In order to analyze Possessor, we should start by taking a little detour to explain the concept of body horror. With roots that can be traced to Gothic literature, it can be defined as a subgenre in which the most relevant feature is an intentional display of the human body being graphically degenerated, altered or destroyed. It is, without a doubt, not for everybody’s taste, as it recreates in the audience feelings of horror and discomfort through excessive violence, disturbing images or outrageously unnatural changes in the human body. 

In the film world, it became popular with films as diverse as Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Andrej Zulawski’s Possession, Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator, or the Evil Dead trilogy by Sam Raimi -especially in the first two entries-. It could be argued that body horror is at its best when it seamlessly blends a mix of science fiction and horror, with well-known examples in films such as Ridley Scott’s Alien –and its sequel directed by James Cameron-, John Carpenter’s The Thing and David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, Scanners or The Fly.

It is no other than Brandon Cronenberg, son of the Canadian director -widely considered as one of the fundamental pillars of the subgenre also thanks to his features Shivers and Rabid-, who has managed to carry the torch of the body horror subgenre for a new generation of film lovers with his latest film, Possessor.

Eight years after his big screen debut -with Antiviral-, Brandon Cronenberg’s Possession introduces us to Andrea Riseborough playing an assassin who finds herself more and more disconnected from her reality, as her job is starting to take a toll on her. Putting it like that it does not seem neither original nor thrilling. However, this is not a conventional film by any means, therefore she is not a conventional killer either. Thanks to some kind of technology that is visually appealing but totally incomprehensible, her job is carried out through a technique which allows her to take control of someone else’s body to murder high profile targets leaving no traces whatsoever to her or the organization she works for, lead by her boss -played by Jennifer Jason Leigh-.

In a way similar to what she did in Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy -where she shared screen with Nicolas Cage-, Riseborough gives her absolute best in a performance that will definitely stay with you, despite the fact that she is not on the screen as much as anybody could wish for. She shines all the way through, managing to convey the coldness of a woman whose detachment with reality is more than evident from the first moment her big eyes light up the -sometimes blue, sometimes red- screen.

Aside from Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, is also partly responsible of the success of Possessor. His performance -albeit subtle and with not much dialogue- of a man who has lost control of who he is and finds himself as a mere pawn in the middle of a conspiracy to murder a high-profile target is strong enough to keep the film together at all times.

Despite several closeups of violence and no shortage of gruesome images peppered throughout, the film is nowhere near as provocative or graphic as some other staples of the body horror subgenre, possibly as a consequence of the so-called torture porn genre, represented by films such as Hostel -and its sequels-, Saw -and its sequels- and The Green Inferno -thankfully with no sequels-, films held together only by viscera and gaffer tape with the sole focus of showing grotesquely violent and sadistic images with neither rhyme nor reason. The dawn of torture porn and the fact that times have changed since the premiere of films like Scanners or Videodrome, might mean that it is now harder to create something that is fresh and bold enough to make audiences flabbergasted.

However, Cronenberg (Brandon, not David now) has chosen to run away from an empty succession of shocking imagery and has instead focused his attention on creating a bulletproof script that deals with the total and unavoidable loss of control of the self, from a smaller scale to a bigger picture, illustrating the great fear of losing what makes us humans.

The final result is a visually astonishing and engrossing film that will stay with you for quite a while after you have seen it. It goes without saying that Brandon Cronenberg has created a film that will make his father -as well as a plethora of cinephiles- proud, as it leaves you wanting for more, proving over and over that the body horror is in the safe hands of an excellent filmmaker.