Ava is a young woman who awakens from being possessed by a demon. When she starts picking up the pieces of her life and tries to figure out what exactly happened to her, she uncovers a mystery that reveals quite a bit more than she expected about her family. Along the way she deals with the people she affected while under the influence of the demonic spirit that inhabited her body for nearly a month. Her attempt to find answers gets complicated.
Ava’s Possessions rides the line of Horror and Comedy by mostly focusing on the idea that once you have been possessed, you have to figure out how to live normally again. Louisa Krause (Martha Marcy May Marlene) plays the titular character Ava. The film takes her through encounter after encounter as she plays detective and tries to uncover the truth. There is also a large chunk of the film dedicated to a bit that once you have been possessed, you can receive a “get out of jail free” card by attending a support group.
When Ava learns that her possession was violent and extreme, she begins to get her life back together. She cleans her apartment to find large bloodstains under the carpet and a mysterious watch with an engraving on it. Her search for answers leads her to uncover a mystery about why she was chosen to be possessed, and a plot is revealed that shows her just how dark her family really is. Plenty of jokes are thrown in as well, and some additional demon possession happens when the situation turns deadly.
Ava’s Possessions is a very self aware comedy that falls right in line with a lot of the independent genre films we’ve been seeing for the last couple years. Viewers familiar with last year’s Spring will recognize actor Lou Taylor Pucci playing the somewhat love interest character Ben, and seasoned genre fans will likely note William Sadler and Carol Kane for their roles. While the film riffs and calls back heavily to everything from Rosemary’s Baby to the more recent wave of possession driven Horror films, Ava’s offers a bit more than what you would get out of something less original.
Hawkins’ Rating: 
Out of a Possible 5 Stars