Possessor: Uncut

Hmm, this is a tough one for me to rate and review... So, personally, I think the idea and story were really good and explore some interesting ideas. I think the direction was interesting with the editing being a pretty strong point. The thing that I'm struggling with is the end and maybe I'm just not getting it which I think the movie was building to. She seemed happy at the end but she ultimately failed her mission and her family is dead, so why did she smile? I get she was battling herself and even herself was a performance but I just think I need to read something about this to get it, which is not a great sign.

Brandon Cronenberg is a worthy heir to his father’s talent. This is a film that deserved to be appreciated by a much wider audience.

So not recommend. Meh. A whole lot of not much to care about, gross just to be offensive. No real plot or anything interesting. Unnecessary nudity and pornography.

I had stated I was feeling “assassin fatigue” in my Kill Boksoon review (July 24th), but that was before I had the pleasure of viewing Possessor. This movie takes the glitz and glam out of the assassin story, which had become tiresome, and instead straps it into an alternate 2008 where an unnamed assassin group “possesses” the body and consciousness of unsuspecting victims to carry out their violent missions — and then offing the victim thereafter. Nice and tidy. Or as “tidy” as one can expect from a (Brandon) Cronenberg movie. This movie nails so many points, from the look — soulless cityscape and occasional, neo-baroque opulence — to the human-engineered, data-mining apparatus, wherein Colin (Christopher Abbot) plods along in line in matching collared shirt and lanyard like a modern Winston in 1984. Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a skilled assassin who is struggling to maintain her connection to her own reality, as it seems that a piece of her remains behind after each successful mission. A breath of fresh air here is that while the objects of the syndicate’s missions are usually baleful creatures — you probably wouldn’t feel too bad if Sean Bean’s character lost that other eye — the Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh)-led syndicate is in no way doing the Lord’s work. They are merely a service conducting heinous acts on behalf of clients who merely want to control the very enterprises that have just lost their head, so to speak. Cronenberg strikes a near-perfect balance of violence and gore that is shocking, satisfying, and in one yellow fugue state, dare I say, beautiful. The choice, whether intentional or not, to have the contraption in which the assassin wears over her face to “possess” resemble a plague doctor’s mask drew me in right away: Here comes death. The “battle of the consciousnesses” is twisting and turning and makes for a series of moments in the last couple of scenes that I promise will make your jaw drop. This bought me so into Brandon Cronenberg after finding Infinity Pool to be a disappointment. I loved this movie. RT (94/59)? What? I’m with the critics.

Horrible movie. It tries to pack an art movie into a thriller, only the art part is entirely missing, so one is left with the thriller... which is pretty weak, since it was intended as a shell anyway. Also it's completely illogical, cause, you know, art. Not everything is bad: part of the acting is acceptable and it builds up tension decently in the first half. However, the characters are just ridiculously unbelievable. Take the key female character: she is a sensitive, insecure introvert. The exact opposite of a determined, focused killer. But the movie wants to make you believe she does work as a top killer. The movie doesn't even try to explain this very obvious and striking contradiction; nor her motives; how she got there; why she cares. How she handles the moral issues. Nothing of that sort. She's just insecuring around and doing the job. Her inner journey would supposedly be the key topic of this movie, yet that's exactly the thing viewers learn absolutely nothing about. The entire movie is empty and horrible, employing certain superficial characteristics of art movies, without including a single molecule of actual art, or an actual thought, or basic sense - characteristically trying to fill the great void and provide weight by completely unnecessary blood & gore and excessive nudity. At the end, almost everyone dies, in almost comical fashion, probably because Shakespeare did it like that and he was arty. Dreadful movie - and basically a fraud.

Unsettling but ultimately too ambiguous for average viewers. Possessor deflates after one of the strongest opening scenes in recent memory.

Possessor is such a phenomenal film. The visuals are so fascinating to see and Andrea Riseborough is killing it in this role.

Pornographic, violent, and vile, the meandering plotline that never resolves is designed for critics who can't distinguish between what is truly clever and what is simply designed to revolt.

Deep movie players with subliminal messages. Attention to detail imperative

Insanely excellent sci-fi/horror. Did not see the 'uncut version' but I'm guessing it won't sway my opinion either way.