A unique and confronting sci-fi horror of deft skill and vision, Possessor affirms Brandon Cronenberg’s standing as one of the most exciting filmmakers working today, with his tale of identity, death, and free will, further elevated by the commanding performances of Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott.

Possessor begins with one of many confronting scenes during its 103 minute runtime, as a woman stares into the mirror and penetrates her own skull with a probe that brings about the possession of her body by another being. Now under control of an alien presence, she would go on to do murder brutal and savage, yet never the less precise in its target.

The “possessor” is Vos (Andrea Riseborough), an assassin employed a company that has developed a covert technology that allows them to take over the mind and body of unsuspecting targets, who are then used as the ultimate patsy in acts of murder for hire. Vos’ latest target is Colin (Christopher Abbott), the slacker boyfriend of Ava (Tupence Middleton), who along with her wealthy father John (Sean Bean) are next of the hit list. Yet Colin resists and fights back against the virus infecting his conscious, leading to a battle of mind and body.

Both Riseborough and Abbott are excellent in their quasi-dual roles. Riseborough delivers a stunning a portrayal of a mother, wife, killer, who loses a piece of herself with every possession, while gaining an unhealthy bloodlust that leaves a crimson red patch on her soul. Abbott is equally strong as an unassuming underachiever whose iron-will is engaged when an invading force tries to take over his being.

Writer and director Brandon Cronenberg (AntiViral) establishes himself as an innovative and uncompromising visionary, taking the possession sub-genre, usually associated with the supernatural, and enthusing it with a humanity that is eerie, ugly, and altogether engrossing in its ingenuity and intelligence.

Possessor is uncompromising in its violence with blood splatter and butchered bodies aplenty throughout the film. Yet perhaps more violent is the depiction of the films characters literally wearing another person’s skin, which is akin to a rape of consciousness and free-will. Possessor says something about the evading nature of mind-altering technology and the guilt free association of anonymity, presenting a nightmare scenario of the partnership between humanity and technology, and the erosion of the former in the dominance of the latter.

Cronenberg has delivered an unrelenting and even brutal work, yet its uncompromising nature brings with it an experience thrilling, harrowing, and haunting, leaving much to debate, digest, and dissect. A Cronenberg movie, through and through.