Possession

Rating:
Summary: Those slimy tentacle things know how to get the chicks!
Review: Firstly, I gotta say, that chick Anna was as hot as this movie is bizarre. I recognized her as the girl from that kooky Klaus Kinski version of Nosferatu. Holy Hannah! Picture a kind of slender, sylphish beauty, almost impossibly pale and perfect, with contrasting dark hair and dark eyes. If you've ever read the Death Dealer novels, she is exactly how I would picture the sorceress Cobra. This chick can take the edge of a screwball movie like nobody's business.

This guy (it's Grant from Jurassic Park---you gotta love that guy) comes home from some sort of ambiguous job to find out that his wife Anna has been cheating and is pretty much ready for splitsville. The guy goes nuts---and all you have to do is look at Anna to understand why. So, he embarks on a kind of nonlinear quest to wipe out the competition. At first he's convinced that Anna is with this one spaced-out jerkweed, but it becomes evident that the jerkweed is now out of the loop too. By the way, every one of these people are nuts, just absolutely out of their minds, every single one of them.

He hires this private eye, and the private eye, none too subtly, traces Anna to another apartment building altogether. He manages to conive his way into the apartment, and finds this slimy bloated thing with tentacles sticking to the bathroom wall, heaving and pulsating, making little smacking wet sounds. Anna kills the private eye with a shattered wine bottle to the throat, and I guess maybe feeds him to the tentacle thing, I don't really know. Other victims follow, and Anna confesses that she's been making it with Tentacle Thing. Just think, having a fine chick like that leave you for something that looks like it was picked from a nose and wiped across a wall.

All this time, the husband has been more or less taking care of the son he shares with Anna. He finds out that the son's teacher is a strange Anna clone with brown hair and pale blue contacts. She's got Anna's looks, she's much nicer, she seems sane, and most importantly she doesn't make it with slimy monsters. He has a chance to get it on with her, but, disappointingly, nothing ever really develops. Eventually, Anna kinda comes back to him, explaining that she's had relations with Tentacle Thing, to the extent that she had some kind of otherworldly miscarriage. Tentacle Thing, evidently, is evolving into something else. Things become more bizarre as the movie moves towards its climax. Somehow they even managed to throw a shoot out into the final scenes. Tentacle Thing, I guess fortified by the love of a good woman, ends up becoming an odd clone of the husband, seemingly immune to gunshots.

In a way this movie reminded me of that movie Naked Lunch---you know, the one where everyone has typewriters that turn to big talking bugs. But I liked Possessed alot more; it was faster-moving, funner to watch, and DEFINITELY a step up in the chick department. I don't know if the movie had a point; if it did I missed it, but it was pretty entertaining either way.

Rating:
Summary: This movie beats "The Brood" (Sorry, Mr. Cronenberg).
Review: I saw "The Brood" before I saw "Possession," because I am a huge admirer of David Cronenberg's work. I must say, I was a bit disappointed. Sure, this was trademark Cronenberg grue, with the expected gore, shocks, and bodily terror we have come to expect from his early works. However, I didn't think the movie went deep enough. The true nature of the monstrous, murdering children wasn't even revealed until the last few minutes of the film. I couldn't help wishing there was a sequel. Well, I have found a sequel of sorts in "Possession." This film, which was perhaps even partially inspired by the concepts presented in "the Brood", is a shocking, horrific, emotionally taxing ride, despite a seemingly pedestrian start. Once the film gets moving, though, it stops for nothing and no one. I wish that the synopsis for this movie didn't give away the surprise about Adjani's "lover," because that would be a part of the plot I would have kept hidden, such as who Keyser Soze was in "The Usual Suspects". However, I knew the plot before I saw the movie and it still packed a wallop. My only complaint: due to the artsy editing techniques, I sometimes I got confused about basic plot points. This movie has been restored for a reason-it is great. Don't miss it, but avoid it if you don't like movies that make you think. This movie does have gore, but if blood and shocks are all you're after, stick to Hershell G. Lewis's or Lucio Fulci's films.

