Delayed Reaction: Possessor

Premise: An assassin who takes over other people’s bodies has a breakdown due to carrying too many consciousnesses in her.

 

Humans are complex organisms. Nature plays a part in who we become, but nurture factors in big too. I have similarities to my parents, but I’m markedly different than them. We don’t share a lot of interests. Our worldviews are pretty different. But I’ve never had someone tell me that I’m just like either of them. It’s like that for a lot of parents and children.

 

Did anyone ever tell Brandon Cronenberg that he didn’t have to be just like his dad? It’s weird that Possessor really is a David Cronenberg movie if David Cronenberg was born in the 80s. It’s weird to me when filmmakers have family members who are really similar to them. It makes much more sense to me when it’s a Sophia Coppola. Her father is a great filmmaker. She’s a great filmmaker. They make completely different kinds of films though. What’s going on with Brandon Cronenberg? Is he really just like his dad or did he think he had to go in this direction?

 

I got distracted with these thoughts while watching Possessor, which I did like. It’s a weird-ass movie. The cast is stellar. Andrea Riseborough is an actress I’ve seen in many movies but I never know what to expect from her. She has crazy range. In this, she’s great at playing on the edge of a complete breakdown the whole time. This is the kind of movie Chris Abbott loves. He could easily be a RomCom kind of actor. He’s got the charm, but he’s got that Ryan Gosling bug where he’s most comfortable when he’s playing characters with a little dirt on them.

 

Brandon clearly has his father’s knack for body horror and trippy visuals. It’s not my preferred flavor of horror*, I’ll admit. I’ve never been that enamored with his father’s stuff either. I could barely get through Crimes of the Future earlier this year. Possessor is a lot of style. Brandon Cronenberg has an eye for striking visuals that make you want to look away as much as you want to look at. It’s confidently made with a great cast. That makes up for a slight distaste of the style of it.

 

*This is a sect of horror that I have trouble with the definition. Possessor is called horror everywhere I check, however Under the Skin is horror in some places (ex. IMDB) but only SciFi in others (ex. Wikipedia). The only difference I can really find is the level of imagery. Under the Skin keeps most of the worst stuff off screen whereas Possessor shows every bit of violence and weird images. Seems arbitrary to me, but whatever.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend