Rating: 2 / 5
The first thing you'll notice when watching this movie is that it claims to be "based on true events." That's not really surprising, as most ghost stories claim the exact same thing. I did some research, though, and it turns out, it kind of actually is. There was a box (known as the Dibbuk Box) selling on Ebay that was supposedly haunted. It was originally owned by a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust; it kept changing hands, each person who owned in claimed that they experienced nightmares, health issues, and sometimes death around them. It eventually made its way to a man named Jason Haxton who wrote a book about the things he experience while in possession of the box. It all comes down to what you, personally, believe. I don't know how much, if any, of that I believe. But it does mean that the movie was at least partially telling the truth. I've made it a mission to find and read "The Dibbuk Box" by Jason Haxton, so that I can see just how truthful the movie is, but I have a feeling that the events in the movie were only loosely based on the things that actually happened.
Anyways, here's what the movie is about. A man, recently divorced, gets to have his two daughters every weekend. After buying a new house, he stops at a yard sale to see if he can find some new dishes. One of his daughters, Emily, finds a strange box that she is very drawn to. He buys the box for her, and she becomes obsessed with the thing. She won't allow anyone else to touch it, and if they do, she gets extremely violent with them. Eventually she even starts getting violent with her family. She stabbed her dad with a fork, and threw a bunch of glass at her mother. But that was pretty much where the action ended. The main reason they were concerned with her to begin with was that she was acting weird, unlike herself. They just decided to get her some help when she started being mean. Her dad, who was a basketball coach, went to a professor at his college to have him inspect the box. He learned that it was a Jewish device used to contain demons, that it should never be opened (which of course, Emily did), and that the only way to get rid of the demon (and save his daughter) was to get the demon back into the box. To New York he goes, to find a rabbi who can help him.
All of that sounds interesting enough, though I still feel like the "real" story is more interesting. The movie, though it had an interesting story, was incredibly boring. It mostly consisted of Emily getting distant from her family and friends and her obsession with the box. By the time there was any action, half of the movie was over; and when that action took place, it wasn't that great. I've already stated two of those things above, and there was only one more to speak of. The ending scenes, where the rabbi was trying to help them get the demon back in the box, were more comical than anything. It wasn't exciting; it wasn't scary. It had an interesting story, but I'd much rather read Jason Haxton's version of things. What's sad is how much I was looking forward to seeing the movie, and how disappointed I was with it. I was hoping for some real scares, even if they were cheesy or cliche; but there were no scares at all. I will say that once the demon had fully taken over Emily, it looked pretty cool. So, there's that...
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