Disclaimer that I'm mostly basing this off of some conversations I once had with Father Peter, the Catholic priest on campus. So, also keep in mind this comes from a Catholic perspective.
I always find myself close to laughing when watching movies like The Possession, especially during the exorcism scene where everything is absolute chaos and flying around and everyone is screaming. It makes me wonder, is that actually what an exorcism looks like? Probably not.
My friends and I were able to have a couple of interesting conversations with Father Peter last year since he has conducted a few minor exorcisms during his time as a priest. He cleared up a few things for us, the most pressing idea being that no, exorcisms are not as insane as people make them out to be in movies. My biggest concern during the conversation was if any person was susceptible to demonic possession, if, according to Father Peter, demonic possessions are real. He responded by saying that no, not just any person can be possessed. In a way, the person has to allow the possession to happen; they have to be so lost and so far wandering that they let the demon in.
I don't know if The Possession was hoping to make a somewhat accurate depiction of demonic possession and the subsequent exorcism. But, in my opinion, it isn't accurate. It makes no sense why Em would be possessed following this logic; even if she might "allow" the dybbuk to possess her, she wasn't lost or wandering or in a dark state of mind. She wasn't in a situation that would allow her to be more vulnerable than she would be naturally. She was very content and happy with her life and the people around her.
Of course, I could be a little off base right now since this should probably be looked at from the perspective of Judaism rather than Catholicism. Just some thoughts about exorcisms.
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