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The Powerhouse Cast of ‘Possessor’ and a Look Back at Their Horror Roots
The latest from writer/director Brandon Cronenberg (Antiviral) brings the gore. So much so that Neon’s releasing it as “uncut,” with all the blood-soaked violence left intact. More than just gory, Possessor is an arresting, cerebral sci-fi thriller featuring riveting performances by an impressive cast. It follows corporate assassin Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough), who controls other people’s bodies through brain-implant technology to execute her targets. The more embedded she gets in her latest assignment, the more trapped her mind becomes, threatening to completely consume her identity.
Neon is releasing Possessor in theaters and drive-ins starting tonight (October 2), kicking off the Halloween season with a visceral bang. It might be a mind-bending sci-fi thriller, but horror DNA is woven throughout. Not just in the insane practical-effect driven carnage, but the powerhouse cast, as well. Many of whom have strong horror roots.
In celebration of Possessor’s release, we look back at the film’s stars’ horror roots.
Andrea Riseborough – Tasya Vos
Riseborough first made waves stateside with an appearance in the popular, yet grim series Black Mirror. The fourth series episode “Crocodile” saw Riseborough playing Mia, a woman distressed about a cover-up hit-and-run. The following year, Riseborough captured horror-loving hearts everywhere as the eponymous character in Mandy. Her turn as the tortured, kind soul and love interest of Red (Nicolas Cage) grounded the fantasy-horror spectacle. This year, the actress led Nicolas Pesce’s The Grudge, a new entry in the popular J-horror franchise. Riseborough played Detective Muldoon, a single mother and weary cop determined to get to the bottom of a grisly string of murders stemming from one particular haunted house.
Christopher Abbott – Colin Tate
Abbott made his feature debut with the psychological thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene, which followed a paranoid woman struggling to adjust to normality after escaping a cult. The actor’s next notable horror film came from A24, Trey Edward Shults’s divisive It Comes at Night. Abbott played Will, a desperate father that seeks shelter with another family in their isolated home amidst a deadly outbreak. Tensions boil over as the threat of infection looms large. Proving Abbot is no stranger to gore and violence, he played the lead in Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing, an adaptation of a novel by Audition author Ryū Murakami.
Jennifer Jason Leigh – Girder
Veteran actor Leigh is no stranger to just about any genre of film, especially horror. The Hitcher may have featured a twisted cat-and-mouse chase between driver and sinister hitchhiker, but Leigh’s turn as an innocent waitress caught up in the game resulted in a memorable death scene. The actress showcased her range in Single White Female as an obsessed killer. A few years later, Leigh appeared in the Stephen King adaptation of Dolores Claiborne. In 1999, Leigh played game developer Allegra in David Cronenberg’s twisty sci-fi thriller eXistenZ. The prolific actress featured in the Twin Peaks revival series in 2017 and Amityville: The Awakening. Most recently, Leigh continued to show off her sci-fi horror chops in Annihilation, as the steely Dr. Ventress.
Sean Bean – John Parse
Bean may have unwittingly developed a reputation for dying a lot on camera, but the inexhaustible actor has racked up an insane number of credits. Before his turn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy as the ill-fated Boromir, but he also made several thrillers around that era, including Don’t Say a Word, Equilibrium, The Dark, and Flightplan. Horror fans likely know him best as Christopher Da Salva, a desperate father searching for his wife and adoptive daughter in Silent Hill, the cinematic adaptation of the popular video game. Two years later, Bean assumed the titular role once portrayed by Rutger Hauer in the remake of The Hitcher. The actor also starred in the period horror film Black Death, set during the bubonic plague’s peak.
Possessor can be experienced uncut in theaters and drive-ins starting TONIGHT, October 2, 2020.
A luxury team-building trip descends into a bloody fight for survival against a vengeful retreat leader in Corporate Retreat, out today in theaters. It’s the latest entry in a cathartic subgenre of workplace horror that examines every harrowing aspect of job employment.
No job is safe from horror, either, from babysitting to even the most white-collar gigs. But if you work an overnight shift? All bets are off. Vengeful co-workers and bosses aside, the night shift is likely to come armed with witches, creatures, demons, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. Even deadly outbreaks.
Corporate Retreat, along with these five horror movies centered around some of the worst night shifts, will make you glad the weekend has finally arrived.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Passenger director André Øvredal goes full throttle for the scares in this quiet little chiller that sees a father and son coroner team stumped over the bizarre mysteries contained within the body of an unidentified young woman during an unexpected night shift. Well-executed scares, clever twists, and earnest performances by Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch give this supernatural haunter serious heft. While the narrative bides its time unveiling the truth behind Jane Doe’s battered body, it’s heavily steeped in witchcraft. In other words, The Autopsy of Jane Doe presents a new take on the subgenre. More importantly, it’s seriously scary.
Cold Storage
COLD STORAGE, StudioCanal 2023
A lethal, mutated fungus breaks free from confinement deep within the bowels of a storage facility. At the frontlines of the madness are Teacake (Stranger Things’ Joe Keery) and Naomi (Barbarian‘s Georgina Campbell), two employees thrust into the middle of the chaos when they investigate an alarm beeping somewhere deep within the building. Director Jonny Campbell (Netflix’s Dracula), working from a script by David Koepp based on his novel, helms the goopy madness with workman efficiency. This lighthearted, goopy horror comedy romp makes the deadly night shift a bit more bearable.
Graveyard Shift
Graveyard Shift follows new hire Hall (David Andrews) tasked by his mean boss Warwick (Stephen Macht) to assist with the insane rat infestation beneath their mill. They find something much most monstrous as the cause. Though the film was panned, it’s a fun creature feature with an always welcome appearance by Brad Dourif as the intensely eccentric exterminator. The film also opts for a happier ending, whereas (spoiler), the story sees both Hall and Warwick getting devoured by the mutated rats, the crew in the upstairs mill none the wiser.
Last Shift
‘Last Shift’
Rookie Officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) has been assigned to watch over a closing precinct on its final night of operation…alone. With nearly everything already moved over to the new station, including rerouted 911 calls, it should be a pretty quiet night as she waits for a Hazmat team to arrive to remove biohazardous waste. Instead, it becomes a waking nightmare as she’s forced to deal with unsettling visitors. Last Shift, co-written by Scott Poiley and director Anthony DiBlasi, brings the scares.
Intruder
The overnight stock crew of a local grocery store finds themselves falling victim to an unseen killer in this highly infectious late ‘80s slasher. The deaths are delightfully gruesome and inventive; look for this killer to make excellent use of grocery store items as weapons. Frequent Raimi collaborator Scott Spiegel directed this bloody slasher, which means a lot of overlap with the Evil Dead II. That means putting Sam Raimi in front of the camera for a change, along with Ted Raimi and Evil Dead II’s Dan Hicks. Look for a cameo by Bruce Campbell as well!
Corporate Retreat releases in theaters today; get tickets now.
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