- Directed by Oliver Park
- Written by Hank Hoffman, Jonathan Yunger
- Stars Nick Blood, Emily Wiseman, Paul Kaye, Allan Corduner
- Run Time: 1 Hour 33 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnffkM8OVWk
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a well-made movie in every way, and it was entertaining. But much of it didn’t feel like anything we hadn’t seen before, just repackaged.
Synopsis
We open at a house with “Don’t feed it” painted on several of the walls. Yosille, an old Jewish man, kills a chicken and spreads its ashes in a big circle. An old woman comes in and tells him to stop. He reads in Hebrew as the unseen demon makes noise all around him. A young girl comes in and says he knows what happens when she doesn’t feed. He says he’ll never feed her again. She says she’ll reunite him with his wife, so he lets the demon possess him— and then he stabs himself in the heart. Credits roll.
We cut to Borough Park, in Brooklyn. Claire and Arthur talk in their car. His father is super Jewish, and he was rude to her the last time they visited. Arthur says the old man will lighten up now that Claire’s pregnant with his grandchild. They go inside, and there’s a religious service in progress; it’s a funeral. Art’s father is a mortician.
Old Saul doesn’t seem so bad this time. He apologizes for not coming to their wedding. We also hear by phone that Art needs to use his father’s house as collateral for a loan taken out for their in vitro procedure, or they’re going to lose their own house. Saul’s got a photo of Sarah, a child, and he says something bad happened to her.
Heimish talks to Art, and it’s clear that Heimish doesn’t approve of him or his non-Jew wife. They’re morticians, and they have to prepare Yosille’s body. The knife is still stuck in the old man’s chest. Heimish warns Saul that Art probably came home because he wants something; he doesn’t trust Art.
Art pulls out the knife and breaks the amulet the old man is wearing. The lights flicker for a minute, and Art is really jumpy. Saul comes back in and finishes with the body himself. He sees the writing on the knife and realizes something is up, but it’s too late.
Upstairs, Art gets a headache, and we hear the same demonic sounds from earlier. Claire has a nightmare about Yosille, whom she’s never met.
Saul calls Chayim about the knife. The words are one of God’s names written backwards, but Chayim says it’s used to seal a demon in a body. Was there an amulet with the body? Saul says no, because Art threw it in the sewer. Saul checks out the body one more time and finds some oddities.
Heimish intercepts the bank’s call to Art about getting his father’s house. Claire sees something strange in the house. Heimish storms in and tells what he knows, and Saul is offended, but Claire is confused— she didn’t know anything about the real estate deal. Art tells her why he hates his father so much.
Downstairs, Saul reads Art’s real estate contract; he’s thinking about signing it. Suddenly, the lights flicker, and he sees a strange creature in the hallway. We don’t see what the demon does to him, but it’s not nice.
In the morning, Art goes downstairs and finds that his father is dead. Heimish blames Art for breaking the old man’s heart, but the contract is signed. There’s a big funeral, and Chayim asks Heimish what happened.
Claire sees Sarah, the dead girl, at the funeral. She tries to tell Art about it, but he’s in a trance. That night, he cuts a complex sigil into the wooden floor. No, he wakes up, and it’s just carpet.
Art goes to Yosille’s place, and it’s all covered in sigals and ritual stuff. He finds an audio recording labeled “Summoning attempt.” The old man talks about a trickster, a shapeshifter, an ancient predator, a taker of children. There’s a video of Sarah, and Yosille thinks he’s conjured an angel into her. It’s not an angel. As the obviously-demonic thing appears, the tape cuts out.
An old woman claiming to be Yosille’s husband, comes to see Claire. She calls Art, but the phone disconnects. Claire takes the old woman down to the mortuary, where Yosille’s body is still in the cooler. Claire opens the drawer, and it’s the man from her dreams. “Soon your child will join countless others,” the old woman says. She sees the amulet in the drain, and the old woman orders her to burn it.
Clair burns it, and Yosille’s body bursts into flame. She sees the demon and runs away. She goes upstairs, and everything is falling apart. Art arrives, and Claire is missing. He encounters Sarah, who says she wants a child.
Art calls Heimish; they are furious at each other, but he’s the only one who knows anything. Heimish calls Chayim, who comes to look at the sigil on the floor. “It’s a sacrificial altar for those who enter it. I must finish what Yosille started.” The demon’s name is Abyzou. Chayim makes a new pendant to trap it. Art will have to use the knife like Yosille did. The demon appears out of nowhere and kills Chayim.
Saul appears, and he tells Art to “Do what it wants.” The demon attacks and kills Heimish next. Art does the ritual, same as Yosille did, and the demon takes him. He grabs the knife and— loses it.
Heimish returns, and he’s got the knife. He puts it back in Art’s hand and stabs him. Art dies. They both look at the circle, which is now broken. That wasn’t Heimish.
Claire wakes up under a table. Art is there, and everything is OK. No— he’s the demon, luring her onto the sigil, right where it wants her and her yummy unborn baby.
Commentary
The creature is very effective. It’s like a Jewish version of the “Autopsy of Jane Doe.” There are a lot of loud-noise jumpscares in this, which is pretty lazy, but the sets and cast are excellent.
It’s a basic possession movie, but this time with a more Jewish angle. It’s interesting and good, but there’s not much new here.