Possessor
Andrea Riseborough stars in one of the worst movies of the year and honestly one of the most incomprehensible horror films ever made. A total slog of slipshod ideas and complete lack of understanding as to what makes a horror movie scary. But enough about The Grudge (2020), because she totally redeems herself with Possessor, a fantastically mean-spirited slow-burner from writer/director Brandon Cronenberg.
Riseborough stars as Tasya Vos, the cold and calculating employee of a mysterious organisation that utilises futuristic tech to body-hop into random civilians before forcing them to commit assassinations on high-profile targets. The film doesn’t waste anytime explaining this and instead throws the audience directly into the shoes of Holly, played by Gabrielle Graham. Minutes later, she begins stabbing a seemingly random man, before putting a gun into her mouth while yelling at an unseen person to “pull her out”. A few moments later, she’s dead and Tasya is back in her own body: a job (mostly) well done. It’s a complete whiplash of a sequence that immediately lets viewers in on what kind of experience they are in for.
The quality of Tasya’s work has her in the running to take over the position of her immediate superior, played to chilling effect by Jennifer Jason Leigh, but her real world attachments to her son and estranged husband are having a negative effect on her performance. There’s an occasional bleed-through effect from those that Tasya takes over that can be amplified from undue stress from the eponymous ‘possessor’.
Enter Christopher Abbot’s Collin Tate. Only chosen because he is set to marry the daughter of the organisation’s latest target, played by Sean Bean; his lack of familial connections or life goals seems to make him a perfect host. Unfortunately, he has more mental fortitude than anyone was expecting and a battle of will between he and Tasya begins to tear both of them apart (to reveal anything more about the plot would move into spoiler territory – which the trailers unfortunately already delighted in doing) but it’s safe to say that the body count gets far higher than Tasya or her organisation were planning for.
Possessor is a film that shouldn’t really work. It’s a violent arthouse flick that includes large sequences of moody visuals featuring mostly nudity and gore. The fact that it does work, and works well, shows that Cronenberg has made significant creative progress since his rather lackluster debut, Antiviral. The high-concept plot and themes never feel confusing or rushed and the focus is always kept on the characters’ personal journeys. Likewise the performances across the board are fantastic. Riseborough and Abbot are both doing the best work of their career, while Leigh and Bean are able to do a lot with their borderline cameo roles.
As worthwhile as it is, it must be reiterated though that Possessor isn’t for everyone. It’s a little too weird and graphic for the average viewer and anyone hoping for an optimistic view of humanity should look elsewhere. Everyone else? Strap in.
