Latest / What's Your Favorite Scary Movie | The Cozy Horror Podcast / Possessor

Transcript

Possessor · What's Your Favorite Scary Movie | The Cozy Horror Podcast

0:02
SPEAKER_01: Our next contract page one.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: Target is the CEO of the largest operation in the U.S.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: He'll be binding to Colin Tate.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: We can't afford any mistakes on this contract.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: I see you today.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
0:22
SPEAKER_02: Finish that.
0:35
SPEAKER_03: I need to know I need to know what you've done to me.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: It's all time.
1:00
SPEAKER_02: Tell me this control.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: Hello, Sydney.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh hi.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: Who is this?
1:12
SPEAKER_00: It's your killer hosts.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: My name is Parker, your resident horror fanatic.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm Caroline, Scaredy Scream Queen.
1:20
SPEAKER_03: I'm Ian, Scary Movie Skeptic.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: And welcome to.
1:35
SPEAKER_02: What's your favorite scary movie?
1:38
SPEAKER_01: What's your favorite scary movie is a horror film podcast where we're on a journey to find our favorite scary movie one at a time.
1:46
SPEAKER_03: Whether you hate them or love them, join us and discover yours.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Spoilers ahead, so plan your movie screening every weekend before the episode release.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh hi, Caroline and Ian.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh hey, Parker.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Hey.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to 2021.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: I've already greeted the the listeners this year, but go ahead.
2:09
SPEAKER_03: Hi, listeners.
2:10
SPEAKER_03: It's your favorite Ian, but this time with a little COVID.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Now we're all a little uncomfortable.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Caroline, bring us back.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: We're just in the 13th month of 2020, and we're excited about it.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: I would like to play a game.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: A game?
2:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to throw out a word, and you tell me the first thing you think of.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: That that's something, yeah.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Skin mask.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: Melting wax.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Mm, okay.
2:52
SPEAKER_03: Oh, chocolate.
2:54
SPEAKER_03: Tempered chocolate.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Teeth.
2:56
SPEAKER_03: Uh nail clippers.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh! Now I enjoyed all of those answers.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: If I were to put all of those words together into one thought, what would your what would your connection be?
3:13
SPEAKER_01: Um Possessor.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: Whoa!
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: And what's the magic?
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Coincidence, because that just so happens to be what we're watching this week.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that, Caroline?
3:29
SPEAKER_01: I can believe it.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, I feel like if you are someone who follows like horror news and updates and Twitter and whatever, Possessor was a movie a lot of people were excited about when it came out last October.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: But if maybe you're not as plugged in, Possessor, I think, kind of got buried a little bit.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it didn't get a lot of hype, it didn't get a lot of spread.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: It has been on a lot of best of 2020 horror movie lists, but I just think it needs a little more love.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: So I thought, alright, it's January.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Let's not reflect on 2020, but pull something good from 2020 along with us.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: So Possessor came out, as I just said, last October.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: It was written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, who also wrote and directed Antiviral in 2012.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Interesting movie.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: This is his second feature film.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: He is also the son of horror master David Cronenberg.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: And when I was typing out the info for this uh episode, I can't believe that we are covering a Brandon Cronenberg movie before a David Cronenberg movie, because I've been dying to do the fly remake.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you'll just have to wait and see.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: And I also want to give a quick but big shout out to two people.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: First, Dan Martin, the makeup and effects designer for Possessor.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: He's also done the makeup and effects on films like The Human Cinepede 2, Lords of Chaos, and Color Out of Space, and also Kareem Hussein, who is the cinematographer, who, from what I can see from some behind-the-scenes featurettes on the DVD, did a lot of really incredible work with some of the lighting and color and those really like super, super close-up shots.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, I just thought they deserved a little love from us as well because cool stuff happening in this movie.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: For sure, for sure.
5:40
SPEAKER_01: And away.
5:42
SPEAKER_01: We go.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: Andrea Riseboro plays Tazia Voz.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: You can hear all about Andrea Riseboro in our episode on the grudge from 2020.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: She plays Detective Muldoon, which we record we recorded that a full year ago.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that?
6:04
SPEAKER_01: Do you even remember that?
6:06
SPEAKER_03: What was a year ago?
6:09
SPEAKER_01: We went to the movie theater together and bought popcorn and soda with about 50 other people around us not wearing masks and watched that film.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And do you want to know something funny about when we did that?
6:24
SPEAKER_00: What?
6:24
SPEAKER_00: I just saw on my time hop a tweet that I had put out, because I think this came out like January 3rd or something of 2020.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: I tweeted something that was like, this flu isn't going to stop me from going to see the grudge tonight.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because it had just come over and like we were all going about our business.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: It just came over on the Mayflower.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: I definitely had the flu last January and like really like rallied for uh the Grudge 2020, and then that was one of those episodes where we were angry that it was so bad.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: And then I got the flu, didn't I?
7:06
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, you guys were all sick.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: I didn't get it.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, what were Ian and I doing?
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh nothing sus.
7:15
SPEAKER_01: We also have Christopher Abbott who plays Colin Tate.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: He was in Martha Marcy Mae Marlene from 2011.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: He was also in It Comes at Night from 2017, Piercing in 2018, and Black Bear in 2020.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Busy guy.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: Jennifer Jason Lee plays Gerder.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: She was in Amadeville, The Awakening from 2017.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: Amityville.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: Have I been saying that wrong my entire life?
7:48
SPEAKER_00: You said something weird a second ago, so maybe.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: Amity.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: Amateville.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: Amityville.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: Amityville.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: It's a good idea.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Amityville.
8:00
unknown: Yeah.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: Anyways, that was in 2017, and then Jennifer was in the reboot of Twin Peaks, as well as Annihilation from 2018.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: I think we watched that together parkour.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Annihilation is so good.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: I stan Annihilation.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: Good movie.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, and she's in the upcoming thriller, The Woman in the Window.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in The Hateful Eight in 2015 as well.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Sean Bean, which is like the coolest name ever, plays John Parse.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: He was in Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: He knows his audience, you know.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: Twopence Middleton plays Ava Parse from Sense Eight.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: Remember that.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, and the traumatizing episode of Black Mirror.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Which traumatizing episode they all were.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know that one where it's that woman and she's like in she doesn't know where she is and she's in peril, and people are just taking pictures of her, and then at the end it's like she's being punished for something.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I think I turned that one off because I didn't like it.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: It was distressing, but she wasn't the main character, Tuppins Middleton, but she was uh like in it.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay, moving on.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: Ross of Sutherland plays Michael Voss, who will be in the upcoming Orphan First Kill.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: Gage Graham Arbouthnot plays Ira Voz.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: Gage was also in Becky from last year.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: Um, and Gabrielle Graham, she was Holly from the Cold Open.
9:48
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
9:50
SPEAKER_03: In case you're wondering what happens in Possessor, here's our spoilerific summary.
9:55
SPEAKER_03: Tasia Voss is struggling to balance life between her seemingly lovely family and her job as a futuristic assassin, where her boss, Gerder, is grooming her to become the next leader.
10:08
SPEAKER_03: Voss takes a big job that requires her to inhabit the body of a big business owner's daughter's boyfriend, Colin Tate, to murder the father and daughter so a brother can take the company and family fortune.
10:24
SPEAKER_03: In Colin's body, Voss struggles to maintain a grasp on her own identity and after she thinks she's assassinated her marks, becomes trapped in an internal battle to claim possession of the host.
10:39
SPEAKER_03: This leads Colin to Voss's own home, where one of them, the lines get very blurry, murders Voss's husband and young son, who had been possessed by Gerter to help get Voss out of Colin before Colin dies.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: Wow, what a wild ride of a movie.
11:00
SPEAKER_01: You know, I didn't think it was that confusing watching it and then hearing it back.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
11:06
SPEAKER_03: The Rotten Tomatoes critic score is a ninety-three percent, and the audience score is a fifty-nine percent.
11:14
SPEAKER_03: I would say that's accurate.
11:15
SPEAKER_03: The critics' consensus is quote, further refining his provocative vision, writer-director Brandon Cronenberg uses possessors' potentially over-the-top premise as a delivery mechanism for stylishly disturbing thrills.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: Ian has to stop doing the s the scores because he just shits all over the movies before we can talk about him.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, it is just stinking in here from all of that shitting Ian just did.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Caroline.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Caroline, ask me what I thought of Possessor.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: Parker, cast away all of Ian's side chatter about this movie and tell me what you really think.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I saw this movie last year in I think September, and I didn't realize it was only going to theaters only, which is why we didn't do it sooner on the podcast.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: I had kind of forgotten about it.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: It made an appearance on our Patreon newsletter in my top 10 of 2020 list.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: But when I watched it this week for this episode, there was one word buzzing around in my brain.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: What was it?
