Now available in UHD, Blu-ray, and a special edition in both formats from Second Sight Films is this release of 2020’s Possessor, the relatively little-seen second feature from Brandon Cronenberg, son of David.
Set in an alternative reality, Andrea Riseborough plays Tasya Vos, an assassin who uses an implant technology to take possession of others in order to complete her missions. Handled by a retired assassin, Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who can no longer stand up to using the machine in which the assassin needs to be ensconced (think a cross between an MRI scanner and Cole’s machine in Twelve Monkeys), Tasya has a husband and child at home, who are both oblivious to her line of work, just knowing that she has to go away for extended periods.
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The amount of time she has, effectively, to be playing other people is damaging these relationships. It is clear that she is happier at work that anywhere else, and is slowly losing whatever humanity she has, as Girder and her team give her scenarios to play out, rather than a life to manage.
Despite her increasingly unsettled nature, she takes a job to kill a wealthy businessman, John Parse (Sean Bean), and his daughter, Ava (Tuppence Middleton), by possessing the latter’s fiancé, Colin (Christopher Abbot, seen most recently in Poor Things). As the first attempt at the hit goes wrong, a struggle will ensue for control of Colin, with potential consequences for the life Tasya has built for herself.
The film itself is not based entirely on new concepts: aside from Twelve Monkeys, Jonathan Mostow’s Surrogates covered similar themes, and we could argue that both Leigh Whannell‘s Upgrade and both of the Tom Hardy Venom films dealt with matters of possession. In fact, when technology is brought into it, even the plot of The Naked Gun worked on the basis of using someone as an unwilling assassin. For all that, this is a unique looking film, with its mixture of reds at times, and an almost absence of colour at times. Performances are terrific, and Cronenberg is just a splash of dark humour away from approaching his father’s standard of work.
The film comes with a newly recorded commentary with Brandon Cronenberg (director), Rob Cotterill (producer), Karim Hussain (director of photography) and Dan Martin (special effects). The four of them record together, and prove to be a perfect mix, as across their specialisms we get to hear about the vision for the film, the logistics of getting it made, why the film looks the way it does and how this was achieved, as well as talking us through how the effects were completed on a low budget. There have been more fun tracks, but rarely as comprehensive in terms of what we hear from those behind the camera.
‘This Unfamiliar Life: a new interview with Brandon Cronenberg’ runs to around 21 minutes and deals with the difficulties he encountered in funding the films, after the muted success of his first film, Antiviral. He says that it took him the majority of his 30s – with an eight-year gap between the two releases – to get it made. He is a very open and personable, and takes us through the short film (‘Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences as They Come to You’) which dealt with similar themes of brain implants, and which he made to try to experiment with the types of visual effects.
He then moves through the scripting process, and some of the changes he made as he went along. There is some overlap with the commentary, but far less than might be expected, as he is talking more about the process, the difficulties, and the casting, than the techniques employed and the filming. He talks stood in front of visuals from the film, is engaging, and fast speaking, cramming an immense amount into the time allotted.
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This is followed by ‘Inside the Machine: a new interview with Karim Hussain’. Running to 27 minutes, the cinematographer is interviewed in the same format as the director. Again, talking separately from both colleagues and the film itself, he is reacting less to what is in front of him and telling a story about the process of making the film. Again, he makes it clear what a challenging task it was to get the film made, so the better stories come from before the filming itself.
‘Feel the Real: a new interview with Rob Cotterill’ is around 24 minutes of similar, while ‘Disassociating from Mind and Body: Zoë Rose Smith on Possessor’ is of comparable duration. Smith’s contribution is a video essay, and it immediately appears that it will grate as pretentious, though once over the high-handed delivery she gives some insights that are worth consideration and, as such, this is a feature that would benefit from a few rewatches. All are decent extras for a film that had precisely none on its initial release.
Rounding out the set are a few more minor features as well as what are described as archive featurettes, though it is not clear where they are from originally, as this is the first time the home release has had any documentary features. Such as they are, we get a few minutes of camera test footage, an ‘FX Show and Tell with Dan Martin’, which is ten minutes of him talking through his techniques from pre-filming.
This is probably of more use than a contemporary interview divorced from being hands-on with his creations, or talking to the image on a screen, as in the commentaries. The first archive featurette is ‘A Heightened World – A Look at Possessor’, and this is followed by ‘Identity Crisis – Bringing Possessor to Life’ and ‘The Joy of Practical – The Effects of Possessor’. All are between ten and fifteen minutes, modern (as the film is not old), decent to watch, and complementary to each other, with the first being the stand-out.
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We are also given the usual deleted scenes and trailer, but the set is completed by that aforementioned short film ‘Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences as They Come to You’. This is less than ten minutes long but gives the viewer a look at a prototype for a lot of what we see in the main feature.
Whilst we have seen sets with either a greater number of bonus features, or individuals parts of a greater standard, this is a well-curated and thorough set for a fascinating film, that does suggest, at least, a filmmaker of talent, with a good eye, and an ability to tell a story, though not quite with the satirical and more commercial edges of his father. Recommended, though, for fans of body horror, sci-fi and unsettling psychological thrillers.
Possessor is out now on Limited Dual Edition 4K UHD/Blu-ray Box Set from Second Sight Films.
