As I have always been fascinated by possession and excorcism I couldn't resist watching this documentary. Even though I was warned by other reviews. Let's start with the story. Janet is a young women from a close knit Maori family in New zealand. She is known as a happy go lucky spirit who's biggest problem in life is asthma. Things change after her partner, and father of her two young children, cheats on her and her grandmother dies. On a family party in a hotel she shows signs of depression, staring in front of her without emotion and desinterested in the party she worries her family. In the hotel the family steals a statue of a lion, one of a set off 2 ,that holds symbolic and spiritual meaning for them. They take it home with them to the house of one of Janet's aunties. Janet still seems withdrawn, stressed and worried. The family decides to call a family meeting to discuss the atypical behavior of Janet and decide to call on a Maori priest. He says that they shouldn't have stolen the lion and that Janet will heal when they reunite the lion with his twin. He says Janet is cursed/possesed by the lion for separating them. On the trip to reunite the lions Janet suddenly becomes angry at her surviving grandmother and shows very aggressive behavior, threatening to kill her grandmother. After the lions reunion she seems calmer and the priest leaves the family. Although Janet seems calm, tired and worn out, but calm and coherent the family is not satisfied. They don't seem to be able to rest until Janet is a shining example of total bliss. The movie describes this restlessness as love. I have my doubts. Seems to me that if they had let her be sad, angry and withdrawn accompanied by some extra attention, good food, sleep, a daily walk and regular counseling for a few months, what followed could have been avoided. Trust me, you will wish they had just accepted the situation instead of trying to 'cure' her. It is hard even to try and describe what comes next. The extended family gathers at the house, they put her to bed and start chanting 'go in peace and love' trying to excersise a demon from a girl that was totally calm just 5 minutes ago. Can you imagine being depressed after a bad break in your love life and the death of a lost one? And your family surrounding you with twenty committed to exercise your demon by rithmic chanting and stomping of feet? Just that noise would be enough to push your nerves to the edge. Not surprisingly her symptoms start to become worse. She becomes more agitated, talking to herself and starts showing signs off psychosis, muttering within herself about things that seems nonsensical. This encourages the delusion of the family who dubbele their efforts to excorcise her. They start giving her copious amounts of water and putting her in cold showers because 'the demon does not like hot water.' In one off those showers Janet throws up. Her family says she threw up the demon, they mop op the spit and declare, the only, bathroom a no go zone. At this stage everyone has been without sleep for 2 days. They have hardly eaten. Some of them haven't seen their children. So they decide to go get the kids. Increasing the population off the small house in thirty degree weather. Turning the house into an oven where no one is allowed to use the bathroom. Doing there business in diapers and towels. Janet isn't well. So they keep trying to excorcise the demon. The third/fourth day mass histeria seems to take a deadly hold of the family. They start seeing demons everywhere, in their other children too. They keep force feeding Janet liters and liters of water. When she doesn't swallow it anymore they just start throwing cups and plates full of water over her and her bed. Another girl is deemed possessed too and they start doing the same to her. After 5 days of this insanity we have 2 young woman being forced to the floor by their family, held down with the strength of 5 to 10 people, begging their family to stop drawning them. They do not listen. Instead of turning off the ever running water they drill a hole in the floor to relieve the flood that is all over the house. And they keep chanting, throwing water, force feeding water, yelling at the girls, sorry, the demon and pinning them down. When Janet actually draws on dry land after undergoing extreme water boarding for a week she swallows her own tongue causing her jaw to shut down. The family breaks her jaw open to give her more water and she dies. You would thing the tragic,pointless death off their loved one by their own hands would break this psychotic frenzy. But no, they keep going with the other girl. Finally, after almost a week, a spiritual advisor comes knocking, seeing the state of the family he declares the evil has gone and orders the second girl to the hospital. Hereby ending this tragic series of events. 5 off the family members where found guilty ofher death and received communist service punishments.
The documentary was well made, they capture a devasted community that fell victim to some kind of mass hysteria in a great serrenity. A serrenity uncommon for true crime drama. You can feel the the struggle of the two main victims piercing heart and soul. Interviews with bystanders capture your own understanding, grieve and doubts while seeing this happen to otherwise normal people. They only force judt one tear jecking moment. The message would have been clear whitout it but as a whole they showed restrained and respect for the people involved. They did not resort to a gritty, grindhouse horror look for which I thank them.
Because this is not a horror film. It is a portrait off the human condition.
Personally I am left with an overwhelming feeling off pointlessness. And although I have no doubt that nobody started this thing with the intention of hurting Janet I cannot (yet?) forgive them. It seems to me that if certain members of the family had checked their ego and had simply accepted that their perfect, warm family could be affected by something as unsettling as depression, Janet would still be alive and able to be a mother to her children.
Rest in peace dear girl.
The documentary was well made, they capture a devasted community that fell victim to some kind of mass hysteria in a great serrenity. A serrenity uncommon for true crime drama. You can feel the the struggle of the two main victims piercing heart and soul. Interviews with bystanders capture your own understanding, grieve and doubts while seeing this happen to otherwise normal people. They only force judt one tear jecking moment. The message would have been clear whitout it but as a whole they showed restrained and respect for the people involved. They did not resort to a gritty, grindhouse horror look for which I thank them.
Because this is not a horror film. It is a portrait off the human condition.
Personally I am left with an overwhelming feeling off pointlessness. And although I have no doubt that nobody started this thing with the intention of hurting Janet I cannot (yet?) forgive them. It seems to me that if certain members of the family had checked their ego and had simply accepted that their perfect, warm family could be affected by something as unsettling as depression, Janet would still be alive and able to be a mother to her children.
Rest in peace dear girl.
