At the Movies

Is The Possession a truly scary movie? No. 1 flick with a surprise ending triesto touch on reality

The Possession starts out with a tough-but-real scenario. Recently-divorced parents played by Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Grey’s Anatomy) try their best to transition their two daughters into a new reality.

Dad buys his own place. Mom gets a mildly controlling dentist boyfriend. Kids get weekend visits.

And when daughter Emily picks up an antique wooden box at a neighborhood estate sale — getting with it a dark spirit — things get, well, worse.

The movie's most unsettling moment pops up during the opening credits with the classic line "based on true story."

Produced by cult horror/comedy master Sam Raimi, the film follows Emily (or, Em) as an ancient Jewish demon takes possession of her soul, giving the young girl bizarre supernatural strength, uncontrolled fits of rage and an the occasional Exorcist-style devil voice.

Assisted by his ex-wife and a hip Jewish scholar named Tzadok (played by Hasidic rap artist Matisyahu), Em's father attempts to cast the parasitic beast out of his daughter and back into its little wooden home.

That appears to be a winning formula. The Possession took the No. 1 spot at the box office Friday, taking in $6.1 million on the first day of the important Labor Day weekend.

The Back Story

While Danish director Ole Bornedal makes the demonic transformation legitimately scary, the movie's most unsettling moment pops up during the opening credits with the classic line "based on true story."

The script is a reworking of the 2004 Los Angeles Times article "Jinx in a Box" about a university museum curator who purchased an eBay item described as a "haunted Jewish wine cabinet box" that contained objects like locks of hair, a dried flower, two wheat pennies, and a candlestick as well as a "dibbuk," a type of spirit known in Yiddish folklore.

Researching the mysterious box, the curator discovered the object's two previous owners experienced phenomena ranging from odd smells and dark shadows to more curse-like forces that brought about strokes and hair loss.

Luckily, with a steady dose of some silly action sequences, the cinematic retelling of the dibbuk box story feels less and less frightening as the movie progresses. Well, at least until the final scene . . .

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Affluent Houston suburbs top list of biggest holiday spenders in U.S.

Female shopper, mall, escalator.

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Residents in The Woodlands looove to do up the holidays.

It looks like Santa Claus is going to be competing with residents in The Woodlands to see who brings the most lavish holiday gifts this year.

This festive Houston neighbor ranked No. 13 in WalletHub's annual report on U.S. cities with the biggest holiday budgets in 2024.

Residents in this well-to-do suburb are expected to spend $3,395 on their Christmas gifts this year. That's up $79 from the $3,316 they were ready to drop in the 2023 ranking — but it bumped them down three spots from their previous ranking at No. 10.

The U.S. Census Bureau says that The Woodlands' estimated population of 114,436 had a median household income of $130,011 in 2023. No wonder they have the extra cash to spare.

The Woodlands consistently makes the list of the top 15 U.S. cities with the biggest holiday spenders, outshining its Houston neighbor Sugar Land, which slipped one spot this year from their previous high ranking of No. 14 in 2023.

The average holiday budget in Sugar Land is still an exorbitant amount – $3,214 – but that only garnered the city No. 15 in the overall ranking out of 558 U.S. cities. You gotta spend to stay on top.

The No. 1 city in the U.S. for biggest holiday spenders in 2024 is Newton, Massachusetts, a wealthy suburb right outside of Boston, where the median income measured in 2022 was $176,373. Slots 2 through 5 were all cities in California's Silicon Valley: Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Milpitas.

Six additional Houston-area cities landed in this year's biggest holiday budgets, including:

No. 25 – League City ($2,897)
No. 60 – Pearland ($2,223)
No. 238 – Pasadena ($1,267)
No. 292 – Missouri City ($1,204)
No. 355 – Conroe ($1,087)
No. 477 – Baytown ($824)

Meanwhile, Houston proper landed at No. 241 this year with an average holiday budget of $1,334.

Each year, WalletHub calculates the maximum holiday budget for over 550 U.S. cities "to help consumers avoid post-holiday regret," the website says. The study factors in income, age of the population, and other financial indicators such as debt-to-income ratio, monthly-income-to monthly-expenses ratio, and savings-to-monthly-expenses ratio.

Whether a Houstonian's holiday budget is under $200 or more than $1,000, it's better to prioritize remaining within that budget instead of racking up the credit card bill, according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.

"There are plenty of ways to enjoy the holidays and show you care without spending much money, like hosting potlucks or giving handmade gifts," said Lupo.

Other Texas cities that made it into the top 100 are:

No. 7 – Flower Mound ($3,541)
No. 11 – Frisco ($3,412)
No. 18 – Allen ($3,070)
No. 23 – Cedar Park ($2,930)
No. 32 – Plano ($2,658)
No. 39 – Round Rock ($2,538)
No. 45 – North Richland Hills ($2,484)
No. 52 – McKinney ($2,386)
No. 76 – Richardson ($1,980)
No. 81 – Carrollton ($1,932)
No. 87 – Austin ($1,905)
No. 92 – Lewisville ($1,848)

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