31 Days of Halloween: Possessor

2020, Brandon Cronenberg (Antiviral) -- Netflix

If your dad is David Cronenberg, are you just destined to direct weird fucking movies? Joe Hill followed in his own dad's footsteps (Stephen King) by writing horror stories, but is there any other path? How would David have felt if Brandon had become the king of Hallmarkies?

Anywayz, weird fucking movie. And about time. There used to be a time, when these were my thing. It all started with that copy of a copy VHS tape of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and for a time I was clamouring for anything weird, which of course, led me to Cronenberg's (David, not Brandon) seminal films. They always begged the question, horror or just horrifying? This movie ends up giving me the same query. It was definitely horrifying, with some definitely look-away cringe moments (I am getting soft in my old age) and the plot goes down an expected terrible (for all characters involved) path. But at its core, it is more a scifi thriller than horror movie.

Vos (Andrea Riseborough, Oblivion) works for an organization as an assassin. Unless the company serves other purposes, with its brain implant technology that allows their agents to "possess" someone else (also implanted, obviously against their will and without knowing) and guide them like an avatar in a video game, Vos's job is to kill people. It has taken its toll on her -- she is separated from her husband & child, and has begun embracing the violence of the acts, getting a wee bit bloodier than her handler Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight) care for. But no matter Vos, get your killer head on straight, because we have to kill rich guy Sean Bean, because... Sean Bean.

Vos is lying to Girder about having her head on straight, and almost from the moment she steps into the life of her next host, Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott, The Sinner), things are strained. For one, Vos is a woman, and the man's body is... interesting. She is supposed to lay low, play the part, until a party in which she will violently kill Bean's John Parse, allowing the company Girder and Vos work for to take over his. Tate is also seeing Parse's daughter Ava (ay-va, not ah-va; Tuppence Middleton, Jupiter Ascending) and during the botched assassination, Tate/Vos kills her. Vos is unravelling, and Tate is coming to the surface more and more.

This movie was brutal, no not too brutal to watch, but the brutality was done as spectacle, and to be honest, I am not sure it worked. Right from the get go, the Vos we meet is losing herself to the violence of her chosen profession, losing more and more touch with humanity. The more effective aspect of this loss is the horrific imagery associated with Vos becoming intertwined (visually, literally) with Tate despite his best attempts to break free. The violence was almost exploitative, while the sex, less so. I am on a metaphorical fence, wondering what I got out of it, but even that, means I got more than I usually get from all those middling to low monster & slasher flicks we watch.

Final question: what do you think Tate's job was?

Kent's post here.