Possession
Directed by Andrzej Żuławski
- horror
The story
A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.
What it’s like
Handheld, restless camera lurches between tight close-ups and drab streets of divided Berlin, all grey concrete, sickly greens and stark fluorescent apartments. The palette swings from beige domestic calm to blood red and oily yellow as things curdle, and the score, a throbbing synth-and-strings pulse with shrieking peaks, keeps the nerves wound tight. A marriage comes apart in an overheated, hysterical register, anchored by a raw, operatic and often unbearable lead performance. Pacing is feverish, with long agitated stretches broken by sudden lurches into violence: graphic body horror, a brutal and very explicit gore sequence, frank and disturbing sexual content, and constant screaming panic rather than quiet dread. The vibe is feverish, nightmarish and allegorical, best for a late night alone when you want to be unsettled rather than soothed, and not a comfort watch. For viewers who want art-house horror with political undertones and an unhinged performance, and who can handle extreme, unsparing content.
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