Brandon cronenburg's movies are deeply haunting and disturbing. Why you should watch Possessor and infinity pool. spoilers!
Brandon cronenburg's movies are deeply haunting and disturbing. Why you should watch Possessor and infinity pool. spoilers!
From the small percentage of people that have seen any of Brandon cronenburg's movies, I find they have a range of opinions. Most viewers have relatively positive reviews.
I'm here to give them a glowing review, and label them a must watch for horror sci-fi enthusiasts.
Saying I love his movies is not the right word. I would say instead, that I am deeply haunted and disturbed by possessor and infinity pool. So much so that I wonder if I would watch them again.
But I think that is the point of both films. I feel like they achieve everything they set out to do in a sleek original style.
Spolierssssssssss
In possessor and infinity pool and see a similar archetype emerger. Terrifying technology implemented by relatively faceless quazi- government organizations. And the moral bankrupt people caught up in the machinery of this new tech.
In possessor we see a person conflicting over their attachments to family and loved ones as they evitably become a super assassin.
The violence in this movie is something else. The realism and the grittiness of the murders coupled with the detail oriented cinematography of the film leaves one sensing the gravity of the crimes committed by the main character. The story is a horrorifying tragidity.
infinity pool, is again about another person in moral decline. Unable to reconcile the circumstances they are in with an idea of what they actually want.
While there is less bloody violence, the abuse James recieves at the hands of mia goth's character made me cringe so hard.
Yet again the ending is less of a surprise and more gradual conclusion. Both films are mostly about watching someone destroy their own life because they aren't sure if they actually care about their love ones.
B. Cronenburg brings a fresh and clear vision of Sci-fi horror. The realism of the situations, the attention to detail, the near-future technology, villainous governments, the speechless morally confused characters. All come together to tap into a fear that is embedded in our society today.
Please talk to me about these movies. I can't find anyone in person who has seen them..
Thanks for the rec! I’m always on the lookout for movies that sear their imagery into your brain. Infinity pool looks pretty intriguing, great cast for such a bizarre premise.
Infinity pool is weird for sure. Mia goth is so scary !
Possessor was so good! Held off on seeing infinity pool for a while, good to know that you like it.
Def watch Inifinty pool if you liked Possessor.
There are different but the style of B. Cronenburg is there.
Let me know what you think!
For the love of everything that’s good in Hollywood, it’s spelled CronenbErg. He’s the son of the other, more famous Cronenberg of The Fly, Existenz, Videodrome, etc. fame.
I feel like it’s important to point this out as Brandon’s aesthetic and themes are heavily lifted from his father’s work, although he is indeed exploring the relationship between technology and authority in a very interesting way.
I really enjoyed possessor for its style and themes although it wasn’t a very approachable movie for the larger audience. Infinity Pool was more approachable but I feel like it lacked focus.
Overall, I’m looking forward to what Brandon Cronenberg cooks up next!
I am fairly new to horror of any kind, having only started watching it a short while back when the Blank Check podcast went through Sam Raimi and John Carpenter, and from there I looked for other horror podcasts to watch along with and found Fright Pub and Random Number Generator Horror Movie Podcast Number 9 from the Nightvale guys.
Somewhere along the way I stumbled into Possessor and was scarred for life. Even though the violence and body horror was messed up and disturbing by itself, it was the psychological aspect that burrowed into my head and impressed me with how insidious it was. The main character is a truly screwed up individual, but it seems clear she wasn't always that way, and the dark paths she must have taken to get to where she ends up are haunting to contemplate.
Infinity Pool is on my list for sure, but I'm saving it for spooky month, when I like to binge on horror. Having a month dedicated to exploring the darkness keeps me from delving too deep the rest of the year, and the Cronenberg clan's ouvre tends to be a bit too twisted for me to wrestle with on a weeknight. I still watch one or two horror movies a week to keep up with the pods, but unless this one comes up in rotation, this is one that'll be waiting for me in October.
If psychological devastation is something you're looking for you should check out Triangle. It's not as tight and visceral as Possessor but it's pretty good.
Yeah def. Scarred for life from the ending of possessor. For me it's idea of someone jumping into your loved ones body to murder you. Lol The most haunting part is just the look on Colin's face when he's possessed.
