Possessed by Possession: Movie Review
when a movie tries to scare you, it has a lot of options. but somehow hundreds of scary movies seem to fall into a very similar routine. A killer is on the loose, infectious plague is turning people into zombies, no matter how crazy the big thing is, realism in the characters and logic can make you feel more invested. It’s why a lot of these movies tend to start out with normal Happy People. The age-old classic of presenting you with tranquility and then taking it away and sometimes that technique can put you in the perfect position to
be scared, or it makes you think of all those other shitty movies you’ve seen. The Shining proves that this technique can be overwhelmingly effective with the warm embrace of Jack’s family slowly fading away as the dust of the hotel settles on his mind. The initial happiness is vital to the story but the imminent evil is present right from the start, with these ominous notes rumbling beneath the trees Possession takes this one step further by introducing you to the Mirage of an ordinary family, and instead of a stable progression of insanity, it’s a stable reveal The
first couple scenes lay the groundwork for a classic opening. They’re going through some heartache and problems with their relationship they have a kid to worry about but it seems like they’re healthy enough to
as it keeps layering itself with these unexpected plot points until suddenly, it breaks and we get a proper introduction. “it’s like like you build a house and and you have this basement or this ground floor which is the reality of a marriage breaking up and then you need a second floor you need something above in order to transpose the story to to say that this means something.” Once you’re passed the illusion of a conventional film, you’re thrown into a psychological experiment that’s not only about the horrific process of emotion, but how the ones you love
can saturate it. As people our social defense mechanisms can often worm their way into Natural Instinct. Anger, confusion, fear, paranoia, these feelings affect how we strategize, and when someone you care about is causing the stress, it gets even harder to think straight. Things get messy, you make mistakes and your mind goes on a loop thinking about this other person and what you can do. “Anna is there anything I can do” The human brain is still just a brain, and the intelligence it grants us can cause as many problems as it can solve. It’s the most
conventional story in history, it feels strange reviewing it, but that’s exactly what this movie does. It’s a magnified window staring at two advanced animals tearing each other apart, and the world they inhabit amplifies this battle. Andreas awalski perfectly mixes catastrophic divorce with comedic absurdity. That scene in the restaurant not only shows you who these people are, but how ridiculous this world can be. When four chefs pile on top of Mark, it’s funny. When three cars explode for no reason, it’s funny. It’s the world’s way of saying anything that happens can happen, and that opens the
doorway to all the grotesque arguments and reactions. When Mark finds out that she’s cheating, he mentally locks himself in a hotel room for days just rocking back and forth and all this garbage. This is the process. This is him handling the situation the only way he can. These expressional outbursts are truthful and raw, The Madness of it all only making it more effective. Many of the other characters in this film have achieved some kind of peace. They seem to balance with life romance and happiness. It’s why Anna initially Falls for Heinrich, and why Mark despises
him. “He comes from True Life you know if he’s a guru. He’s one of these intelligent people who discovered a way out of the dreary normalcy and and he knows, and he knows and Sam Neill looks so foolish not knowing.” “You want me to break down the bloody door??” “You don’t have to it’s open” He can live to a far Fuller extent than the both of them and he wants them to join him, but there’s a cataclysmic divide between those involved in emotional distress and those that aren’t. It can absorb everything. Once we see Heinrich
betrayed, he loses that sense of superiority, spitting nonsense and flying at the walls like a broken machine. But I also believe that the goal of this film would not allow these two characters to make it out. It’s almost like their sole purpose is to represent. most of these other people want them to be happy and they try, but this world does not exist for this couple to thrive. It exists for them to destroy. By the end of the film, every life they touch is dismounted including their own. It’s a feeding frenzy as they take turns
devouring every good thing on the table. While initially it might seem like Mark is the good guy, once it’s all said and done it’s clear that they perpetuate each other. He almost breaks free from the cycle when the people who care about him are there for support, but then she returns and it all comes crashing down once again. The arguments in this movie are far more sophisticated and terrifying than those you would find in reality because it feels like every single line is directly tied to a drastic and pure emotion. These two people are overflowing
with energy and the passion they feel for each other is selfish, sexual, undying, and violent. Sometimes it feels like too much like the scene just never ends she leaves, but then he follows her. The uncomfortable length of the movie traps you as well, and you find yourself wanting exactly what they do. Throughout the film, there’s this looming sense of exclusivity as well. If you lived in West Berlin in the 80s, you know what it’s like to be stalked by strangers on top of that wall, and if you’ve been in a relationship that’s anything like this
