Owner: Cronenberg’s Futuristic Nightmare, between eXistenZ and Les Crimes du futur

master what is this

Tasia Voss (Andrea Riseborough) works for a secret organization that uses advanced neurological technology for criminal purposes. Thanks to his augmented reality helmet, he can actually inhabit a person’s body to drive him to kill for the profit of extremely wealthy clients.

Things get complicated for Tasia when she finds herself in the body of Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott), a man whose appetite for murder and violence far exceeds hers… to the point of abandoning her own identity?

Cronenberg 2.0

The main lines of this futuristic and terrifying story are reminiscent of the great works of the famous David Cronenberg. La Mouche, eXistenZ or more recently Les Crimes du futur… It is thanks to the association of contemporary, dystopian and organic elements that the Canadian director has distinguished himself throughout his career.

Awarded the Grand Prix at the Gérardmer International Fantasy Film Festival, The Possessor could have been born from his brilliant spirit…but it’s not! However, he is not a complete stranger to the project, as it is his son Brandon’s. Already famous for Antivirus, which won him the Best First Feature prize at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, here he repeats his father’s equal with a new one-way ticket to the darkest regions of horror cinema.

Darkest narrative yet brilliant production!

Masterfully questioning the humanity of his characters, their limits, as well as the limits of new technology, Brandon Cronenberg manages to constantly present his audience with a moral dilemma that is both shocking and destabilizing. Proliferating anxiety-inducing situations, he gives his futuristic tale a hybrid aesthetic, sometimes modern, sometimes quasi-organic, the secret of which only the Cronenbergs seem to know.

It is served by an excellent cast (in addition to the main duo, the audience will be delighted to discover Sean Bean and Jennifer Jason Leigh in the cast), Possessor also benefits from a high-quality soundtrack, signed by Jim Williams. Famous for Julia Ducournau’s work on Grave and Titanium, she once again manages to punctuate the most dire angst with her mechanical or haunting notes to guarantee you a sense of excitement and discomfort.

Possessor is available exclusively on UniversCiné.