Brandon Cronenberg’s sci-fi thriller Possessor receives a disturbing teaser

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Well, here's a little taste of the old ultra-violence for you. Neon has released a rather unsettling red-band teaser trailer for POSSESSOR, a sci-fi thriller from writer/director Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg. The film stars Andrea Riseborough (MANDY) as Tasya Vos, a corporate assassin who uses brain-implant technology in order to take control of other people's bodies to execute high profile targets. Her latest assignment proves to be a challenge when she begins to lose control and becomes trapped in the mind of a man whose identity threatens to obliterate her own.

POSSESSOR debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and received rave reviews, including one from our own Chris Bumbray. "If there was ever any doubt that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree for David Cronenberg’s son, Brandon, POSSESSOR should prove definitively that he is indeed his father’s son and a top-shelf director in his own right," wrote Bumbray in his review. "Highly reminiscent of some of his father’s work, particularly SCANNERS and EXISTENZ,… POSSESSOR is an uncompromisingly gruesome sci-fi flick that proved to be a sleeper out of this year’s Sundance and seems primed to put Brandon Cronenberg on the map." Bumbray also teased that the film is exceptionally gory, with some of the most gruesome shots in recent memory, and we can certainly get a sense of that from the teaser. In addition to Andrea Riseborough, POSSESSOR also stars Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Bean, Tuppence Middleton, and Rosif Sutherland.

The official synopsis for POSSESSOR:

Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of the company. While she has a special gift for the work, her experiences on these jobs have caused a dramatic change in her, and in her own life, she struggles to suppress violent memories and urges. As her mental strain intensifies, she begins to lose control, and soon she finds herself trapped in the mind of a man (Christopher Abbott) whose identity threatens to obliterate her own.

POSSESSOR is expected to be released by Neon sometime this year.