New trailer for Possessor dives into Brandon Cronenberg’s twisted vision

A bunch of folks celebrated Spring Day yesterday. I mean, technically they’re wrong, but they still celebrated anyway as Spring is the season of new life and happiness. Well, unless you have my life-long sinus problems in which case it’s a season of horror. And so, feeling the way I do today, up to my eyeballs in both horror and snot already, I thought I would just pile on even more in my life (the horror, not the snot) with the new full trailer for Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor.

The upcoming horror film made huge splashes (of blood) when it played on the Film Fest circuit earlier this year, with those who got to see it warning that it was absolutely bonkers and unlike anything you’ve ever seen in terms of on-screen nightmare fuel. The first trailer for Possessor played up that nightmare angle with sharp disorienting edits and barely glimpsed shots of grotesquery, but it didn’t quite explain what the whole thing was about. A new trailer has dropped though which dives into the film’s story a lot clearer, but toning down the violent brainf–k factor. Check it out below.

Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of the company. While she has a special gift for the work, her experiences on these jobs have caused a dramatic change in her, and in her own life she struggles to suppress violent memories and urges. As her mental strain intensifies, she begins to lose control, and soon she finds herself trapped in the mind of a man (Christopher Abbott) whose identity threatens to obliterate her own.

Ironically enough, this is actually the trailer for the uncut version of Possessor so you would expect it to be more explicit, but here we are. Gory violence or not – and based on Cronenberg’s previous filmography and his pedigree as son of the legendary David Cronenberg, it’s most definitely the former option – that looks like a great idea. And stars Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbot appear to be acting the hell out of this one. Also, if Sean Bean actually makes it out of this alive, I will be greatly disappointed.

So I’m actually pretty stoked to see exactly what all the fuss is about for the rest of Possessor. And then probably not sleep for the rest of the week.

Possessor is scheduled to release in limited US cinemas on 9 October 2020. No word on a local release yet.

Last Updated: September 2, 2020