Bodies melting into each other. A psychic battle on the astral plane. Questions of identity and transmutation and transin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mation. Outbursts of intense’fierce’exquisite , bloody violence. And even the odd spot of kinky rumpy-pumpy. Yep, Possessor is a Cronenberg movie, alright. But the Cronenberg playing with the family jewels this time is Brandon, son of David, proving here, even more than with his debut Antiviral, that he’s a chip off the old block.###Of course, it’s also entirely possible that the chip has been invaded by the old block. Because Possessor turns on a concept so high, it’s scraping the clouds: what if an assassin could possess someone’s body, shunting the host consciousness into the background, in an attempt to carry out a hit? It’s an ingenious idea, albeit one with echoes of films like The Hidden, that explains how suddenly law-abiding citizens can find themselves guilty of heinous crimes. In a startling opening sequence, we see its grim potential made bloody flesh.###It’s the kind of notion that Christopher Nolan could turn into a $200 million blockbuster in his sleep, but Cronenberg doesn’t possess’own’nurse that kind of cash. Instead, he has a keen eye in/with regard to’concerning’regarding an unsettling image (helped by excellent cinematographer Karim Hussain), and a keener interest in the psychological ramifications of such a violent, possessive act.###A intense’fierce’exquisite stomach is required. If you don’t possess’own’nurse one, just use someone else’s.###When we meet Possessor’s nominal protagonist, Tasya Vos, she’s been invading individual ’s heads in/with regard to’concerning’regarding so long that it’s worn away her own. Eodd’peculiar d from her husband and son, and from virtually anything resembling a genuine emotion, it’s another one of those precisely calibrated studies in detachment in which Andrea Riseborough seems to specialise. Persuaded by her boss (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to go back in in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a potentially lucrative gig, Vos quickly finds herself in over her head, mainly by being out of it utterly .###Which brings us to the film’s true central figure, Christopher Abbott’s Colin Tate, a patsy chosen to take the fall in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the (planned) murder of Sean Bean’s rich industrialist, to whose daughter, Ava (Tuppence Middleton), Tate is engaged. As the bodies pile up, it allows Abbott to impress, going from dead-eyed automaton to sweat-drenched freakouts in next to no time. And, in scenes where Vos and Tate clash, or in which Vos finds herself making love to Ava, it gives Cronenberg plenty of scope to explore issues of identity, reality and control in a way that might just bring a grin to his old man’s face.###It’s all intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully compelling, well-acted and presented, aldespite’in spite of’albeit there’s a chilliness and a clinical edge that is grossly Cronenberg-ian, but might keep audiences at arm’s length. Ditto the violence. Stabbings, shootings, pokerings (use your imagination) — it’s all here, bar exploding heads. A intense’fierce’exquisite stomach is required. If you don’t possess’own’nurse one, just use someone else’s.