Andrzej Żuławski directs Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill and Heinz Bennent in this psychological horror about a marriage falling apart in West Berlin. 

It is probably best to go into Possession blind, completely unprepared. Initial hints that it might be a Cold War thriller with its along The Wall locations and corporate espionage freelancer protagonist give way to a relationship in freefall. But this manifests itself in self harm, gloopy bodily leaks, tentacle monsters and senseless acts of violence. Rarely a scene goes by where one of the actors isn’t left dripping in their own blood. Does it make any sense? I’m not sure it is supposed to. Characters talk at cross purposes, their language descends into baby talk and guttural wails, the camera circles locations in ways that break the laws of physics, and the fight scenes have an ethereal balletic grace. Essentially everything presented discombobulates and uproots you out of your comfort zone. It would make a fine double bill with Lynch’s later Lost Highway But this is the more satisfying journey into oblivion, mainly due to Adjani’s blisteringly oblique, vicious lead performance.

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