‘Possessor’ Trailer: Brandon Cronenberg Gets Inside Your Head With One of the Year’s Best Movies

Possessor, an ultra-violent mind-fuck of a film, is almost ready to unleash its jarring horrors upon the world. Brandon Cronenberg‘s visceral nightmare is kind of like Inception meets Videodrome, and if that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what else to tell you. Andrea Riseborough plays a corporate assassin who has the ability to upload her consciousness into other people, and then use those people as pawns to pull off her murders. But when her latest host finds ways to resist her control, things get complicated. And bloody. Watch the Possessor trailer below.

Possessor Trailer

“UNCUT” is all over this trailer. It’s even in the title. That might cause some confusion, as it implies there’s an alternate, edited cut out there. As far as I can tell, there isn’t. Instead, my guess here is that Possessor already has such a reputation for its ultra-violence that Neon wants everyone to know that the version they’re releasing onto the world is still the same version those of us at Sundance saw. Nothing will be toned down.

When I saw Possessor at Sundance it left me reeling. It was so brutal, so unique, that I left the theater in a kind of daze. I know this won’t be for everyone, and the squeamish need not apply. But if you’re on the same wavelength as this film, you’re in for something special. As I said in my review:

Bathed in blood and gore and unrelentingly aggressive, Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. It is a singular work – one so ghastly, so unique, and so brutal that it will awe some and disgust others. It is a film about extinguishing humanity and embracing savagery. The philosophy of Possessor is one of carnage. Of cutting ties with the things that make you human, and reverting back to the predator within.

In Possessor, Andrea Riseborough is corporate assassin Tasya Vos. “Using brain-implant technology, Vos takes control of other people’s bodies to execute high profile targets. As she sinks deeper into her latest assignment Vos becomes trapped inside a mind that threatens to obliterate her.” Christopher Abbott plays the man who’s body Vos is inhabiting, and who finds his own consciousness trying to fight its way through.

This is a slick trailer, but it’s also cut in a way to make this look like an action flick – which it really is not. At all. So be warned. “On a more satirical and political level I was interested in the corporate side,” said director Brandon Cronenberg (son of David). “Historically, corporations would have their own armies and that was an accepted thing. I think there is a shift back to the corporation as a global power in a way that rivals a state like Google going up against the NSA. That was also part of it. Then there is also the general invasion of privacy. When I first started writing this the Snowden stuff was happening and everyone was very much aware of the degree to which governments are observing people and spying on citizens. Possessor is like the ultimate invasion of privacy – its someone in your life who’s actually not a person in your life.”

Possessor opens in select theaters and drive-ins on October 9, 2020. And if you’re still hesitant to return to theaters, don’t fret – the movie will then hit VOD, still in its uncut form, on November 6.

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