By Margot Pierce, Senior Horror Critic

There is a fine line between a campy exorcism flick and a genuinely unnerving portrait of spiritual decay. With The Possession of Mrs. Hyde, director Lucas Vane doesn’t just toe that line—he dances on it, sets it on fire, and hands the match to Reagan Foxx. The result is a film that asks a terrifying question: What if being possessed didn’t make you weaker, but better?

At its surface, the premise is familiar. Eleanor Hyde (Foxx) is a mousy, overlooked archivist at a decaying New England university. She is the kind of woman other characters forget mid-sentence. That is, until she uncovers a cursed onyx locket hidden inside a 17th-century demonology text. The entity inside—calling itself “The Wicked Reagan” (a playful, chilling nod to both The Exorcist’s Regan MacNeil and Foxx’s own star persona)—doesn’t want to destroy Eleanor. It wants to upgrade her.

This is where the film subverts the genre. There is no spider-walking down stairs or projectile pea soup. Instead, Mrs. Hyde’s transformation is subtle at first: sharper posture, wittier retorts to her condescending colleagues, a sudden talent for manipulation that lands her a promotion. The horror is not in losing control, but in gaining it—and realizing she prefers the demon’s version of herself.

Foxx delivers a career-best performance, oscillating between trembling vulnerability and serpentine confidence. In one pivotal scene, she stares into her bathroom mirror, tears streaming, and whispers, “I was nothing before you.” The demon’s voice—a seductive, layered echo of her own—replies, “Darling, you’re finally worth possessing.” It’s a moment that lands more like a dark romance than a horror beat.

The second half of the film abandons subtlety for spectacle, as Mrs. Hyde (now fully merged with “The Wicked Reagan”) systematically dismantles the lives of everyone who ever wronged her. The kills are creative, almost artistic—an academic rival is forced to recite her own plagiarism until her tongue knots; a dismissive dean is trapped in a mirror that only shows him as others truly see him.

And here is the controversial thesis the film posits—and the reason “Better” appears in so many early viewer reactions: Mrs. Hyde is objectively better off possessed. She is smarter, more powerful, happier. The film’s final shot is not of an exorcism, but of Mrs. Hyde sipping tea in a penthouse, her eyes briefly flickering black before she smiles at the camera.

Of course, the clergy and traditional horror purists will recoil. They’ll argue the film glamorizes evil. But Reagan Foxx and director Vane know exactly what they are doing. The Possession of Mrs. Hyde is a sly, vicious commentary on how women are told to suppress their anger, their ambition, their “wicked” desires—and what happens when they finally let the monster in.

Verdict: Better than any possession film in the last decade. Reagan Foxx is terrifying, magnetic, and unforgettable. Just don’t watch it alone. And definitely don’t watch it while holding an antique locket.

Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5)

The Possession of Mrs. Hyde is now streaming on Shudder and in select theaters.

Given the name Reagan Foxx (known adult performer), this might be a horror-themed adult parody. “Better” would then refer to performance quality or a sequel/remake surpassing the original.

The concept of possession can be explored through the lens of psychology, where it manifests as a severe dissociation from one's self or an overwhelming influence by another personality. This form of possession questions the stability of the human psyche and the factors that can lead to a fragmentation of identity. If Mrs. Hyde were to be a character undergoing psychological possession, her story could unravel the intricate dynamics of her mind, showcasing the struggle between her original self and the encroaching presence.

A Slow-Burn Descent into Gothic Madness
Wickedreagan Foxx’s atmospheric horror novella prioritizes psychological decay over jump scares—with haunting results.

In an oversaturated market of possession stories, The Possession of Mrs. Hyde dares to ask a quieter, more unsettling question: What if the demon doesn’t need to win? What if the woman invites it in?

Foxx’s novella follows Eleanor Hyde, a repressed 19th-century botanist’s wife whose life is a gilded cage of embroidery hoops, tepid tea, and her husband’s dismissive lectures. When she discovers a grotesque, pulsing orchid in her late mother’s armoire—tended with a diary full of occult marginalia—Eleanor begins a ritual that will unmake her in ways both literal and liberating.