The Possession of Hannah Grace | 2018 | R | – 3.7.4

Why is “The Possession of Hannah Grace” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “gruesome images and terror throughout.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes some minor male and female nudity, many scenes of gory and violent murders by a demonic entity and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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A woman (Kirby Johnson) dies during a disturbingly failed exorcism. Months later a morgue worker (Shay Mitchell) receives a mutilated corpse during the nightshift and locked inside the basement in dark hallways, the worker experiences nightmare visions that cause her to believe that the body is possessed by dark forces. Also with Stana Katic, Nick Thune, Louis Herthum and Grey Damon. Directed by Diederik Van Rooijen. [Running Time: 1:25]

The Possession of Hannah Grace SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A woman seems to appear nude in several scenes, but her chest, stomach, abdomen and genital area are covered with long and twisted arms and legs (we see back nudity and the side of a buttock in half a dozen scenes). A nude man lies on a gurney with a woman standing in front of him to obstruct his body. A woman wears a tank top through which we can see the outline of a bra (there’s no cleavage). A woman is showering and there’s a very brief glimpse of the side of her breast. A woman sits on a toilet and her pants slouched at her ankles.

The Possession of Hannah Grace VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 - A violent exorcism includes a woman tied to a bed at the wrists and ankles as she arches her back, screaming, shrieking, gagging and writhing; we hear bones clicking and crunching in her body and see her mouth open four times the normal width as she screams, roars, and speaks in a deep voice, her teeth look bloody and as she laughs maniacally, she head-butts a man, she causes two men to levitate with their arms spread as if crucified, one man slams against a wall twice and his head twists as he convulses and the room shakes (we hear breaking bones as he dies), and another man seems to be strangled invisibly and he gags and grunts; the woman's father suffocates her to death with a pillow and we see her hand twitch in close-up (we later see a flashback of this scene and in real time).
► Two flashbacks show a man turning to fire a gun at a police officer who is aiming her gun at him and then shoots; another officer falls dead from a bleeding chest wound and the woman's hands are shown covered with blood in close-up. A man pounds on the glass door of a morgue, is told to leave and when he returns later he sneaks in and grabs a woman by the neck, they struggle, and a bloody knife falls to the floor; two guards join the scuffle, one guard is cut on the forearm (we hear but do not see the cut, and later see the arm wrapped in gauze). A man grabs a woman and forces her to get a gurney and remove a corpse from a drawer; he insists on taking the corpse to the incinerator that has tall flames as he says, "She's still alive!" and the corpse attacks the woman and the man, killing him with a crunching neck break and leaving her unconscious as the scene ends. A woman in a stairwell finds a man high on a wall and the man turns upside down with his shirt off and his chest covered in blood; she screams and runs away.
► A corpse gestures and causes a police officer to levitate in the air with his arms spread and his neck twisting, it gestures and a guard falls dead with a crunching broken neck, the corpse drags an unconscious woman off-screen and she awakens in a morgue corpse drawer with bodies on both sides of her until she pounds and kicks her way out; the woman takes the officer's gun and shoots the corpse until it falls, pushes it into an incinerator as flames that fill the screen and it screams and grabs the woman by the hair, but releases and shrieks as the flames burn higher, apparently destroying it.
► Gas leaks out of an EMT vehicle in a garage until it stops running and the driver gets out to find an animated corpse that grabs him by the throat and breaks his neck loudly, then uses a gesture to smash another truck against him and to smash him into the EMT truck (we see the man dead with his face buried into a bumper and blood on the back of his head). A corpse grabs a man by the neck and levitates him as he shakes and grimaces; the scene ends with the man falling below the frame as we hear bones crunching. A woman on a rooftop shakes and levitates as a corpse stands in a shadow, grimacing and making gestures to cause the woman to shake and to break her neck, which occurs with a loud crack (the woman drops to the floor, dead).
► Many scenes occur in a dark morgue and its dimly lit hallways where lights go out and back on and a loud buzzer alarm signals the arrival of new corpses four times; in three scenes, we see a gurney with a body under a sheet or in a body bag, and another body arrives in a body bag that shows a badly twisted corpse with burns across the back and on the thigh and hand and forearm. A woman opens a body bag in a morgue to find a twisted female body (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and we see her bloody hair, covered in dirt with bumpy burns over thighs, arms, hands and part of the back, a deep gash at the throat and the hip and discolored skin with raw, torn muscle in the gashes; the body is placed into a drawer and the door is closed (the door pops open again in a few scenes). In a background shot, we glimpse a man as he sews up a corpse's shoulder in a morgue. A slumped corpse sneaks onto an elevator and stands up, bones creaking and snapping and we see bones moving in her bare back (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details). A body bag with a body in it is dragged by something unseen to a point off-screen. A female corpse skitters across floors like an insect, up and down walls, and sits in a ceiling corner, scaring people below who yelp and run in several scenes.
► Two women argue briefly. A man and a woman argue briefly. A man says his daughter's body disappeared from a mortuary. A man says that a corpse is refreshed every time she kills a person. A headline on a computer screen reads that a woman was the victim of demonic possession. A man tells a woman that a dead woman was exorcised unsuccessfully four times, so he had to kill her.
► As murders occur in a morgue, a corpse's skin develops spider veins over flesh and a wound disappears. A huge swarm of black flies fly out of the middle area of a corpse and fly off-screen as a morgue worker screams. Glass jars of medical tools shake on a table as a morgue shakes in three scenes and a jar falls and shatters on the floor; a woman picks up broken glass and cuts a finger (we see a little blood), sprays disinfectant on her fingers and wraps gauze around her hand several times. A woman smashes a fly underneath her hand on a wall (we do not see the dead insect).
► A woman sitting on a toilet in a washroom hears the hand dryer operate, looks under the stall door and sees a bloody disembodied hand grab a rubber ball from the floor and move off-screen with it; she yells in alarm. A woman pulls a corpse out of a drawer and it moves one arm slightly and exhales a loud breath, startling her. A woman hears voices and thuds off-screen and panics, hyperventilating. A woman sees a corpse on a hall floor in surveillance footage and gasps in alarm. A woman punches a heavy hanging bag furiously in two scenes.

The Possession of Hannah Grace LANGUAGE 4

 - 2 scatological terms, 5 anatomical terms, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (insane), 2 religious profanities (GD), 11 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, My God, Oh God). | profanity glossary |

The Possession of Hannah Grace SUBSTANCE USE

 - We hear that a police officer has just been released from alcohol and drug rehabilitation, a man accuses a woman of stealing his Xanax and she denies it, a woman opens a prescription bottle of an unknown medicine (she does not swallow any), a woman finds a pill bottle on another woman's desk and confronts her about it, a woman explains to two men and a woman that she works a nightshift in order to stay out of bars and away from drugs, we hear that a woman attends AA meetings, and we hear that a container of chloroform was found beside the body of a corpse. A man tells a woman he used to drink but stopped. A woman holds an unlit cigarette, and a woman begins to light a cigarette but does not.

The Possession of Hannah Grace DISCUSSION TOPICS

 - Demonic possession, death, working in a morgue, exorcisms, the undead, terror, torture, pain, mutilation, murder, power, danger, hallucinations, drug rehabilitation, mental illness.

The Possession of Hannah Grace MESSAGE

 - Dark forces are at work in the world but can be defeated.