POSSESSION (1981) – Episode 190 – Decades of Horror 1980s

"I can't exist by myself because I'm afraid of myself, ...because I'm the maker of my own evil." This quote is a pretty good metaphor for the theme of this movie… maybe? Join your faithful Grue-Crew - Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, Bill Mulligan, and Jeff Mohr -  as they relish Metrograph’s brand new 4K restoration of Possession (1981), Andrzej Zulawski’s brilliant and demented film.

Decades of Horror 1980s
Episode 190 – Possession (1981)

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A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.

IMDb

 

• Director: Andrzej Zulawski
• Writer: Andrzej Zulawski (original screenplay); Frederic Tuten (adaptation)
• CInematographer: Bruno Nuytten
• Special Effects: Carlo Rambaldi (the creature)
• Selected Cast
  • Isabelle Adjani as Anna / Helen
  • Sam Neill as Mark
  • Margit Carstensen as Margit Gluckmeister
  • Heinz Bennent as Heinrich
  • Johanna Hofer as Heinrich's mother
  • Carl Duering as Detective
  • Shaun Lawton as Zimmermann
  • Michael Hogben as Bob
  • Maximilian Rüthlein as Man with pink socks (as Maximilian Ruethlein)
  • Thomas Frey as Pink socks' acolyte
  • Leslie Malton as Sara, woman with club foot
  • Gerd Neubert as Subway drunk

Chad first saw this film at a drive-in theater when he was a teen and thought it was incredibly boring. This time around, he found the relationship split brought to life to be incredibly intense with the camera work adding to the claustrophobic feel. Crystal loved it as well, calling Possession brilliance wrapped in a madness spiral with an amazing monster. Generally, Bill is not a fan of “artsy-fartsy European” movies, but he agrees with Crystal that Possession is a masterpiece even though he is not sure if he understands it or if he is supposed to understand it. He calls Isabelle Adjani’s performance in this strange, well-directed, beautiful film to be one of the bravest he has seen. Jeff loves this film and is extremely excited to have the chance to cover it. He is delighted with the new 4K restoration from Metrograph which is far superior to the Blu-ray release in his collection.

If you’re interested in checking out this incredible 4K restoration of Possession, and you should be, it opens theatrically and digitally exclusively at the Metrograph October 1-14 and in theaters nationwide on October 15.

Every two weeks, Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1980s podcast will cover another horror film from the 1980s. The next episode’s film, chosen by Chad, and will be Rawhead Rex  (1986).  Really! They’re not kidding this time. You won’t want to miss that one!

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NOTE: The images below are from prior releases and not from the new 4K restoration.