Possessor writer/director Brandon Cronenberg: “I’ve always thought that an appreciation of horror was a very healthy thing”

It’s hard enough to forge one’s own identity when you follow in the footsteps of a famous parent, especially when that figure happens to be revered director David Cronenberg, who has his own widely-used adjective to describe the existential body-horror and creeping dread of his films, including Videodrome and The Fly. Yet, with 2012’s Antiviral and now Possessor, writer/director Brandon Cronenberg has forged his own path and become one of the most exciting voices in sci-fi/horror cinema, a reputation that should only grow exponentially as people around the globe get to experience the mind-boggling head trip that is Possessor.

A twisted take on the body-switching genre, Possessor stars Andrea Riseborough (Mandy) as Tasya Vos, an assassin who inhabits the body and mind of unsuspecting individuals and then carries out targeted killings. The job is taking a toll on her psyche, which is only exacerbated when she is tasked with inhabiting Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott, It Comes at Night), and their minds begin dueling for dominance over his body.

With extreme violence and nightmarish hallucinatory sequences, Possessor is a unique thriller unlike anything else you’ve ever seen. Andrea Riseborough, Colin Tate, and the always dependable Jennifer Jason Leigh as Tasya’s boss all turn in incredible performances, while Cronenberg’s vision of a not too distant future where human bodies are taken over and used like an avatar is chillingly believable. Still, the most disturbing aspect of Possessor is how it makes the viewer question our very own reality; who are we, really? How much of how we express ourselves and interact with others is a construct we’ve designed? In spite of all the intense imagery in the film, these are the sorts of Philip K. Dick-inspired questions that linger long after the film’s shocking finale.

We caught up with Brendan Cronenberg to discuss how Possessor was initially inspired by a press cycle very similar to the one he’s on now, what it feels like to be releasing a film like this in the midst of a pandemic, his preferred “uncut” version of the film, and more. Possessor is playing in select theatres now.

Bad Feeling Mag: What does it feel like to be finally releasing the film right now, in the midst of everything that’s going on? You started showing it back in January at Sundance.

Brandon Cronenberg: Yeah, it premiered at Sundance, which was very lucky for us, because that was, of course, the last major festival to have a kind of normal program. So I was fortunate to be able to actually go to a festival and see it with an audience, and speak to people and so on. In terms of releasing it now, it’s weird, you know? I mean, it’s weird because I’m at home in my sweatpants doing press, rather than traveling with the film [Laughs] and meeting people and being able to speak to audiences. So, it is on the one hand, very comfortable, from a pants perspective. But on the other hand, it doesn’t quite feel like I’m releasing a movie. It hasn’t totally sunk in yet.

“I’ve always thought that an appreciation of horror was a very healthy thing”

On a personal level, have your viewing habits changed over the past few months that we’ve all been stuck at home?  Have you been returning to old favorites or are there different types of things that you’re interested in watching now?

Not really, I mean, I’m watching more, as I think everybody is watching more, but more of the same stuff.

I ask because there was a recent study where they found that horror fans were more resilient to the stresses of this lockdown period.

I read that, and you know, it makes perfect sense to me because I’ve always thought that an appreciation of horror was a very healthy thing, because, with a horror film, you’re exploring these kinds of difficult human emotions and feelings of dread and fear and anxiety in a kind of constructive, artful way. And so I feel like people who enjoy exploring that part of their emotional spectrum are well rounded in that way, and therefore, may be more able to deal with the horrors of life one day, right?

Yeah, I agree. I read that you said Possessor was partly inspired by a press cycle, like you’re doing now, for Antiviral; how did that time of your life and those experiences manifest into what became Possessor?

Well, it’s interesting in a way, it’s of course, a very trivial, personal place for a film to come from. But when you’re touring with a film for the first time, it’s a very strange experience, because you’re, in a sense, constructing a public persona for the first time, and you’re performing this weird other version of yourself, this media self, which then goes on and has its own life without you online.

So, going through that, I was, in a sense, having a hard time seeing myself in my own life, and then also for a few other reasons. I was getting up in the morning, and feeling like I was sitting up in someone else’s life, and having to construct a character who could operate in that context. And so, initially, I wanted to make a film about a character who may or may not be an imposter in their own life and use that as a way to talk about how we build characters and narratives in order to function in a basic way as human beings. The thriller sci-fi stuff kind of came out of that, but in the sense, the seed of the film is really in those more dramatic scenes, the relationship and family scenes.

Yeah. And I think people can relate to that now because so many people’s lives have been upended, and things that they base their personality on or their identity on have probably shifted for many of us.

Absolutely, I think it’s hard not to, on some level, be a little bit rudderless. Because things have shifted so completely. And so, those normal routines are very disrupted for a lot of people.

