If you want something strong heading into the new year, let me introduce you Possess. For decades, it was impossible to track down the full cut in the US and UK. It landed on the video filth list in the 1980s, while versions floating around the US cut out about 1/3 of the film. Blu-ray and DVD versions exist on Amazon. However, they are imported or very limited in stock. Now the full cut arrives shudder to kick off the new year, a big feat considering it wasn’t available on major streaming services.
Director Andrzej Zulawski‘s film is an intense cinematic experience. To watch it is to witness a volcanic unraveling of a marriage. There’s self-harm, domestic violence, claustrophobic spaces, and even a sex scene with a tentacled hellspawn. A brutal viewing experience, Possession is somehow compelling, especially the performances and the exploration of faith and a failed marriage inspired by the director’s own divorce.
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Possession and bitter divisions
The film opens just as Mark, played by a young Sam Neill, returns home from some secret espionage work. On the street, his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) tells him she wants a divorce. He begs her for more time to sort things out, but soon finds a postcard from her filthy lover Heinrich (Heinz Bennent).
Both the shooting locations and the cinematography illustrate the division. The opening features images of the Berlin Wall, which separated East and West Germany. The separation between man and woman is palpable. They often speak to each other in separate rooms of their cramped apartment facing the wall, especially in the first act. The domestic spaces feel cramped and cramped. In a cafe, they sit close together but at different tables. This struggle is reinforced by the film’s constant grayscale and recurring shots of the Berlin Wall, and graffiti reading “Tear down the wall.”
The movie doesn’t get any easier to watch. At one point, Mark punches Anna several times in the face, causing her to flee the apartment and run out onto the street with a bloodied mouth. In another unnerving sequence, she slits her throat with an electric knife, and he does the same with his arm. While the two initially keep their distance from each other, as their relationship deteriorates, the camera often zooms in on their faces, as they literally fly at each other’s throats. This creates an intense feeling of claustrophobia and turmoil.
Furthermore, the more Mark challenges her, the more Anna wants to leave him and feel trapped. This gets worse when he hires a detective to follow her. He is shown following her to a train station, leaving her without a space of her own. You can feel her panic attacks coming on and her literal struggle to breathe and detach from these men. She can’t escape their gaze.
Possession and Doubles
As horrible as Mark and Anna are for each other, they each find another lover similar to the one they want to escape from. To Anna, this is the tentacled beast she hides in a dingy apartment. The more she kills and the more the creature evolves, the more it resembles Sam. It is both her spiritual fulfillment and a replacement for her husband. Believe me, you will never see a sex sequence like the one where Anna makes love to the monster while Sam witnesses it in horror.
Meanwhile, Sam bonds with a woman who looks just like Anna, his son’s teacher. All of this begs the question of whether we will always be attracted to the same type of person, even if they aren’t right for us. Anna begs Sam to leave her alone, but the monster ends up being an exact replica of her husband, at least in appearance. This happens when Sam hooks up with someone who looks exactly like his wife. This motif is reinforced with different shots with mirrors or actions and movements of characters that recur later in different scenes. It adds to the film’s sense of dread.
Possession’s exploration of faith and evil
Two series are notorious in it Possess. I already mentioned the tentacle sex scene. The other takes place in a subway. This alone may have earned Adjani her Best Actress award when the film played at Cannes in 1981. It begins with a maniacal laugh before Anna begins to sway hysterically and slam into the wall, smashing her shopping bag before rolling in milk and spitting. blood and white fluid. This scene is everything, the moment when Anna loses her faith.
Yes, it’s a tough watch, but I promise you won’t look away. It’s fascinating and unlike anything I’ve seen in movies. This is the scene where Anna becomes completely possessed, after giving monologues about Sister Faith and Sister Chance fighting inside. Well, this is the part where Sister Chance essentially strangles Sister Faith, and evil wins. Anna miscarries her faith, which either bleeds out or is perhaps expelled from her body by a sinister presence.
It’s important to note that this follows a scene where Anna leaves a church after pinning that sack of food under a Christ statue. Perhaps the bag of food represents Anna’s faith that she clings to before violently slamming it against the wall. When she leaves the church, a light shines on her and on the street. The scene cuts to her entering the subway, which may be a metaphorical version of hell. While the subway is dark and gray, it contrasts with artificial light, symbolic of the war in Anna, the light and the dark.
Still, even after her possession, Anna tells Mark that faith should be protected and cared for, like a baby. This contrasts with Mark’s cynical view of religion. At one point he calls God a “disease.” The two don’t agree on anything.
Does possession justify its cult following?
After being unavailable for too many years, the full version of Possess is now available to a wider audience thanks to Shudder. Even after reading about the movie, it still hit me, especially Neill and Adjani’s outrageous performances. This movie feels like a nervous breakdown, as husband and wife descend into their own personal hell. It’s bleak and emotionally devastating, but still a must-watch, a gripping two hours that will leave you shaken.
Possess lands on Shudder on January 5. Stay up to date with the latest streaming service content in 2023 by following my Shudder Secrets column.
Brian Fanelli is a poet and educator who also enjoys writing about the horror genre. His work has been published in The L.A. Times, World Literature Today, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Horror Home Room, and elsewhere. On weekends, he enjoys going to the local drive-in movie theater with his wife or curling up on the couch and binge-watching movies with their cat, Giselle.
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