Possessor: Uncut 4K UHD [Blu-ray]

The premise of POSSESSOR is pretty simple, and it's a pretty nice hook. It's about an assassin (Andrea Riseborough) who does her job by being implanted into the mind of someone else and essentially having that person commit the murder and then commit suicide. The assassin pops back out of the mind, and no one has any idea that what happened was even an assassination and not just a random murder carried out by someone who has simply snapped. The person possessed has their consciousness completely suppressed.Pretty cool! But this process takes a toll on Riseborough, whose own psyche has sustained damage. Is it guilt? Is it numbness? Is it the process itself that takes a physical toll on her brain? Is she just a socio-path? When we see her spent time with her somewhat estranged family, nothing seems right or comfortable. Yet when she's doing her job, nothing seems right there either.The assignment that takes over most of the movie is to inhabit a young man (Christopher Abbott), who is engaged to the daughter of a tech tycoon of some sort (Sean Bean). She is to use this man to kill the tycoon, the daughter and then himself.The movie has "fun" with the notion of Risborough inhabiting a man, and also shows us the trickiness of trying to convincingly be a man she does not know and has very little information on. How will he fool the fiance? It's all very interesting, until things go off the rails. I have to hesitate to tell you more, because each viewer should find out for themselves what happens next, and then next and then next.This is a violent film and the murders are fairly visceral, although taken out of context, they are much bloodier than what we might see on some television shows. It's all in the technique. Writer/director Brandon Cronenberg wants to make us really feel the force of these killings. If you have a surround sound system, get ready for your sub-woofer to do extra work conveying the deep notes of a fireplace poker smacking into a skull.Riseborough and Abbott do a great job in this film. She's always interesting, and she is particularly so here. She can be a very glamorous actress, but in this film, she is almost aggressively NOT glamorous. No makeup (and her face is so pale!) and she's allowed to look almost completely haggard. Her huge eyes look terrifying and terrified both. But Abbott, whom I've never given much thought to, I admit, is equally good. Remember, it's HIM playing his character possessed by an assassin...not Riseborough. He does some very subtle work here.The production design is solid. It betrays its low-budget roots, but never in a way that we think the movie was done on the cheap. Lighting and effects are all "practical" (no CGI, and little done in post-production). It all serves the overall atmosphere of moral decay.There are some scenes that are set "in the mind" of the possessed. They're done very stylishly and with a lot of imagination. They also fail to be very effective. The conflicts playing out there are incoherent, and while I don't need to be spoonfed everything, these critical scenes needed to carry more impact. In the end, they are the least effective parts of the film, and that's a more than tiny flaw.I also have to nitpick Sean Bean's performance. I think Cronenberg wrote a very cardboard villain, and Bean's performance does nothing to overcome that. He overacts mightily and brings no complexity to a film where all other major characters have some depth and layers.I enjoyed the film nonetheless. It's not as creepy as some of its own advertising warns of, but it is a very interesting and well-crafted little film that is at least disquieting. And I never say this, but I really recommend the extra features on this blu ray. There are three brief making-of films here and all are well above average and actually really illuminate the film and point out things you might have missed.

Loved the pace of it. Good acting. Cool ending.

Last month I was tempted to see POSSESSOR (directed by Brandon Cronenberg) in theaters based on the chilling poster alone, but decided not to risk COVID and wait for home release. I was happy to find it on Amazon this morning, and after seeing it just moments ago, I can understand why it is already getting one-star reviews on here. POSSESSOR is definitely deserving of the “don’t show your grandma” label. I watch a lot of horror, but there haven’t been many movies in the past decade with such disturbing imagery and bloody, drawn-out, nasty kills, primarily inflicted on innocent characters who don’t deserve any sort of punishment. There is no humor, only a sense of dread from start to finish. However, if you are not squeamish, enjoy darker movies, and have an idea of what to expect from the Cronenberg family name, I think you’ll find POSSESSOR to be a smartly-written and incredibly-acted slice of horror/sci-fi that we don’t get treated to very often outside of the A24 Cinematic Indieverse. The less you know about the story, the better the experience as this seedy, neon-drenched world and its technology is revealed through a mix of abstract, horrific imagery and shocking violence.This movie really is unlike anything I have ever seen before, but if I had to compare POSSESSOR to any other pieces of film/television: atmosphere-wise BLACK MIRROR (darker episodes like “Crocodile” and “The Entire History of You”) and UNDER THE SKIN (2013) ; and plot-wise eXistenZ (1999) from Big Poppa David Cronenberg.

