In all honesty, body horror is not really my thing. While I have not indulged myself too much, there is something so meaninglessly disturbing about the subgenre that just grosses me out more than it does compel me. While this particular slice of terror has become attributed over the years to David Cronenberg, his son Brandon Cronenberg is able to take his father's reputation and run with it in a much more contemporary direction. Possessor is one of the most interesting yet uneasy films I have seen this year and one that I was fascinated with from its first frame. With its nearly silent atmosphere and phenomenally creepy performances, this film is unafraid to take its audience to places that they will be wildly uncomfortable with. That is where this movie finds its strengths, though, and even while it is hard to look at some of the shots presented, its pieces come together in the bloodiest, most intoxicatingly gripping fashion.
Tasya (Andrea Riseborough) is an agent working for a company in which her mind gets transferred into that of someone expendable to pull off assassinations for high-profile clients. When she invades the mind of Colin (Christopher Abbott), a young man working at his father-in-law's company, the two fight to regain control of his mind as they fall into a hallucinogenic state of power. This premise of taking over someone else's body is not entirely a new one but I do not think it has ever been taken to such extremes as this. Both written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, this film is absolutely mesmerizing to watch and sucks you in better than many other sci-fi thrillers I have seen recently. The idea of controlling someone else knowing that they will die at the end of a mission by "suicide" is just haunting and Cronenberg does a great job of making his audience feel like pure shit about the characters' choices. The thing that I was not expecting about this film, however, was that it never quite ventures too much into the horror territory. Sure, it has its moments that made me uncomfortable and a bit queasy but I was never exactly scared of what was on screen. Cronenberg does a fantastic job of keeping this film within the bloody, sci-fi thriller range and while it will undeniably scare many people, he never goes so far as to outwardly spook his audience with surprises or supernatural entities. The atmosphere of this film is what truly makes it that much more effective and the almost silent way Cronenberg shoots his story makes it unsettling. The score from Jim Williams aids in this too, as the droning and spatial use of instruments makes the audience feel as if they are floating on a cloud in a nightmare that they cannot wake up from. The only, small issue I had with Possessor is that its ending did not blow me away as much as I was led to believe. Many films utilize twist endings that bring all of the minute details from the entire plot together but in this film, the twist at the end was only specifically shocking for that one moment. The rest of the film was a bit predictable and while that never took away from the deranged impact, the slow-burn feel of the story definitely dragged down the potential this movie had to be a modern, sci-fi masterpiece.
If it was not for the atmosphere of Possessor, I really do not think it would be as powerful as it ended up being. This was mostly due to the cinematography from Karim Hussain and the performances from the entire cast. Hussain shoots this film in a variety of ways that all played together beautifully. The handheld camera that he uses in the more personal shots of the characters and the close-ups of the brutality was amazing and the almost unnoticeable shakiness lends way to a grand feeling of unease. The way he moves the camera is nauseating and combined with the perfectly creepy editing from Matthew Hannam, the visual storytelling in this film is like no other. Riseborough and Abbott are who truly steals this film, however, and I was constantly terrified of them. Riseborough is unrecognizable as Tasya and her weary but relentless portrayal of this "protagonist" was stellar. The most interesting scenes, however, come when she has invaded the body of Abbot's character Colin. Abbott has to technically play two parts within his same face and the hesitant but affecting aura he gives off is just phenomenal. Seeing these two fight for control of Colin's body is just plain scary and I could watch Cronenberg make them spiral into madness for hours. I was also able to see the Uncut version of Cronenberg's original vision so that definitely plays a part in how graphically effective this film was with its use of sex and violence. While many do not have the stomach to watch something like this, I never felt like the bloody, murderous scenes were at all gratuitous. This is a problem that I have with a lot of sci-fi/horror in that they rely on shock value to get a scare from the audience. Cronenberg never relies on that, as he knows he can create a memorable and terrifying experience without the use of blood and gore: he just chooses to use it to enhance the pain that can be felt. Possessor will go down as one of the most quietly affecting sci-fi films of all time and I was moved by every minute of it. Despite its fairly generic form, Cronenberg uses this bleak morbidity to prove that he can not only live up to but possibly succeed the iconic status in the sci-fi/horror set by his father.
Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor is one of my favorite films of this entire year and while that might say something strange about me as a person, it is hard to deny how visceral of an effect this story had on me. The performances were excellent, the direction from Cronenberg is incredibly solid, and there is no doubt that I left this theater feeling a bit weirder about myself than I would have liked. This level of sensationalism is not for everyone but if you are in the mood for a thrilling and unabashedly bloody time, this new addition into 2020's horror slate is just for you.
My Rating: ★★★★½
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