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Art.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Art.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Ah.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: This movie was gorgeous.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: I think that it is absolutely spectacular.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: And that man that I shouted out earlier, Dan Martin, those special effects were out of this world.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Possessor is not like any movie I have ever seen before.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: I think it is absolutely insane and gorgeous, and also like really disturbing and upsetting.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: And I have just been itching, so excited to chat and gab about it with you gals today.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: What'd you guys think?
13:18
SPEAKER_01: Well, go ahead and take another shit, Ian, and tell us about it.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: I actually I refrained from texting y'all because I thought about saying I think Ian's really gonna like it.
13:32
SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean it ha I liked the um the aesthetic of the movie.
13:38
SPEAKER_03: I thought that was really it was really great, but the the story was the storyline was just like for me it was nearly impossible to follow.
13:49
SPEAKER_03: I mean it might be because I'm also not at my peak watching performance, but don't give yourself too much credit.
13:58
SPEAKER_03: I can't I I couldn't follow the movie, and when you can't follow a movie, it makes it really hard for you to understand it and and like it.
14:09
SPEAKER_03: So I didn't really have much chance from my perspective, but uh aesthetically it was nice.
14:15
SPEAKER_01: I will say that I'm gonna put a theory out there that the reason that you couldn't follow is because it was a little bit monotone in terms of excitement levels.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: So, like if there would have been a few higher energy scenes sprinkled throughout, I think it really would have pulled me in even more.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: Not to say that I was not engaged in this.
14:43
SPEAKER_03: I thought you were projecting to me, not yourself.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: What?
14:46
SPEAKER_03: I thought you were just talking about me.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm saying to an extent, I I also think that it didn't confuse me on the storyline.
14:55
SPEAKER_01: I followed that very well, but it it did kind of pull me out a little bit that it was that monotone level.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: But um, I really liked this movie.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: I like love the premise.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: It has like that matrixy kind of vibe.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: Um performances weren't like great over the top by all of the actors, but they did the job.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: I just think they could have taken it to another level, but they didn't.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: Special effects though.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: That scene where they're like pouring the skin on and ripping it off.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: I was like getting Westworld intro vibes left and right, but like in a very artistic way.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: Um and like the flashing images.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: I also think something to point out is when they're like fighting in the host of like who's in control, it's very subtle, but some of those flashes, you're like, What whose was that?
16:00
SPEAKER_01: And then you have to think back to things that you saw in the beginning of the movie.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: So I appreciated that as well.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think I'm a little surprised you didn't like the performances because I think Christopher Abbott is so incredible in this movie because I guess just me wanting to believe everything a movie tells me, like, what we don't really get to know his character Colin before Voss takes over his body.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: And watching the movie, like in my brain, I had to tell myself that that was him performing that role and not actually Andrea Risebro inside of him performing the role.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Like, I think that the the way that they're able to meld those two characters together and find like a common vibration between those two performers is really, really incredible and thoughtful.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: And um then at the end, when we finally get to see some of Colin Tate bleeding through and who's who, when when is he her, and when is he him, I think that that um just is a really incredible testament to their like not just their performance, but like the way that Cronenberg is really threading everything together, and they must have had so much rehearsal and discussion, and like I think that the craft of that was really awesome.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: And then, like you said, uh I think there's just no denying the incredible um theatrical craft of it as well.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: There, like I mentioned before, there are some behind-the-scenes things on uh I purchased it, and there were some behind-the-scenes things, and like the cinematographer is like using gel colored gels over the camera lens, then flashing flashlights to create those like lens flares, and that special effects guy is like creating wax figures to melt, and they're you know, they're actually attaching Andrea Riseboro and uh Christopher Abbott's faces with like prosthetics, like they're doing all this stuff that's so it seems like the only thing that was digitally done was just like they talked about some color grading and stuff, but I mean it looks like everything was so like real and tangible, and Tuppins Middleton even had a little talking head moment where she said that like she felt really engaged as a performer because she could not only interact with all of this stuff, but she knew what what she was doing in the moment and how it would look in the final product instead of when you're in front of a green screen and you're like only imagining what it might be in the end.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Even they said that like those little like balls floating in the air, they like use styrofoam and uh speaker vibrations to make them levitate so they could actually reach out and grab them.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Things like that that are just like small details that are so cool.