That idea is also an incredibly haunting metaphor for the experience of having a loved one with mental illness. When a person has major depression or bipolar syndrome or Alzheimer's, for instance, they can have days when they seem to an outside observer like the've suddenly become a different person, like the light went out and something else is inhabiting their body, and you no longer have any common ground to reach them. And it's terrifying.
Just checked my "Mind-bending/Sense of dread" watchlist and Possessor is already on there -- just added Infinity Pool to it now as well, thanks! Might take a while to get to both but I'm saving this so I can read the spoilers part of your post afterward.
Can I get that list
I added some on that I saw before I made this list just in case you hadn't seen them and they end up interesting you. If you click on the titles they will take you to the JustWatch page that will tell you all the places that title is currently available to stream. (I took all the release years from IMDB and sometimes the JustWatch release years don't match by a year or two, I don't know why).
I tried breaking it up into four categories: Sci-Fi/Sci-Fi Horror, Other (psychological drama, etc.), Horror, and Don't Recommend. They are in no particular order and I've been jumping around myself. The titles on the list span a scale from light, mildly mind-bending to mind-destroying fear of the unknown.
Mind-Bending/Sense of Dread movie watchlist:
- Sci-Fi and Sci-Fi Horror:
- Coherence (2013)
- Vivarium (2019)
- Arrival (2016)
- Resolution (2012) [Note: watch before The Endless]
- The Endless (2017) [Note: watch after Resolution]
- Triangle (2009)
- Something in the Dirt (2022)
- Exam (2009)
- Circle (2015)
- The Congress (2013)
- Timetrap (2017)
- Timecrimes (2007)
- Primer (2004)
- Pontypool (2008)
- H0us3 (2018)
- Paprika (2006)
- Aniara (2018)
- 400 Days (2015)
- I Origins (2014)
- Sound of My Voice (2011)
- Alphaville (1965)
- Source Code (2011)
- Timelapse (2014)
- Color Out of Space (2019)
- The Signal (2014)
- Possessor (2020)
- Infinity Pool (2023)
- Pandorum (2009)
- Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020)
- The Man From Earth (2007)
- The Vast of Night (2019)
- UFO (2018)
- Nope (2022)
- ARQ (2016)
- Crimes of the Future (2022)
- Equals (2015)
- Alien Code (2018)
- Cosmos (2019)
- Cosmos (2015)
- eXistenZ (1999)
- Replicas (2018)
- Radius (2017)
- The Mandela Effect (2019)
- The Quiet Earth (1985)
- Mirage (2018)
- Domain (2016)
- Predestination (2014)
- Rememory (2017)
- Brainstorm (1983)
- Dark City (1998) [Note: Do watch the Director's Cut if you can find it, mute the narrated audio at the opening as it was added by the studio but completely spoils the mystery of it all]
- Other:
- The Prestige (2006)
- Mulholland Drive (2001)
- Blue Velvet (1986)
- Horse Girl (2020)
- Black Bear (2020)
- Waking Life (2001)
- Memento (2000)
- Spring (2014)
- Enter the Void (2009)
- The Machinist (2004)
- Nocturnal Animals (2016)
- Synecdoche, New York (2008)
- Horror:
- Hereditary (2018)
- The Ritual (2017)
- It Follows (2014)
- The VVitch (2015)
- Possession (1981)
- The Others (2001)
- Inland Empire (2006)
- Mother! (2017)
- Mandy (2018)
- Eraserhead (1997)
- The Corridor (2010)
- Censor (2021)
- The Dead Center (2018)
- Saint Maud (2019)
- Kill List (2011)
- Green Room (2015)
- Mayhem (2017)
- The Empty Man (2020)
- In The Mouth of Madness (1994)
- Funny Games (2007)
- Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
- Cabin in the Woods (2012)
- Don’t Recommend:
- I Trapped the Devil (2019) [Note: Slow pacing without much development, some well framed shots with good lighting but almost no substance, the highlight is the voice actor for the voice in the cage. It was recommended to me but is the only one on the list that I've both seen and didn't have fun watching.]
Don't forget about his first film, Antiviral. It's definitely not as good as the others, but worth a watch.