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| "She created a monster as her secret lover!" |
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Possession
DVD/APPROX. 123 MINS/1981/USA R18+
DVD/APPROX. 123 MINS/1981/USA R18+
Another film caught up in the UK's draconian Video Nasty clampdown of the early ‘80s, Possession is in fact more of an extreme art house movie
than the exploitative hard gore horror movies it was lumped in with on the Department of Public Prosecutions banned list.
First of all, a word of caution - viewers expecting bloody thrills and a few laughs like they might with other, ex-Nasties on the list be warned, this is
an extremely headache inducing, confusing piece of artful body horror that involves more SHOUTING than any film I have seen before. It would
make a good companion piece to Tetsuo: the Iron Man, as both share themes of bodily disintegration, spiraling sexual depravity and escalating
madness along with a frantic pace and motion-sickness camera work. That said, those two films together would make for a grueling night’s
entertainment, if you could call it that...more of an endurance test!
The film tells the story of a couple, played by Isabelle Adjani (who starred in Herzog's excellent remake of Nosferatu) and Jurassic Park's Sam
Neill. Their relationship is breaking down and fast moving beyond repair. She is having an affair with a camp German weirdo but, it later transpires
that she is also shacked up with a shape-shifting alien life form and she's willing to kill anyone who gets close enough to find out.
The level of insanity in this film really can't be underestimated. A large chunk of the film is spent not on gory set pieces, though there are plenty of
those, but on the equally horrific screaming matches between the couple, which lead to physical fights and unpleasant self-mutilation. What is
worse is that the couple has a child who is stuck in the middle of all this horror, watching a pair of mentally fractured parents ripping psychological
chunks out of each other.
Isabelle Adjani won a Gong at the Cannes film festival for her performance in this film, which, though in danger of spilling over into pantomime
during some of the more outrageous sequences of verbal assault, always stays just reined in. An extended five minute miscarriage scene in a
subway tunnel, in which she screams and throws herself around as if possessed until she collapses into a pool of milk-like liquid and blood that
pours from her body is a little hard to take but remarkable nevertheless. I wrote this review months ago and just reading that sentence again
brings back shuddering images of that horrible scene to my mind. It truly is one of the weirdest and most extreme moments in cinema.
It's just so typical of the UK that a well considered and thoughtful, if confusing, work of art should be lumped together with Nazi shockers or
Zombie gut munchers and banned. Yes, it's not everyone's cup of tea but it's a far cry from Cannibal Ferox, etc. I'm not saying that any of these
movies should have received any kind of ban but when Beast In Heat, a film about Third Reich rape and mutilation made purely for kicks, is placed
alongside this movie the intention of the directors become very clear. One is an exercise in pure exploitation and is entertaining on its own twisted
terms. The other is a genuine attempt to provoke thought...a piece of real art. It demonstrates just how ignorant of cinema the powers that be
were in the early ‘80s (Have they improved? A little...).
If you are in the mood to be freaked out and can get into the highly stylized performance and script, there is a lot to love in this weird movie. Gore
fans can fast forward through all the meaningful stuff for some nasty stabbings and a repulsive alien/human sex scene, which is pivotal to the neat
twist ending, by the way.
In regards to the DVD, Anchor Bay presents us with a fully restored, complete print of a film that was apparently hacked up beyond all recognition
when it was originally released. The director, of Polish extraction who is an artist and was harassed in his native country for the confrontational
nature of his work, wades in with an illuminating commentary. The extras also feature some trailers as well.
The disc I bought is a flipper, containing Mario Bava's last movie, Shock, on the other side. Easily found on eBay, this disc is one of the best value
packages I've seen.
than the exploitative hard gore horror movies it was lumped in with on the Department of Public Prosecutions banned list.
First of all, a word of caution - viewers expecting bloody thrills and a few laughs like they might with other, ex-Nasties on the list be warned, this is
an extremely headache inducing, confusing piece of artful body horror that involves more SHOUTING than any film I have seen before. It would
make a good companion piece to Tetsuo: the Iron Man, as both share themes of bodily disintegration, spiraling sexual depravity and escalating
madness along with a frantic pace and motion-sickness camera work. That said, those two films together would make for a grueling night’s
entertainment, if you could call it that...more of an endurance test!
The film tells the story of a couple, played by Isabelle Adjani (who starred in Herzog's excellent remake of Nosferatu) and Jurassic Park's Sam
Neill. Their relationship is breaking down and fast moving beyond repair. She is having an affair with a camp German weirdo but, it later transpires
that she is also shacked up with a shape-shifting alien life form and she's willing to kill anyone who gets close enough to find out.
The level of insanity in this film really can't be underestimated. A large chunk of the film is spent not on gory set pieces, though there are plenty of
those, but on the equally horrific screaming matches between the couple, which lead to physical fights and unpleasant self-mutilation. What is
worse is that the couple has a child who is stuck in the middle of all this horror, watching a pair of mentally fractured parents ripping psychological
chunks out of each other.
Isabelle Adjani won a Gong at the Cannes film festival for her performance in this film, which, though in danger of spilling over into pantomime
during some of the more outrageous sequences of verbal assault, always stays just reined in. An extended five minute miscarriage scene in a
subway tunnel, in which she screams and throws herself around as if possessed until she collapses into a pool of milk-like liquid and blood that
pours from her body is a little hard to take but remarkable nevertheless. I wrote this review months ago and just reading that sentence again
brings back shuddering images of that horrible scene to my mind. It truly is one of the weirdest and most extreme moments in cinema.
It's just so typical of the UK that a well considered and thoughtful, if confusing, work of art should be lumped together with Nazi shockers or
Zombie gut munchers and banned. Yes, it's not everyone's cup of tea but it's a far cry from Cannibal Ferox, etc. I'm not saying that any of these
movies should have received any kind of ban but when Beast In Heat, a film about Third Reich rape and mutilation made purely for kicks, is placed
alongside this movie the intention of the directors become very clear. One is an exercise in pure exploitation and is entertaining on its own twisted
terms. The other is a genuine attempt to provoke thought...a piece of real art. It demonstrates just how ignorant of cinema the powers that be
were in the early ‘80s (Have they improved? A little...).
If you are in the mood to be freaked out and can get into the highly stylized performance and script, there is a lot to love in this weird movie. Gore
fans can fast forward through all the meaningful stuff for some nasty stabbings and a repulsive alien/human sex scene, which is pivotal to the neat
twist ending, by the way.
In regards to the DVD, Anchor Bay presents us with a fully restored, complete print of a film that was apparently hacked up beyond all recognition
when it was originally released. The director, of Polish extraction who is an artist and was harassed in his native country for the confrontational
nature of his work, wades in with an illuminating commentary. The extras also feature some trailers as well.
The disc I bought is a flipper, containing Mario Bava's last movie, Shock, on the other side. Easily found on eBay, this disc is one of the best value
packages I've seen.
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