Possession (1981)

Mark (Sam Neill) comes home from months on the road to find his flighty wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani in an almost bug-eyed performance), ready to divorce him. Distraught and angry, he tracks down her lover, but discovers a secret unknown to either of the men. Anna has given birth, literally, to a demon lover (created by monster maker Carlos Rimbaldi), and she'll murder anyone who dares to come between them. Full of anger, jealousy, emotional suffering, and vindictiveness, this bizarre, bleak horror film is a mix of Hollywood melodrama, European psychodrama, and the raw, blunt emotions of personal art cinema. Mark and Anna grow increasingly shrill and erratic as they sink deeper into madness and obsession, and finally doppelgängers, also played by Neill and Adjani, arise to take their place. Hints of Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, and the biological horrors of David Cronenberg float through the story. The English-language French production was shot in Germany with a Polish director and an international cast, which only adds to the dissonance. Andrzej Zulawski (who claims that the film was inspired by his own divorce) directs this obscure and often alienating film with unrelenting intensity. The 2-hour film was cut down to 80 minutes for its original American release, and has only now been restored to full length. The DVD features commentary by Zulawski in conversation with his biographer, Dan Bird. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Sexy Madness

If a culmination of a movie had been a scene of a wife rooting some out-of-this-world half-male half-insect (from Naked Lunch - Criterion Collection, or?), the rest depicted is a complete nonsense fed with ill imagination of money-hungry producers and natural attractiveness of actors. July 16, 2008

What Does It Mean ?

I've watched this movie quite a few times now and I still don't understand it too well.

The two main characters appear in two different roles. Perhaps these represent their positive and negative natures.

There's a strange character named 'Heinrich' who's into very strange things like psychic energy and bizarre sexual practices.

But then there's also a very strange character !

The husband is involved with some sort of secret agency I think. There's a tie in with a guy who wears pink socks.

The wife is a great actress. She becomes possessed down in the subway tunnel. This is a great performance and includes bizarre special effects.

Jeff Marzano

Images in a Convent

The Beast (La bête)

Irreversible

Black Widow DVD
December 2, 2007

100 Stars for the Film - 1 Star for this PAL DVD...

Warning to all those who have never seen the Out Of Print Anchor Bay DVD of Possession:

This Region 2 Import PAL DVD of Possession is missing 30+min of music cues from the film! It's basically a film with no music!! Also, the aspect ratio is 1.85:1 not the original 1.66:1, and is missing Andrzej Zulawski's engaging audio commentary. While the picture is Anamorphic, it is not sharp and detailed like the Anchor Bay DVD.

[...] February 7, 2007

Superb

All negative reviews of this film should be ignored.

This is one of the best films I have ever seen. The acting is top notch, the special effects look great, and most importantly, the subtext is deep and thought provoking.

This film will not only stay with you because of the haunting imagery, but also because of its intelligence. Don't expect an easy ending or explanation. October 27, 2006

Another Cult movie that divides - dont all cult movies do :-)

First of all, I loved this movie.

Having a read around the boards and some reviews, its quite amazing that so many people really, really hate this movie and others think it's a total masterpiece. However, since my 20 or so years following obscure cult movies, I learned one thing - cult movies always split an audience due to their bizarreness, pushing the envelope, or being too clever and off-mainstream. Lazy reviewers often immediatley label this as pretentious but that's their loss, but getting ahead of myself here :)

Wont do a summary, but I will say that this DVD is a fine addition to any collection because the movie has everything, a euro background of Berlin, a mysterious story, a beautiful actress (Adjani), some crazy extreme scenes and some weird characters - all you want from a cult movie, right?

The extras, have a insightful commentary by the director which adds great value to the dvd.

Overall, if you want an intelligent movie and are open-minded and just sick of boring zombies, vampires, and brain-numbing slashers - this is one of the coolest flicks for your collection.

recommended, cult fans - thank me afterwards! July 20, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...