Rating:
Summary: man oh man oh man......
Review: I was thrilled to find so many references to Polanski and Cronenberg among the reviews for this film. It does indeed combine the dark suspense and ironic humor of ROSEMARY'S BABY, the biological horror and familial disintegration of THE BROOD, and the unabashed histrionics and directorial flamboyance of Ken Russell's THE DEVILS. With themes of marital strife, familial disintegration, and psychological breakdown harking back to the former two and the in-your-face grotesquerie and visceral drama reminding the viewer of the latter two, little-known but acclaimed Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski tells the story of Anna (Isabelle Adjani, in the performance of a lifetime) and Mark (Sam Neill), she a bored housewife and he an overworked... something (the film never makes clear his occupation). They share an apartment in an empty, run-down Berlin with their young son. After completing an important job of some kind, Mark comes home to his family to find things changed. He drags the truth from Anna that she has been having an affair. She insists she cannot stay with him, and leaves Mark with the child, apparently to shack up with her lover. Mark tracks down the lover, a real weirdo named Heinz (Heinrich Bennent), but after insults and fisticuffs, Heinz insists he has not seen Anna in quite a while. Mark, perplexed, hires a detective to follow her from their apartment after one of her sporadic visits, which always end in chaos. The detective manages to get in and... something really strange happens. I know what that something is, having seen the picture, but on the off-chance you haven't read the other (spoiler-inundated) reviews, I'll keep it secret. Instead I'll talk about the photography, which goes a long way toward mirroring the absolutely unhinged performances, and the set design, which provides a cool counterpoint to the feverish tenor of the film's action and dialogue. It obviously isn't going to be for everybody, and in fact some will doubtless find it repellent. Writing the film was obviously therapeutic for Zulawski (who, like Cronenberg when writing THE BROOD, was going through a nasty divorce). A friend of mine said he was more sickened by the scenes of emotional anguish than by any of the film's often-stomach-churning special effects. Just keep two things in mind: firstly, this isn't your typical "horror flick", therefore the splatterpunk/gorehound set should stay away; and secondly, this one is playing for keeps: though laced with a bitter humor, there are no light moments here AT ALL, and this should not be watched by couples on a first date, or any couple whose relationship is not secure. Also, keep impressionable children away from it. I was very impressed with what I thought would be just another dreary, over-hyped horror film and turned out to be a genuine classic (at least as far as I'm concerned). Watch POSSESSION if you like Polanski's horror films, Cronenberg's more dramatic outings, or any of Ken Russell's stuff. SCENE OF NOTE: Adjani going ABSOLUTELY NUTS and having a miscarriage (or going into labour...?) in a subway station for what seems like an eternity.

Rating:
Summary: Surreal & absorbing
Review: I've just watched the Possession DVD and I'm impressed. The film is surreal, strange and absorbing. It was made in 1981 by Polish director Andrzej Zulawski, and shot in Berlin. It's an enigmatic film that needs several viewings to connect with it. It is laden with anger, anxiety and hysteria. It was actually included on the DPP's list of 'Video Nasties' in the UK in the early eighties.

The story involves a man named Mark (Sam Neill) who arrives home after being away on his mysterious job (possibly a government secret agent) and is told by his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) that she is having an affair with another man named Heinrich (Heinz Bennent). The film then goes into a convoluted mode of visceral frenzy. Isabelle Adjani gives an extremely powerful performance as the crazed wife, (think of Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant, and then some more) in one scene in particular in a subway she is irrationally wild.

The film is added more surreal flavour because Adjani plays two characters in the film, the other being the couple's son's teacher. Heinz Bennent is also in similar form as the creepy and odd Heinrich, he just looks like Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lectar. Anna leaves Mark and moves into a large vacuous apartment, where in one of the rooms she has sex with a strange slimy creature, whose purpose is to evolve and change into a doppelganger of Mark. The ending is really weird. I don't want to say anything else about the film except watch it, if you already haven't. If you liked Lost Highway, you'll like Possession.

