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POSSESSED WITH OBSESSION: A review of the movie “Possession”, a blend of artistry and horror


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What is your idea about a horror movie with a creature in it? Well, it should have innumerable chase sequences with gory action from the creature, more lines of screams than the dialogues are a must and also ritually, it should also feature horrified humans struggling to overpower the being right. Much Like what we saw in “The Thing “or even the recent “Maze Runner”. But this is not true in the case of “Possession”, where the creature is the least horrid part of it. Yet it sutures terror, realistically into the viewer’s eyes even after the movie.

Possession, the 1981 horror movie by Andrzej Zulawski reels through the life of Anna (Isabelle Adjani) who asks her husband Mark (Sam Neill) for a divorce without any reason. After a series of altercations, Anna starts to behave strangely and leaves home, an amused Mark initially discovers Heinrich (Heinz Bennent) as Anna’s lover. Mark then goes to meet Heinrich only to discover the fact that Anna does not go there too. He then devises a detective to stalk Anna to her hideout, the detective is surprised by a slimy tentacled monster as the partner of Anna. The detective is then killed by Anna. After which the superior of the detective, who also happens to be his partner goes in search of him only to meet the same fate. Anna’s lover, Heinrich is also led to Anna’s hideout later by Mark. He is also overpowered psychically by the monster and is hurt by Anna, but he manages to escape into a nearby café. Mark is called into the café by Heinrich wherein a twist of events, he is murdered as an act of revenge by Mark. Mark also manages to destroy Anna’s hideout. But Anna escapes to Marks apartment with the creature and later to Heinrich’s workshop. By then Mark is busted by the Police and is shot at. He is then found by Anna and the creature, who by then took the figure of Mark. Towards the end, Anna and Mark are shot to death by the police.


The director of the movie Andrej Zulawski has brought out horror artistically without compromising on aesthetics by avoiding the use of unnecessary props and detailing. Monstrosity is portrayed through the paranoiac outbursts of characters and their layered dialogues. There is also a sizable amount of violence and blood, especially the scene where Anna suffers a miscarriage in the subway is definitely a nightmare material. Zulawski has deeply narrated the disturbances during separation of couples also in the movie. This depth is conveyed brilliantly through poetic dialogues and often non-verbally through physical violence.  Despite the title, Possession hovers around Obsession of the characters more. Every single figure in the movie including the detective is tangled with one obsession or the other. And intimacy is tagged into every single character like it is mandatory. Thus helping in the immersion into the movie

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