Possessor is a 2020 science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg the film stars Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott, with Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The film follows an assassin who kills people by possessing to bodies to other people as she ends up fighting to control the body of her current host. Possessor is a film about identity and whether persons true self can exist when being invaded by a forgiven entity.
The film starts showcasing a plug connected into a person’s skull via a device as people’s emotions are seemingly controlled as a result. Tasya the protagonist is mentally stunted as her identity is stunted due to her job. Within the hosts body the water is shown to be seemingly reversed as seemingly out of nowhere she kills a guy by stabbing him a couple of times. She then gets asked to be pulled out as she freaks out about killing herself as she gets the cos pot kill her. This showcases the fears of identity as how seeming a person body can be invaded by a foreign identity however the primal fears such as death stop her form killing herself and being a perfect assassin. It is revealed that she was in a machine that highjacks peoples mind for assassination, shows how the fears of identity in the film as a outside invader can control a person destroying their humanity. As she is pulled out, she goes through the tests where she must tell her officer what objects are and what they personally represent to her and to other people to make sure she is essentiality ok. This showcases her identity in flux as she is still mentally the but in invading other people her identity is lost as a result.
Taysa is emotionally distant due to the nature of her work. she cannot remember certain things in her head as the agency is manipulating her into more work using her. This showcases the lack of identity in this world as her work in invading other people destroying her sense of self as well as working for a corporation that doesn’t care about her. She must practice talking normally to her husband and son as her normal emotions are stilted or fake as shown at their friend’s dinner where she does not care and is emotionless during sex as she is thinking about her kill. This showcases that her identity is slowly being eroded due to her invading foreign bodies as real word connections have lessened and she is a cog in a machine. She ultimately wants to go back to work as he can’t adjust as she sees her husband with a stab neck wound as he’s talking to her. Her boss is also losing herself to the machine and can’t recognise herself anymore. This shows how her identity is destroyed by her job and she can’t be a normal person anymore herself is being destroyed, as the foreign entity she invades a more real than her real life. The film shows that she still has the small thread of her old life as she is losing everything. She is more like the people she invades then herself as shown by her stabbing someone and not shooting them. This show as the destruction of identity and self as going into other people’s bodies and persons invades her own. Her next job is to kill a person, so another person gets the company. This showcases the corporatisation of the world as the is no love in the relationship of the man whose body she invades as she must watch and mimic her target as she goes through drug addict like withdraw symptoms.
She then gets plug into the guy to get into his dinner to see how unstable the target is as showcases how oneself can be destroyed by a foreign entity. When Tasya gets put into the machine it is like an MRI scanner. Her body dissolves via melting and goes though faces of the guy remaking the face of the man as her body dissolves and she transforms into one person seeming flying though the sky. This showcases how her identity is destroyed though her job and a new identity is created. Herself does not exist she is simply a virus invading a foreign entity destroying her humanity and her hosts humanity. She invades the guy’s body and is seemingly out of it exploring a new gender as shown with semen on his underwear, this showcases the identity of individuals being blurred and destroying a sense of oneself creating a new identity, as they touch an object seeming buzzing in the air that disappears when they touch it. He puts on VR goggles and enters a VR office space to go to work. the buzzing object then comes back as the lines between reality’s are blurring as the sync is seemingly not working with weird flashes. He sees her, her kid as they are split but connected as they look at her family from a distance. This showcases how a person’s identity is destroyed as oneself can be destroyed like a virus. Both Tasya and Colin are in a similar environment of a friendly gathering as she doesn’t now things he knows as well as the repetition of lines “what kind of person wants that” and “didn’t think they’d stay that long”. She as he has sex with their girlfriend as her mind comes lose with them chocking him. This showcases how people identity are destroyed by invading other people’s bodies.
