Brandon Cronenberg, like his father, has a penchant for body horror so it was only natural for him to continue in the same vein, pun not intended.
However, that isn’t to say that he lacks the vision to execute his own brand of storytelling. I might be shooting myself in the foot here, but Brandon may in fact go one step beyond David – carving out a niche within the Cronenberg world where high concept art meets sci-fi psychological horror.
“Tasya Vos, an elite, corporate assassin, takes control of other people’s bodies using brain-implant technology to execute high-profile targets.”
If that didn’t pique your interest then this will.
Possessor plays out like a mind bending grotesque fever dream that explores themes of consciousness and existentialism mixed with a whole lot of gore and puts an imaginative spin on identity theft – at times you really don’t know who’s who and what’s going on, but that’s part of the experience.
Replete with stunning hallucinatory visuals, deeply layered and nuanced storytelling and strong acting chops easily make this one of the most unsettling must watch films of the year.
The two leads in Andrea Louise Riseborough and Christopher Abbott are intriguing casting decisions and have only recently caught my attention after the hard hitting ZeroZeroZero as well as Black Bear – one of the most meta films I’ve ever seen – respectively.
Possessor will stay with you for a long long time and with that, David Cronenberg has announced himself to the world with his sophomore entry. Really looking forward to what’s in store for us down the line.