Shailendra Rajak

In theory, putting “possession” in the title of a horror movie should add to its box-office allure. But it probably won’t take long for word to trickle out that “The Possession of Hannah Grace,” after the first five minutes, is not an exorcism movie. Rather, it’s about the corpse of a girl who dies during an exorcism (in New Canaan, Conn.), so technically speaking you could say that it qualifies. But viewers hooked on the spectacle of demonic possession tend to like their satanic tropes served neat. “The Possession of Hannah Grace” serves them sloppy, if not without a certain random soupçon of grisly style.