Possessor (2020) Review

 "Pull me out."

-Tasya Vos

Spoiler alert!  Spoilers ahead!  I can't really talk about this movie much without spoiling it.  This is an incredible film and I highly recommend it.  Go watch the movie and then come back and read this.  Spoilers ahead!  You've been warned.

Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is an assassin who takes control of other people's bodies to perform her hits.  As she prepares to take on her most important assignment yet, she finds herself in the body of a man who is not so easily controlled.

What Works:

This film was written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, the son of David Cronenberg, who is famous for his films about body horror.  Brandon is a chip off the old block.  While there isn't a ton of body horror in the film, when it does appear, it is very effective, if metaphorical.  The scenes where Colin (Christopher Abbott) tries to separate himself from Tasya and where he winds up wearing her face are incredible and haunting.  It's easily the best Halloween mask I've ever seen.

The gore is brutal and spectacular throughout the film.  We even get shootings and stabbings, which could have been unmemorable as they usually are in movies, but they are great here with lots of blood.  The stabbings at the beginning and end of the film are top notch and the beating of John (Sean Bean) is a nasty highlight of the film.

Beyond the gore and effects, the movie has an extremely original story.  This is a science-based possession film about a hitman with sci-fi and horror elements mixed in.  All of that on its own is pretty original, but then we have the family dynamic of it all.  Tasya is a wife and mother!  She feels she owes it to them to be a part of their lives, but obviously would much rather cut them off and focus on her work.  All of this mixes together really well and I've never seen anything quite like it.

The acting is fantastic across the board with excellent performances from Riseborough and Bean as well as Jennifer Jason Leigh.  The best of the bunch is probably Abbot as Colin, the man who is being possessed.  He is perfect in the part and manages to get the complexity of the duel-performance down to his eyes.  It's marvelous work.

A lot of the time we can't tell if Colin is controlling himself of if Tasya has control of him.  It doesn't help that their memories and experiences are mixing together.  This is not a complaint.  It adds an interesting level of complexity to each scene.  Who is controlling right now and why are they doing what they are doing?   Most of the time, it could be either one of them in control and it's interesting to think about each scene from the perspectives of both characters.

Finally, the 3rd act dials the movie up to an 11 with an ending I wasn't expecting and gets better as the pieces of the puzzle come together.  We get some awesome, bloody, unexpected kills.  Michael's (Rossif Sutherland) has probably my favorite death in the movie and it's followed up by a little kid killing Colin before getting killed himself.  I always respect movies that have the balls to kill off kids.  And the reveal that Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh) was controlling the kid is perfect and finishes the film off on a sickeningly, perfect note.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Verdict:

Possessor is one of the best movies of 2020.  The gore and body horror are terrific, the story is original, the acting is phenomenal, and it has probably my favorite 3rd act of the year.  Without a doubt, this movie has got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing