I went into this film knowing nothing about it and I’ve got to say as far as possession movies go, they’re pretty burnt out, but The Atticus Institute gave a nice switch to the typical feel. The best part to me personally? Pure lack of religious involvement for almost the entirety of the film. It’s there, but it’s over so quickly it doesn’t linger as a cliché.

Early on, The Atticus Institute was kind of ..meh. I didn’t care for the documentary style, but I got used to it. The performances given during the “interview” scenes are very well done. Almost genuine enough you feel they could be real people. Rya Kihlstedt did an excellent job playing the part of Judith as well – to the point where you start to care for her, especially right before the end of the movie.

The story starts off slow….very slow, but once you get to the “meat” of it, you’re pulled in pretty quick. It’s not a very scary film, by any means, but it didn’t have to be. There was enough going on to keep you interested to where the jump scares weren’t overdone or misplaced. I watched this while wearing headphones and I have to say the sound quality in majority of those scare scenes was on point. It was super interesting to see what kind of involvement the U.S. Government would have while dealing with possession and it met every expectation I had. One of the the highlights for me is a soldier looking directly into the camera and saying, “Imagine being 22 or 23 years old, best shape of your life and armed to the teeth, and you’re scared of a lady that looked like she could have been your primary school teacher.” It really helped me dig into the story more.

Overall, The Atticus Institute was great, not perfect, not terrible, great. I didn’t have to force myself to stay into it. Production quality was fantastic for the style they were aiming for, though I feel like up until a certain point they were telling me more about the events than showing me. The interview scenes were starting to outweigh the actual film, but it stopped when needed and the actual story started coming through more. My only negative statement about the film is that it just ends with a few paragraphs about the aftermath. I’m not sure it could be wrapped up in a nicer way, so my heart wasn’t completely blown apart. You’ll find some humor in that statement once you watch it yourself..