“Possessor” makes striking bodily fear of new media

Ever felt that the connected screen life moves you further away from yourself? Congratulations! Because in that case, Brandon Cronenberg’s “Possessor” should be a technophobic deal for your taste. It’s at least for me, even though the film’s main character otherwise has a rather strange life puzzle.

Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a torpedo at a distance, who at the beginning of the film steps into the work on a dressed-up mingling. But this is not about a clinical execution, but more like a desperate lust murder. Afterwards, she lingers and feels researching the blood with her fingers, like making sure it’s for real. That’s it, but still not.

She is at a reasonable distance from the murder scene and has taken possession of another body to carry out the act. Through an implant in the brain, a connection is established for control, yes, much like in “Avatar”. With the difference then that “Possessor” takes place in well-polished urban environments.

Just like drone pilots can suffer from grenade shock, even though they experience the heat of battle via a screen, Tasya Vos seems more and more thinned and hollow-eyed for each mission. Her client explains that she is at risk of brain damage, she herself obscures her less visible identity disorders. And it is as if the mediated world of meat must be embodied through violent rage.

“Possessor” is therefore a horror film about new media that does not even show the happy first phase, where everything just feels like an enriching experience kick, to later turn into something else. No, when the movie begins, Tasya Vo’s bloodthirsty alienation is a fact. She can not shake off her out-of-body experiences and can no longer stand herself. She has become a danger to her family and can barely play ordinary.

If the director’s last name sounds familiar, it’s because his father’s name is David. It’s quite refreshing that it has not made Brandon Cronenberg opt out body horror of family-related fear of touch, and reference is often made to the father’s “Videodrome” and “Existenz”.

The film is at the same time something more than a digital dystopian premise. That we humans wrestle with our roles is hardly the news of the century and here Tasya Vos appears just as an actor, who after completing his assignment must rehearse lines to get into the role as himself. By the way, her relationship with the client (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is not so reminiscent of a manipulative demon director. Both are involved in a shady activity in the upper strata of society.

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Andrea Riseborough is brilliantly nervous as a ravaged remote killer, as is Christopher Abbott in the role of her involuntary avatar Colin Tate. When the link bugs, their fight for body control begins, as part of the power struggle in a computer company far above their heads. Losing self-control is of course not a new fear – in the German 1920s film, the villainous doctors Caligari and Mabuse ruled people with hypnosis. Much like the 1960s thriller “Brainwashed” (originally called “The Manchurian Candidate”) in which American soldiers are programmed as assassins by Chinese psychologists.

“Possessor” is an update about the same kind of abyss. To be categorized as science fiction, the scenography is strikingly contemporary, while the film’s computer-animated effects are extremely limited. Mostly it is instead a tactile play with light, lenses and projections that shape Tasya’s and Colin’s self-dissolved haze. A melting wax version of actress Andrea Riseborough is one of the highlights. It is both adorable analog and effectively scary.

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Therefore, it is gratifying that the film finally gets its Swedish premiere, albeit not in cinemas. In a rash of – one must hope – unconscious film censorship, however, there is a shorter version available on Viaplay. Simply put: a little less blood and a little less naked to avoid the toughest age limit in American cinemas. It is “only” a minute, but is basically depressing. It also suggests that “Possessor” is a title in the content set rather than treated as an independent work of art. Completely unnecessarily, Swedish spectators are therefore allowed to make do with a conditional haircut.

In a sex scene in particular, an erect penis undeniably adds to the trans dimension. And that “Possessor” is so shamelessly explicit, so straightforward in his approach, is at all one of the merits of Brandon Cronenberg’s bloodthirsty clash between technology and man. It is sometimes said to create extensions of ourselves, as a kind of protest, but the question is how far you can go – before you lose touch with something even similar to yourself.

“Possessor” is a film in thriller style but with connections to the lives of our others, rather than some banal warning that technology makes us amoral à la Haneke’s “Benny’s video” from 1992. The existential strikes in all its brutality, about life in a future where screen opens behind screen infinitely.

See more. Three other films about identity games: “Persona” (1966), “In the head of John Malkovich” (1999), “Black swan” (2010).

Read more texts by Jacob Lundström and more of DN’s film reviews.

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