The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Barry Hertz
But like Tasya, Possessor succeeds in getting under your skin. If this is just a taste of what Brandon Cronenberg has in store for cinema, then long live the new flesh.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Canada, United Kingdom · 2020
Rated R · 1h 44m
Director Brandon Cronenberg
Starring Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Bean
Genre Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Tasya works for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to enable its operatives to inhabit the bodies of others — which they ultimately use to carry out assassinations for their high-paying clientele. A dystopian sci-fi thriller about identity, morality, and the limits of the human mind.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Barry Hertz
But like Tasya, Possessor succeeds in getting under your skin. If this is just a taste of what Brandon Cronenberg has in store for cinema, then long live the new flesh.
Slashfilm by Chris Evangelista
It is a singular work – one so ghastly, so unique, and so brutal that it will awe some and disgust others.
Though Possessor favors nihilist spectacle to existentialism, Brandon Cronenberg is more interested in exploring emotional dislocation than Christopher Nolan.
Consequence by Clint Worthington
It doesn’t always work, and the results are more than a little misanthropic (especially given the cruelty of its opening and closing moments). But if that’s your jam, and the prospect of body-swapping assassins coated in guts, gore, and neon appeals to you, Possessor‘s Argento-soaked atmosphere ought to fill that need.
Possessor never manages to wrest control of your mind, but it’s unnervingly good at getting under your skin.
As both writer and director, Cronenberg focuses so intently on the surface that he neglects to include enough substance.
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
There's an emotional logic to the action and imagery, carrying viewers along even if they're not quite sure if they're rooting for the innocent man or his troubled attacker.
Cronenberg has created a mind-bending trip of a movie with more to say than your average actioner and is supported by spectacular performances and make-up and practical effects that seal the deal. Brace yourself. Possessor is brilliant.
The Playlist by Robert Daniels
Possessor is a bloody existential fever dream that, at its best, is unnerving and thrilling, and, at its worst, is tiring and misbegotten.
Possessor is ultra stylish and uber violent, but, despite a top tier cast, it’s not always entirely clear what is going on and who is in control of the finger on the trigger.
Dream Well