POSSESSOR (January 2020)

POSSESSOR

(January 2020)

“I’m just here to fix your head.”

Brandon Cronenberg is back with the elegantly savage and caustic Possessor (released as Possessor Uncut), which finds Andrea Riseborough’s Tasya Vos up to her eyeballs in ruthlessly sinister corporate shenanigans.
Hi-tech assassination, murder by remote control, as Vos “interfaces” with a carefully vetted patsy, using their entire body to rather violently bump off whoever’s on her kill list.

Now…

To paraphrase Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Girder: “Consider (the face of) Colin Tate,” as played by Christopher Abbott, familiar to these parts from Trey Edward Shults’ It Comes at Night and Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing.
Abbott’s Colin is said patsy for Vos’ next job, which, wouldn’t you know it, goes horribly sideways…

“You might find this uncomfortable, but you just need to try to keep breathing.”

It’s been 8 years since the younger Cronenberg debuted on the feature stage with Antiviral, but he’s back with a whopper, which has a lot on its menu.

Some of the main courses: the gradual reduction--and inevitable corrosion--of identity through technology, and the interchangeability--and ultimate disposability--of the flesh.

All that, and it’s bolstered by a solid cast (you did see those names up there, right?).

So, check it out if it sounds like it falls neatly into your regular cinematic diet.

One more thing:
While we won’t be returning to the regular annual ¡Qué horror! rundown stylings of the Long Ago anytime soon, this is still technically ¡Qué horror! (or the closest thing we’ve got to it for now), so, viewer advisory: also on the menu--a side order of frank sexual imagery and liberal dollops and spatters of ultraviolence.

It was, after all, released as Possessor Uncut.
You’ve been warned.

“Do you ever think of your wife as a predator? Hmm? Do you ever think of her that way?”

(Possessor Uncut OS courtesy of impawards.com.)