one, you know what these people are feeling. It’s some of the most stressful and disturbing Cinema I have ever seen… and there’s about nine versions of it. It seems like every country wants to have its own little say about how this movie should go, and that’s probably in relation to Zawalski’s rebellious directorial history. His films tend to poke at people’s Comfort zones to put it lightly. This movie got branded as a video nasty, making it banned everywhere for so long that it’s still basically impossible to find. Some of these versions have entirely new soundtracks that
apparently try to make the movie scarier, but the original director’s cut has a killer score. It takes a well concluded back seat to the situation and it is incredibly impactful when it shows its full face. Plus, as happy as I am with the minimalism of it, there’s an extended soundtrack in one of the versions that doesn’t really work in the movie but you can listen to those songs on YouTube and it’s by the same composer and it’s awesome and it’s free! Isabelle Adjani is exploding in this movie, but Sam Neal is just as exposed as
she is. And while she was scarred for life and brought to the brink of suicide, this is Sam’s favorite role! They both pull off the most minute and precise facial expressions mixed with horribly expressive physical theater performances, it is incredible to watch all the way to the end. This story finishes off with a burst of ridiculous action. Explosions, motorcycles, cops shooting, cops getting shot, more strange men talking about more things we don’t really understand. It’s the same barrage of plot points from the beginning of the film, only now we’ve accepted the insane reality of this
world so it compensates for that. But why is it doing this? Well, when this was helping us leave the illusion of convention before, now we’re returning to it, as we see this version of a normal family one last time. Throughout the film, Bob ,their child, was curiously absent. He was there he was always there, and he was affected by what happened, but when fighting broke out he was nowhere to be seen. When we do see him, there’s a few instances where he practices holding his breath underwater. As it happens it feels like him playing a
game and being a child, but figuratively or literally he is learning to block out all the domestic violence surrounding him, and when he senses the danger outside in this final scene he frantically runs to the tub. Trying to protect himself, but as the bombs drop outside you know that the effect is inevitable. now I know that was awesome, but there’s a huge aspect that I have to talk about, and if you haven’t seen this movie yet I don’t want you to watch this part. I put a bunch of stuff in that last part, all you
gotto do is look at moviesverse.org and look up possession 1981 and get ready to close a bunch of redirected tabs and go through this whole weird process of advertising and download the movie and put it through an online video converter because it’s going to be an MKV file instead of an mp4 this is the only one that actually works is not that hard you’re not gonna get a virus just get ad block this is how I got all the footage in this video now get the fuck outta here. All right now that those losers are
gone we can, you know, finally have a drink. heh, cheers oh my God oh my God you just chugged that. you chugged it! oh my God you’re crazy bro! In the middle of all this fighting, a Bloody Disgusting monster. It’s gross, it’s terrifying, and it’s confusing. Why is this here? What does this mean? Well, in my eyes, it’s an obvious parallel to the other side of this film. At this point you are so drawn into the fighting and the screaming that seeing a monster in this horror movie is unexpected. Unlike, all those other movies that
use the Classic Family technique. You go into a horror movie and see some normal ass shit, something Supernatural happening is probably gonna to be one of the first things you expect, but this movie bends your perception of horror in such an extensive way that this thing showing up is authentically surprising, which not many movies can pull off. You think you know how it goes, and then you don’t, and then you think you know how it goes, and then you don’t. There’s this real sense of awe when you see this thing for the first time, like,
what is that, what the fuck is that WOAHHH Does it represent how their relationship affects the world, or how people lethally imprint what they want onto children? Maybe it’s the amalgamation of the perfect man that Helen is creating in our head, that would confirm that the face mark sees on the teacher is also just his inner desire for her, or maybe she’s having a nervous breakdown and the only man that can handle it is the one that makes her malfunction. The best films give you questions alongside answers and everyone who watches this movie has different
feelings about it, about the character reactions to it, about that fucking subway scene, but what’s the difference. This scene with the meat grinder had me scrunched up in my seat, but the face of this thing still sits in my head. One is real, and the other is fantasy, so what’s scarier? This impossible gory creature, or these normal people? heh I’LL CATCH YOU IN THE NEXT ONE why does the monster have tentacles? every monster has tentacles, don’t you think so?
