Faithless, Fearless, and Hopelessly Found-Footage
The Possession of Michael King is a movie that begins with promise: an atheist filmmaker daring the forces of darkness to “prove him wrong.” What could go wrong, right? Everything. Absolutely everything.
Directed by David Jung (in what feels like both his debut and his farewell), this 2014 found-footage horror flick stars Shane Johnson as the titular Michael King — a grieving husband, doting father, and professional skeptic whose hobbies include self-destruction and very poor life choices. What follows is ninety minutes of screaming, shaky cameras, and existential regret — both from the protagonist and, eventually, the viewer.
Plot: Atheist Challenges Satan, Loses
The movie opens with Michael’s wife, Samantha, dying in a car accident after consulting a psychic — a sequence that’s tragic, if only because it sets off this entire cinematic catastrophe. Distraught and angry, Michael decides the best way to cope is not therapy, not love for his daughter, but filming himself as he invites every occultist, demonologist, and frog-licking necromancer he can find to mess with his soul.
He announces his mission: to make a documentary disproving the supernatural by experiencing it firsthand. It’s like if Neil deGrasse Tyson tried to disprove ghosts by living in The Conjuring house — only less scientific and more LSD.
Soon, he’s visiting “experts” who are less qualified than a Reddit thread. First up is a priest whose Satanic prayer backfired, then a couple of demonologists who drug him, tie him to a cross, and immediately start having sex in front of him. (You know, like in all reputable research settings.)
Michael’s reaction? Not to call the police, not to stop filming, but to say: “Huh, still no demons.” Sir, you’ve just been spiked, restrained, and assaulted by Satanic swingers — I think you’re missing the forest for the ritualistic tree.
Then there’s the necromancer who makes him inhale toad juice (apparently “DMT from a dead frog,” because nothing says “scientific inquiry” like drug-induced amphibian smoothies). This leads to hallucinations, a cemetery séance, and the film’s first genuine scare: realizing how far you still are from the credits.
Found Footage, Lost Plot
The film is shot in the “found footage” style, which here translates to “camera taped to a blender.” Every scene is either too dark to see or too shaky to interpret. At one point, Michael attaches a GoPro to his own emotional breakdown, turning what could have been psychological horror into an unintentionally hilarious YouTube vlog: “What’s up, demons? It’s ya boy, Mike!”
The gimmick could have worked if the story had discipline — but no. The found-footage angle is as inconsistent as Michael’s sanity. Sometimes it’s his camera, sometimes a mysterious third angle, sometimes it’s like the demon hired its own cinematographer.
Character: Michael King, Patron Saint of Terrible Ideas
Shane Johnson plays Michael as a man whose defining characteristic is “grim stubbornness” — imagine a dad from a Home Depot commercial slowly losing his mind. He begins as a skeptic and ends as a cautionary tale for anyone who’s ever said, “What’s the worst that could happen?”
He spends most of the movie sweating, screaming at walls, and recording himself muttering about “scientific proof,” while his sister Beth babysits his daughter and silently wonders when Child Protective Services will intervene.
There’s a point where Michael sleepwalks into Beth’s room with a knife. Later, their dog winds up dead in his daughter’s bed. And somehow everyone in this family just… stays in the house. If my brother started performing DIY exorcisms and leaving me cryptic video messages, I’d be gone faster than a Ouija board at Bible camp.
The Demonic Transformation: 50 Shades of Drool
As the possession takes hold, Michael goes through the standard checklist of cinematic demon symptoms: voices in his head, black veins, and the gradual inability to use a mirror without snarling at it.
But instead of terror, it mostly feels like an acting workshop gone rogue. There’s an extended sequence of Michael contorting his body, yelling at himself, and bleeding from multiple orifices — all while filming it like an audition for Paranormal Activity 12: Midlife Crisis.
The voice in his head (which sounds suspiciously like a rejected Batman villain) whispers stuff like, “We’re together now, Michael,” and “Kill your family.” It’s supposed to be chilling, but it mostly feels like a very toxic breakup.
Supporting Cast: Demons, Dead Wives, and Disinterested Doctors
The supporting characters exist solely to deliver exposition or die trying.
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Beth (Julie McNiven) — The sister with the thankless job of keeping Michael’s child alive while he’s busy yelling at invisible entities.
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Ellie (Ella Anderson) — The adorable daughter who serves no purpose except to be the final “don’t kill your kid” test of moral strength.
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Beverly the Psychic (Dale Dickey) — Returns early on to apologize for her previous nonsense before the movie immediately forgets she exists.
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Augustine and Marsha, the Horny Demonologists — Truly, they deserve their own spin-off called Fifty Shades of Satan.
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The Necromancer — A man so dedicated to his craft he probably has Yelp reviews that read, “One star, summoned the wrong spirit.”
Every single person who meets Michael either dies, runs away, or makes him inhale something — which, to be fair, is also how most film students experience documentary work.
Direction: The Devil’s Handycam
David Jung’s direction feels like someone watched The Exorcist, Blair Witch Project, and YouTube ASMR videos simultaneously and said, “I can combine these.” The result is a film that’s alternately too loud and too incoherent.
To the director’s credit, the special effects aren’t half bad — the demonic makeup, the levitation, the self-inflicted wounds all look decently gory. The problem is that none of it matters when the story’s pacing resembles a possession itself: slow, uneven, and full of inexplicable screaming.
And the editing? If demons really were responsible, then congratulations — they’ve mastered Final Cut Pro.
Themes: Science vs. Faith vs. Sanity (All Lose)
The film pretends to explore the conflict between skepticism and belief, but it quickly devolves into a cautionary tale about why you shouldn’t try to disprove Hell by inviting it into your living room.
Michael’s mission to “expose the supernatural” becomes an accidental speedrun of every bad idea in horror history: summoning demons, taking hallucinogens, performing necromancy, and filming it all like a TikTok challenge gone demonic.
If the film had leaned into satire — imagine MythBusters: Demonic Edition — it might’ve been brilliant. Instead, it takes itself so seriously that it’s unintentionally funny. You can almost hear the devil rolling his eyes every time Michael says, “Science will explain this!”
Ending: Demon 1, Humanity 0
The climax (if we can call it that) has Michael fully possessed, his sister dead, and his demon whispering sweet nothings like, “We’re together now.” Just when you think he’s going to kill his daughter, he jumps out a window instead — the rare case of a horror protagonist making the only correct decision of his life.
The movie ends on a flashback of his wife dying, as if to remind us that none of this would’ve happened if she’d just used a parking app.
Final Thoughts: The Devil’s Documentary of Diminishing Returns
The Possession of Michael King tries to be profound — a meditation on belief, grief, and hubris — but ends up being a found-footage fiasco that’s neither scary nor smart. It’s like watching a YouTube skeptic get roasted by Satan in real time.
There’s a kernel of a good idea buried somewhere in all the screaming: a man so desperate for proof that he becomes the very thing he denies. Unfortunately, Jung smothers it under clichés, noise, and GoPro footage of a sweaty guy arguing with himself.
Final Verdict:
⭐️½ out of 5.
A horror movie that mistakes loud for scary and self-destruction for storytelling. Watching it feels like being possessed — not by demons, but by regret. If you want proof of evil, skip the séance and just press play.
