The story started when a college student put what he called a "haunted Jewish wine cabinet box" on eBay. He claimed it had plagued several owners with rotten luck and bizarre paranormal stunts.
The terror of "The Possession" begins after a girl buys the wooden box at a yard sale. Among its contents is what may be an evil, possessing Jewish spirit called a dybbuk. The film uses a prop box, and that was just fine with the cast.
"The guy that owned it offered to bring it to Vancouver if we wanted to see the box, and there was a resounding 'no,'" said Jeffrey Dean Morgan. "I didn't want it anywhere near me. I still don't. I wouldn't tempt that kind of fate. In the making of this film, some odd things happened in the making of it that haven't happened to me in 25 years of making films. So my theory was, and it remains, don't mock the box."
To play the possessed one, the film's young star says she didn't know what to expect.
"I spent a lot of time in front of the mirror studying how I was going to pull off being possessed," said Natasha Calis. "Honestly, once we started filming and once we started kind of getting into the groove of it, I guess, it was really fun, and I had the time of my life."
"The Possession" also stars Kyra Sedgwick. It opens Friday.