I don't know quite how to feel about Brandon Cronenberg's trippy, gory sci fi thriller. This is kind of the way I feel about a lot of films that critics, or reviewers whom I respect tell me I am supposed to like.On the one hand, it has the marvelous Andrea Riseborough. Oh, she of the murdered spouse in Panos Cosomatos' insane, and insanely good revenge fantasy Mandy. And the outstanding Amazon Prime Original TV series Zero Zero Zero, by the way. And iossessor has Gabriel Byrne...until it doesn't.On the other hand it is a sci fi thriller about a professional "assassin" who can get into an unwitting person's mind, and cause them to commit murder. What's wrong with that? Well, nothing, except that it really (really) strains credulity. I know, "willing suspension of disbelief blah blah blah."But...And, again, it is gory. A bit needlessly so. Do all Canadian directors, or sons of Canadian directors have to pile on the gore to make their point? I guess the way I feel is that it is well done and, did I say it has Andrea Riseborouogh.Yeah.

... and I mean that both literally and figuratively -- this is a VERY bloody movie and man would it be utter hell to have someone take over your mind.Gripping, well-acted and a brutal homage to all things Cronenberg: technology, body, identity and more.I just wrote a review about how mainstream critics don't "get" horror, elevating attempts at filmmaking "art" over the basics that horror fans love. "Possessor" is an exception where critics (72 Metacritic Score) and users (7.6 Metacritic Score) agree that it's a pretty damn good flick.The acting is excellent. Andrea Riseborough from "Mandy" is creepy odd (again) as a mind-possessing assassin, and Christopher Abbott from "It Comes at Night" is a depressed AND possessed soul for the next assassination.There are too many adjectives to list to give the film justice, so here's just a few: disturbing, violent, bloody, mind-bending, visual, provocative,While Brandon Cronenberg may have a similar interest in melding technology and horror as his father David Cronenberg, he is introducing his own style and originality. Very much like like Joe Hill has done with father Stephen King.All of which is nothing but a bonus for horror fans.

J'ai acheté ce film en espérant beaucoup, en raison de la personnalité du réalisateur Brandon Cronenberg, mais malheureusement entre deux scènes gores à la violence gratuite (meurtre au couteau à steak, meurtre au tisonnier et meurtre au hachoir) ponctuées par des scènes de sexes bas de gamme je me demande vraiment ce que veut le réalisateur : sur un thème qui aurait pu être passionnant, celui de la possession d'un sujet pour commettre un meurtre et exécuter des contrats, on se retrouve avec une absence criante de moyens et des acteurs de second plan. Le seul sentiment que j'ai ressenti est un profond ennui. Je vous déconseille d'acheter ce triste navet, ce n'est même pas la peine d'envisager de le voir en streaming sauf si vous voulez perdre votre temps…

Possessor ou la possession du vide, dés les premières minutes on s'ennuient ferme, j'ai d'ailleurs arrêté le visionnage pour ne pas m'infliger ce supplice .

Le décor est posé : la ville la plus moche du monde, Toronto. Et le film en exagère le gris, le vide et la froideur, sur un rythme lent entrecoupé de nudité crue et de découpages gores de corps et de visages. Ce film est tagué "accord parental", mais merci de ne pas donner votre accord à un jeune pour le regarder, même s'il est adulte et à tendance à la dépression, car non seulement des images peuvent choquer mais c'est surtout l'ambiance du film qui est malsaine (avec les thèmes du meurtre mais aussi du suicide), que je ne conseille donc à personne de regarder un soir de boulot. Pour ce qui est du scénario, il est bien présent (d'où mes deux étoiles) mais aurait pu être amélioré, et c'est davantage du fantastique que de la science-fiction (davantage du chamanisme que de la science). Au final un film intéressant pour les cinéphiles au moral d'acier et à interdire aux mineurs, mais qui ne fera pas date à cause d'une direction artistique trop extrême et dans les goûts de personne (enfin j'espère).

J'étais impatient de voir ce film, qu'elle ne fut pas ma déception, l'idée de départ de prendre possession d'entité humaine pour commetre des crimes, ok, mais les crimes sont particulièrement violent, sanguinaire, gore, voir sadique, pour le reste rien de transcendant, aucune intrigue, tout est prévisible, juste un petit film d'horreur sans envergure.

La película llegó antes.La presentación es preciosa. Hermoso Slipcover y la película es increíbleLo único es que no trae subtitulos en español, para los que les interese saber