Movie Review: 'Possessor' is Visually Dynamic, Creepy and Violent

Possessor has me vexed. This sci-fi horror movie from the son of legendary director David Cronenberg, Brandon Cronenberg, is visually dynamic and compelling in a disturbing fashion. But, what is the movie about? I am not sure I know what Brandon Cronenberg is intending to say with this movie that carries themes about identity, gender, violence and psychopathy. It’s a film packed with ideas but none of those ideas resonates as much as I believe they should.

Possessor stars the ethereal Andrea Riseborough as Tasya Vos, a very unique type of high tech assassin. The company where Tasya is employed, under the guidance of her handler, Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh), has the technology to inject Vos’s consciousness into the body of anyone they choose. Vos then uses the body to commit murder and escape with the apparent killer left dead at the scene, usually by suicide.

I say usually because as we join the story, Tasya has been struggling with the last part of her job. For reasons that aren’t very clear, Tasya has been losing control. During her most recent mission, instead of merely executing her target with the gun provided to her, Tasya used a knife and created a bloody mess by repeatedly stabbing her target until the cops arrived. Then, when it came time for Tasya to use the gun on herself, she couldn’t pull the trigger and instead turned to suicide by cop for her escape.

Despite her struggles. Tasya maintains that she is still capable of doing her job and insists on taking the next assignment. This time, she will be taking over the body of Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott), the boyfriend of the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, played by Sean Bean, the target of the assassination. The plan is for Tasya to go into Colin, seed clues about his growing derangement before a big party at the wealthy man’s home where Colin’s mental state will finally manifest with him murdering father and daughter.

Naturally, the plan goes awry. Instead of being fully capable of controlling Colin, Tasya slips and struggles and eventually, Colin starts to escape and submerge her into his mind. Can Tasya retain control before she suffers brain damage of her own due to the complex body snatching technology? Or will Colin keep her prisoner in his head and keep Tasya from completing her murderous assignment?

I’ve given a good deal more shape to the plot of Possessor than the movie does. One thing I really like about Possessor is the ways in which Brandon Cronenberg uses visual filmmaking. He creates visual associations well, important callbacks to plot details are entirely visually communicated. That’s the mark of an artful and resourceful director who understands the concept of what needs to be told and what can be better demonstrated.

Where Possessor loses me a little is in the meaning of all of the wonderfully creepy visuals and the inherent ideas they contain. I kept getting distracted trying to understand the message that Brandon Cronenberg is attempting to send with Possessor. There are obvious, surface level themes about identity and gender but none of the action in the movie indicates anything of depth. A white woman takes over the body of young black woman early in the movie and commits a horrific act of violence but it is not clear if this choice was intended to have a meaning or if the casting choice was not intended for commentary.

Similarly, when Tasya takes over the body of Colin, this waifish white woman inside the body of a young, buff, white man, with the intent of using his body as a weapon, does this mean something or not? Not every visual in any movie has to mean something but for a movie such as Possessor, a film that relies heavily on visual storytelling, it’s hard not to try and read something into the choices made. It feels natural to seek meaning especially in this day and age of so much gender politicking.

One aspect that had me fully vexed was a sex scene that gets repeated in the movie. Tasya, in the body of Colin, decides to have sex with Colin’s girlfriend. We get no sense as to why she made this choice. Does she enjoy this as a kinky thrill? We don’t know. Contextually, the sex plays as part of Tasya's strategy to make Colin appear as normal as possible before they flip the switch and turn him into a killer but that makes the scene rather unnecessary in its explicitness.

The scene does deliver one of the more jarring visuals in the movie when it repeats as a memory Colin has where he envisions wearing Tasya’s face while having sex first with his girlfriend and then accessing Tasya’s memories and experiencing sex with Tasya’s ex-husband. Again, the visual is super weird and creepy and I loved it but what does it say about these characters beyond ‘look at this cool, creepy mask we made?’ There seemingly has to be more to it than that, right?

That said, for many, a good creepy visual and some hardcore violence will be more than enough to make Possessor worth watching. I am not here to shame you or the movie for that. I dig the visuals, the production design, the detailed effects, and the skillfully crafted violence enough to give the movie a pass. But, I cannot escape the idea that there should have been something so much more to Possessor. I feel as if the movie misses an opportunity for depth and that keeps me from fully embracing it.

Possessor will be available via streaming rental services on Friday, October 9th.