Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a deadly contract killer, who works for a secretive biotech company run by a former hired gun Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The organization carries out their kills by kidnapping a victim, usually someone personally close to their real target, and inserting an implant into their brain; after which, an agent takes over that person’s mind and body. Through their hosts, the assassin can commit deadly acts against paid hitsec without impunity. Son of legendary filmmaker David, Brandon Cronenberg’s sophomore feature, “Possessor,” is a bloody existential fever dream that, at its best, is unnerving and thrilling, and, at its worst, is tiring and misbegotten.
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The melding of two minds, in its basic format, is parasitic. And in some fashion, the mechanics mirror Jordan Peele’s “Get Out.” Vos, as a person, shakes under a fractured psyche. She needs objects—the sniff of a grandfather’s pipe or a framed butterfly—to remember who she is. Moreover, even when she is home, Vos needs even more cognitive exercises. She often practices delivering basic human greetings to her husband and son, making her existence performative. These are glitches caused by her work, and glitches that should decommission her from the field.
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Nevertheless, when offered, she takes on a new high-paying assignment when Girder is approached to kill the head of a Data Mining Company John Parse (Sean Bean). Parse’s brother wants him murdered so he can take over. To do so, Vos must infiltrate the mind of Parse’s soon-to-be son-in-law Colin (Christopher Abbott). He’ll act as the host for the kill, and in return, Girder will receive not only a sizable payment but stock in the company too.
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Like an episode of “Black Mirror,” “Possessor” views technology as evil. On one hand, there’s the machine Vos uses to join her conscious with Colin, but on the other, there’s the basic principle of data mining. Colin’s job in the company is in consumer research. He wears goggles transmitting live feeds of people’s homes—presumably through a smartphone or laptop camera and unbeknownst to the inhabitants—to identify the products they use. However, Cronenberg’s vision doesn’t project far enough. Instead, the company’s intentions appear banal, and in our generation, a truism—companies are data-mining us, rather than a sci-fi horror. A first misstep.
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Moreover, Cronenberg uneasily handles race, too. In the opening scene of the film, a Black woman is Vos’ first host. However, the scene ends with cops barging in and ending the mission in brutal fashion. The result of which is either extremely shortsighted or exploitative and nearly undoes the narrative completely (which might make “Possessor” one of the most controversial films of the year). Said introduction foreshadows the filmmaker’s later glib pivot to class rage and is emblematic of a general lack of nuance with respect to volatile topics.
“Possessor” remains most appealing, visually and thematically, when displaying the internal tug of war between Vos and Colin, as host and parasite, respectively. To these ends, cinematographer Karim Hussain and editor Matthew Hannam craft trippy sequences utilizing lens flares and filters to overlay the faces of Colin and Vos in striking tableaus. Moreover, Cronenberg and Hussain, even in the sequences based in reality, love drenching their subjects in blue, pink, and red lighting for contemplative moods and beautiful shadows. In “Possessor,” Cronenberg expresses a clear eye for composition while composer Jim Williams’ reliance on ambient synths heightens an eerie tense atmosphere.
Most of all, Christopher Abbott is incredible. Best known for his television roles as Charlie Dattolo in “Girls” and John Yossarian in “Catch-22,” here he thoughtfully protects his performance. Initially, he portrays Colin as placid, under the control of Vos, but as the film wears on, Abbott becomes more erratic and emotional, carefully plotting how a person’s self-identity could unravel. His acting runs parallel to the minimalist production design, punctured by fits of blood and gore, which by the way, the film has plenty of, along with fantastic practical effects. By the film’s final act, preceded by a tired opening, Abbott is unhinged. His eyes once blank are filled with rage and confusion, his countenance crumbling to nothing.
These components cause the final scenes of “Possessor” to be an exhilarating fever dream, forgiving the tepid pacing of the film’s initial minutes. And though Cronenberg doesn’t develop his latent themes of class and the immorality of commerce with regards to privacy, often relying on a flash-bang approach, his film ultimately confounds one with its Descartian existentialism for a startling conclusion. [B]
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