the best of the film and is one of the most appreciated aspects during the film. The same goes for Emily Mortimer, than gives this naturalness and deals perfectly with gender, but when conditioned by the script, it remains in an interpretation that cries out to go further. Regardless of, the two make a great interpretive couple.

On the other hand, Stefanie Scott and Chloe Perrin's young cast is successful, but not an explosion of talent. To begin with, Scott, already known in the horror genre for films like "Insidious: Chapter 3", does a correct job, but has almost no stage power during his sequences. Therefore, he remains in a limbo where the viewer does not know all the quality of his work very well. So, Perrin, despite being young, shows professionalism on camera and impressive freshness. Furthermore, it is a torrent of energy that it knows how to control. So, Manuel García-Rulfo and Owen Teague play their roles physically and are hardly allowed to assume a more emotional role. Lastly, Jennifer Esposito does not fulfill her role, is positioned in an excessively Manichean point and his performance goes beyond the search for power and he is unsuccessful.

From the first sequence, it can be seen that Possession of Maria It will be another American horror film that will join the dubious quality film. First, not even the aesthetics of the film's title are cared for and left to a negligible length. As the viewer knows what the film is called, it can be associated, but there is no aesthetic intention to do so. So the photographic direction meets, can't go any further on a tape where the problem is rooted. However, artistic direction triumphs in the recreation of the ship, but does not put the same performance in the dark environment that surrounds the story. Further, the special effects are very unlikely and, above all, should have considered a more defined view, they look terribly chaotic.

On the other hand, the assembly follows a structure that uses flashback, but there are no spikes in activity, dynamism, movement … On the contrary, Being so linear, it produces a certain weight in the viewer. In addition, there is tranquility in the way the mystery unfolds, which is easily solved, something that takes the action away. Therefore, it is registered that they didn’t take advantage of the physical elements on stage and didn’t give them a more sensible artistic and narrative value. Finally, the soundtrack and musical composition do their job remarkably, but, like the rest of the film, they follow an imaginable distribution and that means that, instead of plunging the viewer into terror, he alerts them to what is at hand . come on. Therefore, they are consistent with what is seen on the screen, but there is no expressive meaning as such.

Possession of Maria It is a very unlikely horror film, which remains on a superficial plane. In addition, it follows all the clichés of genre cinema, along with some script flaws that are very good and some excessively superficial characters. Despite this, Gary Oldman and Emily Mortimer are great, although their work as an actor is overshadowed by the poor quality of the story. So, technical performance does not produce a remarkable result, but remains in a too linear assembly and there is no dynamism or expressive power; therefore, it produces apathy on the part of the public. A ship that sails to succeed in the lands of fear and after lifting the anchor falls under its own weight. Forgettable.

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