Possessor (2020)

Possessor (2020) was Brandon Cronenberg’s anticipated film of 2020. When the very first trailer was released, many horror fans were intrigued. Not only by the fact that many were unaware that horror legend David Cronenberg had a son, I’m also guilty of that, but also by the look and the feel of what the trailer portrayed. It was dark and mysterious. It instantly sucked me in. If you’re a sucker for body horror and a crazy good time, hang tight for this one.

Possessor is about a corporate assassin named Tasya Vos (Risenborough). She works for a company, who use state of the art brain implant technology to access and control the minds of high profile targets. Sounds interesting right? Keep on reading because it gets a lot more interesting than that.

The very first scene is pretty vague. You have no idea what is really going on for the first 5 to 10 minutes or so. We follow a woman by the name of Holly (Graham), who appears to be emotional while examining something on the top of her head. She stares into the mirror only to then place a needle like object into the top of her head. A while later, she attends a party, where she and other important figures are present. From this point on, the movie revs it up to a hundred and completely goes somewhere I wasn’t expecting and chaos ensues. We then learn that Holly was being controlled by our main character, Tasya Vos, through some sort of mind control technology.

We then get a bit of backstory regarding Vos, who is an elite assassin, as well as her boss, Girder (Leigh), who was also an elite assassin, but now retired.

We learn that the method behind controlling others minds takes a very serious toll on the one who is controlling. Vos appears to be suffering from potential side effects. She heads home after completing her mission to her son and her husband/ex-husband, an interesting plot right here that doesn’t really get fleshed out much, but what we can get from it is that she chose work over her family and in turn, their marriage suffered. She explains that she has one more mission to complete and then she can retire from that line of work, so that they can be a real family again.

She heads back to work to complete her final hit. She learns that someone has hired her company to take out a well known CEO, as well as his daughter. What better way to do it, than taking control of the daughter’s boyfriend? The plan is set into motion. Vos begins to learn the traits and mannerisms of the new host. She gains control of the boyfriend and while everything seems to go according to plan, things take a huge left turn and Vos and her associates are put in a real predicament. Lives are at stake and we are given one hell of a bloody ride.

The cinematography and well as the score, really complement each other throughout the majority of the film. You really get a feeling of anxiety and claustrophobia, well at least I did, but it was with it all. It really is a well put together film and I found myself really digging it.

While it’s not a perfect film, it’s done right in so many different ways. What I really admire about this movie is that it doesn’t spoon feed you. You are forced to think, but nothing too crazy. The acting from everyone in this is top notch. The effects? FANTASTIC. I expected nothing less from a Cronenberg. Overall a solid sci-fi horror/thriller that truly delivers in all aspects. For all my gore hounds out there, you will have a great time with this one!