Film

Possessor

Name: Possessor
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Science Fiction
Released: 2020
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Bean, Tuppence Middleton

Brandon Cronenberg's clinical nightmare follows a corporate assassin who hijacks other people's bodies to commit murder, only to find her own mind fraying inside someone else's skull. It's visceral, cold, and gorgeous in the worst way — practical gore married to sleek, sterile production design. Not casual viewing: a slow-motion identity crisis dressed as a thriller, built for horror fans who want their unease to linger.

TMDb rating

6.4

If you liked this

Under the Skin2014

Jonathan Glazer's alien-inhabiting-a-human-body film shares Possessor's clinical dread and body-as-vessel horror, stripping plot away for pure sensory unease. Scarlett Johansson has never been colder or more unsettling — a mood piece that literally gets under your skin.

But Almost no dialogue and barely any plot — patience-testing for anyone wanting narrative momentum.

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A cheaper, punchier cousin: a paralyzed man's body is hijacked by an AI implant that carries out brutal revenge missions while he watches helplessly from inside. Same control premise, played as gleeful B-movie action.

But Broader and campier — if you wanted Possessor's icy seriousness, this trades it for splattery fun.

Ex Machina2015

Alex Garland's chilly two-hander about consciousness and control shares Possessor's clean, minimalist dread and its fascination with what a mind even is once it's operating a different shell.

But Talkier and more contained — no action, just two people and a machine circling each other.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers1956

Both ask what's left of a person once something else is operating their body — Possessor just adds the tech and the blood.

The original body-snatching paranoia film, decades before Possessor, about people replaced from within by something wearing their exact face. Cold War dread instead of corporate dread, but the same nightmare underneath.

But Black-and-white and stagey by modern standards; its scares come from suggestion, not gore.

Nightcrawler2014

Jake Gyllenhaal's sociopathic stringer is the same species of amoral operator as Tasya Vos — someone who has optimized every human feeling out of themselves for the job.

But No sci-fi, no body horror — this is grounded, real-world nastiness rather than genre spectacle.

Enemy2014

Denis Villeneuve's identity-doubling thriller is soaked in the same dissociative dread as Possessor — a man confronting his double, unsure which self is the real one anymore.

But Deliberately obscure and open-ended; if you want answers, this will frustrate rather than satisfy you.

Annihilation2018

Alex Garland again, this time with body horror escalating into full biological dissolution — a team of women unraveling physically and mentally inside an alien zone.

But More ensemble sci-fi adventure than intimate psychological horror — a different shape of unease entirely.

Coherence2014

A microbudget puzzle-box about parallel selves colliding at a dinner party — paranoia about which version of you is really you, told with Possessor's cold internal logic.

But Talky, low-budget, and theory-heavy — the ideas are the special effects here.

Blade Runner 20492017

Villeneuve's corporate-controlled world of manufactured identities and blurred humanity echoes Possessor's questions about what's left of a self once it's been used by someone else.

But Nearly three hours of slow, meditative pacing — the opposite of Possessor's compact nastiness.

The Machinist2004

Christian Bale wastes away playing a man losing grip on his own body and mind — psychological horror about identity collapsing from within, minus the sci-fi machinery.

But More grounded psychological drama than genre horror — muted where Possessor is explosive.

Face/Off1997

Both are about committing violence in someone else's stolen identity and losing track of who you actually are underneath — Face/Off just plays it as pure trashy thrill.

John Woo's insane action opera about a cop and a terrorist literally swapping faces and living each other's lives — the same body-theft premise as Possessor, blown up into maximalist gun-fu spectacle.

But Ridiculous, over-the-top, and entirely sincere about it — none of Possessor's clinical restraint survives the transition.

Perfect Blue1998

Both are about a self being colonized by another persona until the protagonist can't tell which thoughts are hers — Possessor does it with sci-fi hardware, this does it with pure psychological horror.

A pop idol's identity fractures as someone stalks her using a copy of her own persona — hallucinatory animation that gets inside a dissolving mind the way Possessor does, without a drop of blood.

But Animated, Japanese, and subtitled, which puts off viewers expecting live-action horror — also genuinely disturbing with no action-movie release valve.