THE REVEREND’S REVIEW
FT’s resident man of the cloth REVEREND PETER LAWS dons his dog collar and faces the flicks that Church forgot! (www.peterlaws.co.uk)
Possessor
Dir Brandon Cronenberg, UK/Canada 2020
On UK release from 27 November
His House
Dir Remi Weekes, UK 2020
Streaming on Netflix
Remember when director David Cronenberg used to make gory, sci-fi, tech thrillers about shady companies and existential philosophy? Well his son Brandon does, because he’s keeping that flame alive with his new film Possessor.
Holly is a contract killer who uses tech to implant her consciousness into others. Once she’s in the driver’s seat, so to speak, she can make that person murder whomever her shady bosses demand. This ‘mind-control-assassin’ plot is hardly new. You see it in 1980s thriller Telefon and an old episode of Spider-Man. And let’s not forget the first Naked Gun movie with Ricardo Montalban hypnotising folks to kill the Queen. Yet Possessor
wants us to consider the implications of murdering at will from the safety of a lab. Yes, even assassins are working from home, these days.
Holly can’t just pop into a body and get stabbing – she must observe the innocent for a while and ‘learn their life’. Then, when she finally inhabits them, she must spend a while living that life. Going to their work, attending their parties, having sex with their spouse. Holly is excellent at her work, but at what cost? A chilling moment sees her standing outside her own house, rehearsing what banal everyday things she should say to her child. Then she goes inside, and plays the part... of herself.
It’s this fracturing of the mind (and the numbing
It’s this fracturing of the mind that gives the film its lasting horror
effect it creates) that gives Possessor its lasting horror. Oh, and the ending. Viewers should be advised that the subtitle of this film reads: “Uncut” – which is worth bearing in mind if you’re of a sensitive disposition. In fact, there were moments where the ultraviolence seemed too much. Not necessarily in an offensive way, but in the sense of being over-thetop – like Lucio Fulci at his most ‘let’s zoom-in-whenthe-eye-pops-out!’ extreme, which somehow undermines any sense of reality. But then I thought about the film afterwards and slapped my own hand. That’s precisely the point the film is trying to make, fool!
In His House a refugee couple face a nightmare journey when fleeing South Sudan to seek asylum in England. After many months in detention, they’re finally allowed to live in a run-down council estate. They’re told they must ‘fit in’ and ‘not make a fuss’, which isn’t easy when their designated house is possessed by an African demon that has followed them. It’s scary, sure, but director Remi Weekes brings heart too. The government officials, headed by Matt Smith, could have been stereotypes. They’re not. They’re real people trying to help even though they are part of the ‘system’. Yet the key is this lovely, haunted couple. Early on the husband wakes from a nightmare but he doesn’t want to worry his wife. “I was just dreaming of our wedding,” he says. She laughs back: “That explains the screams.” It’s a tiny moment, but it captures two people clinging to love and humour in the midst of horror – even before the demon turns up.
The fact that His House is being touted as ‘refreshing’ and ‘novel’ is welcome, of course. But it should give some of us movie fans pause for thought, too. Let’s face it, it’s not that refugees from Africa and elsewhere have only just started arriving in the UK in 2020. Yet, their stories (including the scary ones) haven’t been given much airtime. Horror has been a predominantly white, Western, Christian-centric landscape, after all. To see this sweet couple facing a demonic presence is scary, but the biggest emotion I felt was heartbreak and empathy for the millions of real-life nightmares this film simply echoes.