Jerica Washington-Smith

I truly thought this was going to be the force to be reckoned with when it came to horror movies for “us” but nah! It was a movie that wanted to talk about the stereotypical situations that are alluded to plague all black families! Instead of staying true to the original story of the Ammons family the “artistic” liberties were taken and the story shaped into something wicked. The idea that this stellar acting was given a story line to demean and portray the black family as one that deals constantly and for generations with literal and figurative demons! Granted unless one is truly involved directly in a series of events that leave a lasting effect we can’t truly say that this isn’t indeed how these types of possession’s occur. It would have been so much more enjoyable if the storyline would have remained in the factual depiction of the highly publicized true story and if the movie would have extended the events experienced by the family throughout the movie rather than to rush through the events to the end of the movie to show the exorcism and the death of the evangelist. It was so disappointing as the cast brought the heat when it came to their acting and the angles of the camera were stellar! It’s just awful that the script was so lackluster! I’m sad that the black voices so often fail to tell the story as is and feel the need to tell a story to appease those that assume about us! I hope that the story of Ms. Ammons is told in this same scale of this film and the children get the sense of peace that is needed. I appreciate this door being opened for the horror genre and the black community; I just hope to see it be executed even better in the future!