“I would certainly prefer people to see the uncut version of the film”

You’ve mentioned that you had two scripts that came out of that initial idea for Possessor; do you have plans for the material that didn’t make it into the film? Are you thinking of reformatting that for something down the line?

I am, I do have a sort of not entirely finished slightly malformed script that came out of the other half of Possessor. I would like to make it one day, I think. I think there is a film there. But I have two other scripts that I ended up writing during development, which are now fairly far along in the process, and will probably be my next two films (Dragon and Infinity Pool), hopefully, back-to-back as soon as I can shoot again.

You have an uncut version of Possessor showing in the States right now; can you talk about the differences in the two cuts? Will the uncut version be shown in Canada as well?

Certainly, I believe the only version that’s coming out in Canada is the uncut version, because the uncut version got an 18a rating, so there are no rating troubles. [Ed Note: The version in Canadian theatres is the uncut version.] In the States, the uncut director’s cut, the full film, is an unrated version. So there is a cut version that was edited to achieve an R-rating in the States. Fortunately, I’ve had a lot of support from my distributors down there, Neon and Well Go. So the uncut version is really the lead version of the film that’s coming out in the states as well, unrated, and it’s just on certain platforms that won’t release unrated films where [the cut version is] coming out, essentially.

And what were those cuts like? Were they just moments of violence?

Yeah, the sex and violence were toned down primarily. In a way that, [Laughs] obviously…you know, I would certainly prefer people to see the uncut version of the film. I think when you cut a film, you’re changing the tone of it, you’re changing the rhythm, the rhythm of the story, and so I wouldn’t say those things are completely trivial, but not a huge amount of running time was cut out.

“I like when there’s room to discuss and to disagree.”

The violence, especially in this film seems very deliberate. There’s actually not that much violence, but when there are violent moments, they’re quite shocking. And I assume that was the intent.

Absolutely, I mean, the violence in the film is very much narrative, because so much of Vos’ character has to do with how she relates to her experiences and to the violence and her relationship with the violence. So, in my mind, it was important to be explicit with it, first of all, so that people would feel in a sense on an emotional level, what she was feeling, I think it needed to connect with people on a kind of visceral level. And also, because it tracks with her psychology, you know, sometimes she’s experiencing these violent moments in a more observational, quick way, and then looking back on them, they’re very stylized and in slow motion and almost fetishized and that’s very much a part of her character in the story.

I really enjoyed that there are certain things that are left sort of open-ended in the film and are more open to interpretation. Can you talk about the idea of not necessarily tying everything up for an audience? Is that important to you, and something that you respond to as a filmmaker, and maybe as a viewer as well?

Yeah, certainly, I think, definitely, as a viewer, and therefore, as a filmmaker, I really like that kind of storytelling. I like when there’s room to discuss and to disagree.  I had a very specific sense of the narrative and of the characters and the meaning as I was making it. But, I deliberately left some bits of it ambiguous, just so that people could talk about it. Interestingly, a lot of people when they ask me about it, get what I intended, they just are not sure that they got it. They sort of come to it on their own. But I love that in film, I love it when the world is in some way suggested, when the plot is in some way suggested, when there’s room for interpretation, I feel like that’s engaging because it demands, or I should say, maybe makes space for creativity from the audience. And to me, that’s a kind of gratifying way to watch a film.

The performances in this film are great. What was the process like directing Andrea and Christopher, especially when they’re playing sort of multiple parts at the same time, or multiple iterations of themselves and other people? Was it difficult for you to express to them what to focus on and for them to sort of balance all these things in their heads at the same time?

Well, it wasn’t difficult for me, because they’re such fantastic actors and they made my job really easy. There was some discussion early on about process, I wasn’t totally sure how we were going to approach it in the best way. And I was asking them whether, for instance, they wanted to be on set with each other, to see each other’s scenes and to track the characters that way, whether one of them wanted to kind of take the lead and the other one mimic them, or how it would work. There was a bit of a theoretical rabbit hole that you could go down at the start of a film like this. In practice, it was much more organic. I had my own ideas about how we could indicate that the character was the same character played across the two actors. They had their own great ideas that they brought to me. And then I know they were in discussion themselves in the background, checking in with each other about how Vos would respond in a certain context. And then we were, of course, talking during blocking and so on for on a scene-by-scene basis. So, in practice, it was a pretty organic process that just built out collaboratively as we went.

To wrap up things with a nerdy question, are you putting anything together in terms of extras or a commentary track for the eventual home video release of the film?

There are behind-the-scenes featurettes. I haven’t recorded the commentary yet. I’m not sure if people want that, but I’m up for it. But there will be deleted scenes, there will be behind-the-scenes featurettes, I’m assuming, all that stuff is available, but it’s obviously a kind of territory-by-territory question for the distributors.

Possessor is playing in select theatres now.