Possum

This film was brilliant, it has a haunting charm and is the only film (other than Donnie Darko and Hereditary) that left me jaw-dropped by the time the screen cut to black and the credits rolled.

This film has beautiful cinematography, haunting soundtrack and even better acting. Seriously, Sean Harris does a fantastic job, the way he manipulates his eyes to represent the torture his character goes through is genuinely scary.

Need I talk about the uncle character? I won't spoil anything but, Jesus, his character makes me unsettled and uncomfortable everytime he is on screen.

I love this film a lot, it's not a scary film, but definitely a haunting one.

I really don't get the criticisms: I don't see how it was boring at all, it was an hour and a half long and despite feeling like a slow burn, it has a surprisingly fast pace. It's not dull, it's bleak, quiet and grey. Also, it's not a horror movie!!! Stop saying it's a bad horror because it's a thriller, it's a study on the psyche of an incredibly tortured soul. Don't go into this expecting a horror movie.

I enjoyed the first half. It was atmospheric, intriguing, bleak but beautiful. In the second half it starts rehearsing itself as if just to fill time. Very slowly leads it up to the exact conclusion you thought it would have. The latter isn't necessarily bad just feels unrewarding after sitting through so much filler.

This is definitely an audience splitter, since the material itself is very dark and not so frequent on entertaining scenes. When that is said, the movie is very interesting and has a great atmosphere overall.

The main character played by Sean Harris, is a career turning point for the actor, as it is above everything else he has done before! it's emotional and gripping till the very end.

When the movie ends, everything comes together and all the plot points from before suddenly makes sense. Some of the scenes building up in the beginning, can feel a bit tiresome because of the slow tempo and the long unbroken cuts. Some of the scenes might feel a bit irrelevant, although not lesser interesting because of that.

A very solid produced film, with great performances and a very nerving atmosphere that haunts you long after the movie ends.

At first glance "Possum" is the kind of small, independent horror movie that the Brits do very well but which seem to crop up every couple of weeks; movie-making on the cheap that stand or fall on their writer's and director's imagination. Here the writer and director is Matthew Holness and this is his first film. Fundamentally, it's an actor's piece and there's really only two of them in it. Sean Harris is the seemingly crazy pupeteer, (Possum is his puppet, a spider-like thing that he carries around in a bag), and Alun Armstrong his possibly just-as-crazy uncle and the setting is a terrace house on the wrong side of derelict and some not very hospitable marshes.

This is the kind of thing that Samuel Beckett might have written and once upon a time it could have been a play on television. Of course, the idea of a puppet with a life of its own is nothing new and has been a staple of horror movies certainly as far back as "Dead of Night" but seldom, if ever, has it been done like this and never, to my knowledge, with a spider, albeit one with something resembling a human head. That it is genuinely disturbing is down in no small measure to Holness' direction, the utterly brilliant performances of Harris and Armstrong and a terrifically discordant score by The Radiophonic Workshop and being something of an arachnophobe myself I am sure it will give me nightmares. It may not burn up the multiplexes on a Saturday night but it's definitely the kind of edgy and intelligent cinema we should cherish.

'Possum (2018)' is a psychological thriller laden with symbolism and metaphor, both of which aren't fully fathomable until the credits have rolled. Once they have, however, the piece's previously enigmatic images and implications become much more impactful. In fact, they become downright disturbing. This is the true strength of the bizarre little tale: its retrospective horror. Of course, it has in-the-moment merit, too. This includes, but isn't limited to, a fantastic lead performance from Harris, a creepily ethereal score and some successful surrealist imagery. The spidery puppet that stalks the protagonist is rather alarming, especially when it decides to move. It's not so much a 'creature' as a reflection of both the lead's long-buried trauma and film's true meaning, which collate in a truly harrowing final scene. Obviously, the flick isn't perfect. It's pretty slow and, even, repetitive, especially as it moves into its second act. It also asks quite a lot of its audience, in the sense that it requires total engagement in order for its payoff to really stick. I can see why some haven't connected with it. However, its atmosphere and general intrigue are more than enough for me. When all is said and done, it forms a cohesive and actually quite (unconventionally) scary experience. It's not a nice film, but it's undeniably an affecting one. 7/10