Possessor

In this film, set in the near future, brain implant technology allows one person to inhabit the mind, body, and spirit of another. A clandestine corporation uses this technology to assassinate wealthy and powerful people for profit. The film explores what happens when the host starts to fight to regain control from a guest who is not entirely mentally stable, to begin with.

Interesting enough premise. The film is set in a very bleak version of the future where cities appear to be sparsely populated (perhaps from some event that greatly reduced the population such as plague or war; a motif borrowed from Argento's Tenebre). The film relies heavily on psychotropic imagery, and this adds to the overall frightening and confusing atmosphere since most of this imagery is nightmarish (distorted faces reminiscent of David Cronenberg's The Brood, warped colors, bursts of sound and images, blurs, rapid-fire images and strobing flashes of light). The film further relies on ultra-violence as a motif that rivals even the Italian slasher films of the late 1970s and early 80s (such as Susperia, Tenembre, Opera, etc.). Possessor contains explicit sexual motifs including full male nudity and erect penises, which reminds me very much of Antichrist (2009) or The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). These are juxtaposed with explicit imagery of knives penetrating flesh. All of this results in a nightmare landscape. The ending is purposely left confusing so that that the viewer can arrive at their own conclusions. For some viewers, this will be frustrating.

All of this wraps up into a very worthwhile enough film, but for viewers with a more sophisticated palate (if you are looking for a Blumhouse type film Possessor is not what you are looking for). It is disturbing to be sure. However, it is very well made and anchored by two very outstanding performances from Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott. It also features Jennifer Jason Leigh and Sean Bean in very laudable supporting roles (whether or not Sean Bean dies I will not spoil). Possessor is a "Criterion Collection" caliber film that will give the viewer some satisfaction analyzing and will with you long after you see it.

Ok, i don't usually write reviews here, although I am an avid movie fanatic.

To be frank i wasn't familiar with Brandon Cronenberg and his work up until now, and I must say this is a treat for the fans of his Dad's work.

The beginning is kind of meh I admit and nothing special but from the mid point towards the end it keeps getting better and better and the main thing is the beautiful atmosphere and cinematography and visuals and practical effects in the style of 80s masterpieces of his famous father.

This is by far the most interesting movie in this "subgenre" of horror in years and maybe even from the 80s/90s and since David shifted more towards the "mainstream" if that is something you can ever say about David Cronenberg.

Also the acting is great as is the casting. The colors and the mood of the film are really on point. Shot out to Director of photography.

To top it all of the "ending theme" or "possessor" as it is credited in the soundtrack by Jim Williams is nothing short of a masterpiece.

If you loved David Cronenberg's "Videodrome" or "The Scanners" or even "Dead Ringers" you will surely appreciate this one..

Do not be thrown away by the bad reviews and take a look for yourself!

I think this is one of those films you will love or hate.

It is quite slow moving and you do have to pay attention to get the most from it. Personally, I enjoyed it, and it makes a change from the usual sci-fi 'factory' movies churned out by Hollywood.

The acting, writing, and production are superb.

The incipit is really good: an agency that perform contract killings, use a very innovative technology that implants a device on the brain of a designated target that allows to the killer to remotely wire. Therefore the person is replaced, his free will is canceled and the killer is then able to complete the assignment, without being directly involved. The concept is really good, but the movie has a lot of issues.

The movie has an ethereal kind of narration, which is a good choice, considering the main theme, but the pace is too slow. The director, which is also the main screenwriter, wanted to experiment, by creating strange effects and applying weird sound design and music, which I personally appreciated, but the story is not going on. There are a lot of stuff that are not explained: we never know what this agency is, why it exists, is it some kind of secret government project? Who are these agents? Why they are doing what they are doing? Do they receive a special training? Because none of this is clarified, I did not care about the context nor characters, I could not bound with them. The main character, Tasya Vos, played by Andrea Riseborough, has clearly some personal issue with the ex fiancée, or maybe husband, I don't get to know, but why her relationship is broken? What happened? Is it because of her job? You see how many questions I am writing in this review? There tons of plot holes.

After an interesting and involving intro, the screenplay starts to crumble. I have understood that the director wanted to keep a mistery-vibe, but you cannot keep your audience completely blind for the entire movie. There was a lot of potential, but it was wasted, because the director decided to play too much with visual effects, instead on focusing more on the story.

There aren't enough people doing this kind of stuff anymore, you know, the kind of movies David Cronenberg used to do, low budget but well crafted, high concept and not afraid to disturb, then lo and behold, looks like his son took the torch and I couldn't be happier. Possessor has some great performances and nice visual choices, the body horror bits do not disappoint as well and I thought the narrative was engaging from start to finish, found no issues with the pacing whatsoever.

We need more creative works like this on horror-fantasy.