In Possession Movie Review

In Possession was one of a series of 26 self-contained films that legendary Hammer Films made between 1980 and 1984. Although the pictures were lensed in Britain, they often teamed an American star with a British star to intrigue audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. (Simon McCorkindale and Kathryn Leigh Scott in A Visitor from the Grave, David Carradine and Stephanie Beacham in A Distant Scream, Christina Raines and Simon Williams in The Late Nancy Irving, Season Hubley and Leigh Lawson in Black Carrion, Deborah Raffin and David Langton in Last Video and Testament, Dirk Benedict and Jenny Seagrove in Mark of the Devil, Michelle Phillips and James Laurenson in Paint Me a Murder, etc.) Many directors from Hammer's glory days were signed for the series, including Val Guest, who began at Hammer in 1954 and made such classics as The Creeping Unknown and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. Here, Guest has the unusual challenge of keeping In Possession's two story lines running simultaneously. Carol Lynley and Christopher Cazenove are Sylvia and Frank Daly, who experience nightmares (flash-backs? premonitions?) in the house where they're staying. When they go downstairs, other people who neither see nor hear them are inhabiting their rooms and going on about their lives. The Dalys don't know whether the people are ghosts or if THEY ARE! (Ta-dah!) Very well written by Michael J. Bird, the tale moves along at a suspenseful clip and Lynley and Cazenove have good chemistry together. The psychological creepiness escalates in intensity and there is, mercifully, no copout conclusion. In Possession is not yet available on video, alas, but does air every so often on the Sci Fi Channel.

1984 90m/C GB Carol Lynley, Christopher Cazenove, David Healy, Judy Loe, Bernard Kay, Vivienne Burgess, Brendan Price, Peter Bland, Hugh Sullivan, Marianne Stone; D: Val Guest; W: Michael J. Bird.