The DVD is superb. A beautiful dark picture in widescreen 1.66:1 really captures the darkness and unusual camera techniques of Zulawski. The sound is in mono and is clear. The music is good too. The extras consist of an excellant and fascinating commentary by director Andrzej Zulawski, who his questioned by Biographer Dan Bird. Plus, there's the US and International trailers and some background info about Zulawski. The menus are good too, with music from the film playing. A Brilliant DVD transfer of a complex and rewarding film. Essential viewing for fans of surreal & abstract cinema.

Rating:
Summary: Not Really a Horror Movie
Review: If you approach this film expecting to see a standard early eighties horror movie you may be extremely disappointed. Sure, it has horrific moments and some gore, but the film is closer to The Tenant than the Exorcist, both in narrative and mood.

Several reviewers seemed to have completely missed the point. The three main actors in the film are not over-acting in the traditional sense: Zulawski got exactly the performances he wanted from his actors. There is a certain theatricality to the whole thing that should not be overlooked - what you see are seeing are outward manifestations of inward emotional turmoil. Every movement and expression the actors make, though disconcerting, are very carefully considered. If you are laughing you are not getting it. Only the characters going through severe emotional turmoil behave the way they do. All other characters in the movie are relatively calm.

The cover on the DVD is designed to be seductive. It does not accurately reflect the film in any way. DO NOT PURCHASE IT FOR THE COVER AlONE.

Rating:
Summary: Possessed by Possession
Review: If your a fan of either of either of these fine actors, this DVD is a must. Not only is it an intense and gory horror film, it is also a pristine anamorphic DVD. The ratio puts side bars on the image in anamorphic mode but don't worry there's more than enough detail to spare. Good pre-reunification views of Berlin are another bonus. OK, there are some holes in the plot, and what it all means in the end is open to debate, but don't let it bother you. Just buy.

Rating:
Summary: good monster,plus adjani!
Review: incomprehensible,bizzare and maybe boring,but adjani looks great as a nutcase, and the scene with her and her tentacled lover (very brief) makes it almost worth buying. Carlo Rambaldi did a fine job with the monster,it is one of the wierdest ever!

Rating:
Summary: Possession (1981) d: Zulawski, Andrzej
Review: Incredibly strange nasty that the art house crowd will love. Mark (Sam Neill) and Anna (Isabelle Adjani) are a married couple going through a long dark marital breakdown during the political upheaval of 1970s Berlin. The highlight of which includes Anna expressing her tormented stated of mind by cutting into her neck with an electric carving-knife. On the surface the movie seems very simple: Mark figures that he has gotten to the bottom of Anna's unsettling behavior. He assumes that she is having an affair, and hires a detective to find out who it is. In probably the weirdest twist ever committed to celluloid, we find out that Anna has given birth to an octopus creature in a award-winning ten minute bile-spraying miscarriage on the Subway. If that is not enough, we discover that she is committing incest with the tentacle lover. The demented housewife struggles with leaving her family behind for her slimy monster. "...Part art film, part supernatural thriller, and part splatter horror" this movie has finally been put back in the right order and released uncut for the first time in North America, but it still does not make a lot of sense. Deep metaphor's throughout the picture make Possession incomprehensible but fun to try and figure out.

Rating:
Summary: OVER THE EDGE
Review: It is always refreshing when a film takes great leaps of chance & goes right over the edge. The film "Possession" does so incredibly. Isabelle Adjani is perfect & carries the film along. It is no wonder Adjani won at the Cannes film festival. The creature featured is very innovative, even today the film is not dated except for one of the score pieces. An unforgettable film.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: It must be seen and now uncut on DVD there should be nothing to hold you back.