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Review: Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor’ is Heady, Gory, Must See Sci-Fi

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Brandon Cronenberg — son of the legendary David Cronenberg — is a talented chip off the old block. Though Possessor is only his second feature, Cronenberg has created a complex and fascinating film that will dig its way into your brain and stay there, percolating, long after you’ve seen it. It’s cruel, clever, and compelling, and it’s possibly the best film of the year. 

In Possessor, Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough, Mandy) is the top agent at a shadowy organization that uses advanced medical technology to implant her consciousness into the body of a carefully selected host. She uses these unwilling actors to commit brutally violent assassinations at the direction of the company, pulling her out before the host is forced to self-terminate. It’s the perfect crime — all eyes are on the host, whose death effectively ties up any loose ends. But the more missions Vos embarks on — taking residence inside someone else, adopting their personality and mannerisms through meticulous observation — the more she loses herself. When Vos takes over the body of Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott, It Comes At Night), she finds herself losing control to his consciousness, embroiling them in a battle of wills that threatens to destroy them both. 

Riseborough and Abbott are absolutely flawless. Vos is balancing her own confused identity with the weight of the murders she’s committed; she’s alienated from her family and any sense of normalcy, and her focus on her job becomes all-encompassing. Riseborough is phenomenal as Vos stoically struggles to connect. Though she doesn’t have as much screen time, her presence is carried throughout. You can feel her through each scene, hovering just in the back of your mind. 

Abbott has both Tate and Vos behind the wheel, shifting through different mental states with razor-sharp precision. One “calibration” scene turns the literal emotional dial from one extreme to the next, and Abbott absolutely nails the transitions. He flexes his well-honed acting muscles, pulling pathos through the character’s complex confusion and torment. Possessor’s performances are often subdued (until they very much aren’t), but every motion — every micro-expression — is nuanced perfection.

Karim Hussain’s (Random Acts of Violence, We Are Still Here) cinematography is nothing short of brilliant, with a meticulous balance of lighting, color, camera movement and placement. He dials scenes down and blows them up in equal measure, pulling you through a moody ebb and flow. Possessor has a unique and distinct texture — you can feel this film.`

Every design element of Possessor works in well-planned harmony, offering strong support to the well-crafted story. Visual effects melt and bleed into the action. The overall effect is impressively cohesive. Cronenberg has crafted a brave new world with dystopian leanings and unexplored depth that goes beyond the events we see on screen. 

Possessor is a rather heady film, dealing with themes of moral corruption, body dysmorphia, and surveillance capitalism with punches of abstract imagery and ruthless violence. And it is ruthless — shot in close-up, every seamless stabbing and brutal beating is inescapable. Not for the faint of heart, Possessor is heavy, bold, unflinching sci-fi horror at its best. 

I would love to say more, but Possessor demands to be seen. If you’re a fan of his father’s work, rest assured that Cronenberg follows in his footsteps when it comes to body horror and misused technology. He travels down that familiar road, but the whole trip is dramatically different, and with a final destination unlike anything you’ve seen before.

 

Possessor is set for release on October 2, 2020. You can check out the trailer here.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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