Within this sex scene she becomes a woman with a penis as Tasya is seeming coming apart as their diagnostics are unclear and they must recalibrate. This shows how a person’s identity and sense of self doesn’t exist oneself is simply a vassal for the invading force. When they go to the company party it mirrors Tasya’s party. Colin controlled by Tasya slits John the head of the company’s throat, beats him bloody, disfigures their mouth and gauges their eye out. This showcases that their sense of self is invaded and destroyed by foreign forces, however this self is subconsciousness takes out their hidden desires though this violence. The injected girlfriend tries to get away, but she is shot dead, however Tasya can’t kill herself to pull herself out as their fractured mind starts to break. This shows how a person’s self is still in there and they cannot fight their basic biological survival instincts. A zombified version of herself is shown as she wakes up seemingly between realities as shes vomiting up blood as Colin escapes seemingly out of it. This showcases how identity is being blurred and destroyed by foreign entities in the form of another person. The longer she is in the more likely the chance as he has permeant risk to her brain as Colin sows up his brain port. This again shows that a person’s identity and self is destroyed by invading other people’s bodies. There two worlds and the memories are colliding as Colin points a gun to his girlfriend as she is in the shower as it then cuts back to Tasya in her original body. This shows how identity and self are blurred into a singularity entity fighting against itself.
Colin is then taken out via a futuristic stun gun, as John is alive but severally crippled being kept alive via a futuristic wheelchair. Colin is temporarily back in his own body thanks to the person that into them but know he can’t pull the trigger like Tasya. This shows that people are ultimately scared to destroy the sense of self their identity as people have a fear of the destruction of the self. The film shows a sync analysis showing the two of them Tasya and Colin in the same location but in different settings, as Colin strangles Taysa to death killing her to get her out of him. This shows the fears of identity in the film and the need to destroy parasitical invaders. The film shows the fears of the help being controlled and having to destroy an invading entity. He ends up snapping her face like a mask as he destroys her identity, he then takes her head mask and wears it symbolically invading his own identity into hers creating a new self. This is a merging of people as the mask head overrides her memory as the. mask head in now in her place. This again shows how his identity overrides hers and that herself is now destroyed. Tasya tires to rip the plug out of her symbolically trying to destroy her identity as Colin under possession of Tasya kills Eddie. This shows how one’s identity is to be artificial and the loss of identity in painful and leads to destruction. Colin sees Tasya dying as Colin still can’t kill himself and instead is destroying Tasya’s body. This again links to the fear of the destruction of the self and destruction of one’s identity. The film shows flashes of her memory with them both saying darling as he goes to her house doing the same routine as when she goes home. This again shows the destruction and melting of identities and self.
Tasya and Colin become two halves controlling each other, as Tasya is like a predator or a parasite however with him seeming in some sort of control it shows that they are both not the same person anymore. This shows the fear of the destruction of identity and self and that foreign entities in the form of other people can invades and destroy another person’s identity and self. He sees her family and what she has done to him as he is now the one in control as with the killing of the family the film asks the question who killed them him or her. This links to the themes of identity and blurring the lines of the self as there is seeming no objective identity or self. With the death of Michael, the film asks the question did she ever love him, as she seemingly doesn’t care when he dies however Tasya as Colin still can’t kill themselves. This showcases how a person’s identity and self has been destroyed through the emotional destruction of individuals however there is still a primal element of emotion due to her fear of death. Tasya son ends up stabbing Colin who shoots him dead, and as they are lying dying Tasya asks them to pull her out. This showcases the dangers of the destruction of identity and self and ho the death of self leads to the death of people. Tasya is finally pulled out she goes through the same list again that she did at the start of the film but this time with no emotion or hesitation towards the object as her evaluator says that’s good. This shows the destruction of her identity and self she now simply a conduit to invade other beings and control foreign entities at the cost of her humanity.
Possessor highlights the dangers of the destruction of identity and the self and how through the invasion of other people like foreign entities ultimately destroys people humanity at the cost of societal and teleological progress.