#18 - Possession (1981)

 

Possession (1981)

(dir. Andrzej Żuławski)

Set in Berlin during the Cold War, Mark (Sam Neill) returns to his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) and their son Bob after some time away on an espionage mission. He find that she unexpectedly wants a divorce - she is seeing someone else, but there is also something else strange that she won't explain. Although he is upset and angry, Mark gives her custody of their son and their apartment. He drinks himself into oblivion for 3 weeks straight, and when he recovers he finds that Anna's behavior has grown increasingly erratic. He attempts to reconcile with her, but they fight in increasingly angry and abusive ways, and it's clear that Anna is still hiding something from both Mark as well as the man she has been seeing. Mark hires a P.I. to follow her, who finds that Anna is staying alone in an apartment with something... horrible.

This is an incredible film. I love Sam Neill and he is as great as ever, but Isabelle Adjani really steals the show here. She gives an absolutely unhinged and raw performance, the kind that could make you concerned for her mental health in real life. I've never been so captivated by someone just screaming and writhing around. Sam Neill does a lot of screaming and yelling and generally acting insane too. In fact, this might rival Alucarda as the scream-iest movie I've ever seen. This gets pretty surreal and wild by the end, with some brief but really effective moments of special effects and creature design.

Maybe it's too soon to say this, as I just watched it like 8 hours ago, but this is one of the greatest horror movies I've ever seen and an instant new favorite of mine. The standout performance from Adjani is the highlight for sure, but the whole film is just intense as hell and not afraid to get real weird when it needs to. Unfortunately it's not real easy to watch in the US - I found a copy on archive.org, but the only other method seems to be to import an expensive blu-ray. Still, if you can find it, I highly highly recommend this.