Possessor (2020)- BFI London Film Festival 2020

Review

103min

Genre:       Horror, Sci-fi, Thriller

Director:     Brandon Cronenberg

Cast:         Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh…

Writers:     Brandon Cronenberg

-Synopsis-

A deadly but troubled operator for a shadowy organisation infiltrates the bodies of high value targets with brain implants and mind control technology, turning them into avatars for profit, only for her latest mission to go awry when the lines between hallucination and reality, and between host and possessor become blurred . . . with bloody consequences for all.

For all the many Hollywood actors and world cinema stars who help build a thespian family legacy, there’s an understandably far smaller group of people who follow the footsteps of their director parents to become fully-fledged filmmakers themselves, often with varying degrees of success—with the more renowned likes of Rob Reiner, Sofia Coppola, Nick Cassavetes, and Jason Reitman often following closely in their fathers’ footsteps and inheriting some of their cinematic sensibilities. Now Canadian writer/director Brandon Cronenberg proves that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with his tense hallucinatory and occasionally macabre sophomore feature—a brutal and nihilistic but stylish sci-fi horror/thriller meditation on modern technology, identity, and trauma.

Andrea Riseborough stars as ‘Tasya Vos’, an infiltrator and contract killer for a mysterious organisation with consciousness transplanting technology, a cold and distant woman who foregoes time with her estranged family for assassinations under the supervision of her handler ‘Girder’ (Jennifer Jason Leigh), as they take over victims to take out targets for profit, with dire consequences for both. But their most lucrative latest job—infiltrating a large tech corporation through employee ‘Colin Tate’ (Christopher Abbott), the boyfriend of the company boss ‘John Parse’s’ (Sean Bean) daughter ‘Ava’ (Tuppence Middleton)—soon becomes the riskiest when their mark stages a subconscious fightback, as the notion of reality and identity becomes blurry and no one is safe.

If you manage to sit through and stomach ‘Possessor’, it’s bound to leave a strong impression that Brandon Cronenberg shares his father’s penchant for horrifically graphic tales of broken people, not to mention a taste for gruesome violence and macabre body horror, and the free flow of the crimson red. But his contribution to a cult tradition has an even bleaker and more brutal edge, plus a palpable angst about identity and despair for the future which befits the generation for which it’s made. And despite the selective and occasionally grotesque ultraviolence, this is more dark sci-fi thriller than pure horror, with some distinct neo-noir undertones.

With a tense story which unravels within an unnamed metropolis in an unspecified near future, ‘Possessor’ drips not only with blood and violence but also an unsettling palpable atmosphere of uncertainty and despair too. And it’s elevated by a pulsating and ominous synth score with noir mystery tones from Jim Williams (Raw, Beast), and punctuated by gory, often brutal and occasionally excessive ultra-violence with light shades of the bloody head-splitting body horror which defined David Cronenberg’s storied cult film career, which when combined with some brief moments of graphic nudity and sex creates a package which truly earns its 18 rating in the UK.

‘Possessor’ isn’t lacking in the visual style stakes either, as Cronenberg and cinematographer Karim Hussain (Hobo with a Shotgun, The ABCs of Death) create and capture a subtle and sleek, occasionally neon-lit near future scape which looks like an extension of a contemporary minimalist corporate aesthetic. While the occasional intense strobing hallucinations—which come as the consequence of the characters fighting against the possessor procedure and struggling with their identity—add a jarring and macabre surrealism to the visuals which help the film to blend filmmaking styles.

After partnering with another son of a genre film favourite in 2018 for Panos Cosmatos’ ‘Mandy’, Andrea Riseborough jumps aboard another dark and colourful surrealist vision from cult film progeny with Brandon Cronenberg—albeit a less psychedelic but even bleaker concoction—in which she is undoubtedly the lead rather than just the eponymous character. Delivering yet another completely chameleonic and intense turn as a stoic and professional yet emotionally compromised figure in psychological flux. And her performance is admirably counterbalanced by Christopher Abbott—no stranger to daring cult indies himself—who proves equally impressive and lays himself bare as the both the psychological and physical vessel for Tasya Vos and her handlers, and simultaneously their foil, in what is essentially a co-lead performance . . . at least in terms of screen time.

Despite its merits as a genre-straddling story, ‘Possessor’ ultimately fails to make a lasting impression on any of them, or really triumph overall. As a piece of science fiction it barely scratches the surface of the genre’s potential by presenting several ideas which pull the narrative in several directions without ever doing anything substantial with them, instead using it all to justify its central plot conceit of consciousness transfer and mind control, without delving into its consequences beyond the immediate anxieties of the two lead characters. Although it’s certainly sporadically horrific it doesn’t quite qualify as a true horror film either, and as a thriller it’s just about intricate and enthralling enough to keep you gripped, but not enough to capture the imagination or leave a lasting impression.

The result is a cult film which revels in being just that, a nihilistic, mildly titillating and moderately sadistic human tale of bleakness and despair, with very little humanity and the end of the tunnel. And yet it’s alluringly uncompromising and boasts enough style to make a bloody mark and easily hold your attention over its runtime of just under two hours, crawling its way into your skin and proving difficult to wash off.

The Bottom Line…

Whilst it haphazardly jumps off the deep end and fails to fulfil the promise of its sci-fi premise, or indeed answer or at least illuminate the many questions raised by the narrative, ‘Possessor’ boasts more than enough style and mood, and is horrifically uncompromising enough to keep you morbidly gripped throughout, leaving you with the scars of the identity disorder and emotional trauma it so dourly depicts.

‘Possessor’ is out now in the US and on the 27th of November on VoD in the UK.

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