18:49
SPEAKER_02: That is cool.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, so let's get into the movie a little bit more.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: There are two versions of this movie floating around.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh Possessor Uncut and Possessor um Possessor Natural, I guess.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Possessor Cut.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, which for a movie with penises in it, what a way to make it.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: I was not told when I first saw this that I was like receiving the uncut version, but the second I saw Possessor Colon uncut online, I was just like, what marketing person was like, what if instead of director's cut we just called it uncut?
19:39
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: And actually the version of Possessor that I bought had both.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: So I flipped through to see if there were certain if certain things were still in the theatrical version.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: There is no there is no erect penis on Andrea Riseboro in the cut version.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: There is when uh Collins, you know, feeling himself in the mirror, getting to know his new body, there's still that penis, so phew, but like when they're observing people at his text station and that woman's legs are just like open, that doesn't happen in the R-rated version.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: In the R-rated version, you don't see that little boy's head like explode when it gets shot, things like that.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Where it's just like just kind of the um the more disturbing things that are maybe a little more uh graphic, uh harder to see what's going on.
20:32
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if we watched the uncut or the cut version.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: Did you see an erect penis?
20:38
SPEAKER_03: I don't remember seeing an erect penis.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: I know.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: I think we watched the cut version.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Wow! Then you had a very different experience.
20:47
SPEAKER_03: Is there someone behind you?
20:50
SPEAKER_03: Oh no, it's his chair.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Don't scare me.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we start at the very beginning?
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Very good place to start, with this what I think is just an incredible way of setting the tone in the scene of the movie, this cold open where Holly is possessed by um by Voss.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: You it starts straight away with that disgusting needle going straight into somebody's skull, and then she goes into that party and stabs that man a a billion times.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: Well, I was immediately I didn't know any background, I didn't even read the description of what this movie was.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, we're definitely like in some alternate reality with women wearing tracksuits and high tennis shoes walking into a fancy nightclub.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: So still not very sure about what that was.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you want to know, I can tell you that Brandon Cronenberg said he imagined it as an Like you said, alternate reality, where he said he imagined it as an alternate 2008, where at some point in time something diverged from our current reality.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: Cause you'll see, like, there are people with flip phones, there are old-fashioned cars, but obviously there are people transporting their brains into other people's bodies, and there are like wall, floor-to-ceiling TVs.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: So it is just kind of like a a bombination of uh old and new and future.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: I did notice the flip phones, and I was like, I kind of loved it because there was little like sprinklings and it you could pick up on some and you know, take for what it is, others, like like the carpet in the room where she's has this huge machinery over her.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: It was like very like 90s looking carpet.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even notice that.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, so we start there.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: And did you like do you feel like that very first scene?
23:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, what kind of ride did you think you were about to be in on based off of that?
23:09
SPEAKER_03: I thought we were on pace for some cool team of assassins, which I know is what you know, much different facet.
23:23
SPEAKER_03: I thought they were gonna like I don't know.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: I thought like a high action, like yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:29
SPEAKER_03: More action related, but like action meets Black Mirror.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I do think this movie is like probably like one of the most gory things I've ever seen.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: And so, like, I don't know, I think that you're kind of describing what it ended up being.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: It just like wasn't quite that.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Exciting.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: The excitement level.
23:52
SPEAKER_01: I think you needed like a chase scene or something, you know?
23:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because I'm a man.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: No, I was feeling too trash.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: I was feeling that too.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: I thought you know what at multiple points she was gonna need to do like a getaway and like jump out of a window or something.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: Some of my favorite movies.
24:09
SPEAKER_03: Well, I love action movies, some of my favorite movies are the most low-key, so I don't I don't need the action, but I just need good.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Alright, put your shirts back on.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, now I think that that very first scene is just like an incredible, like, condensed short film version of like what the rest of the movie is, and that it kind of gives you a glimpse into like how the perfect job goes off.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Except for this important thing that happens at the end, where Voss is not able to kill herself before she leaves the body, and that's the let loosen she's not able to on her own wrap up, and she kind of leaves Holly to fend for herself, and the police end up killing her, which visceral thing to see right now.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that is kind of a thread throughout the movie that Voss is, you know, not totally in solid grasp of her own humanity, but the thing that she consistently can't do is kill the people that she's inhabiting, which I think is like the little glimmer of like, oh, she's still a person in there.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: As much as she's struggling and some of the awful things that she's doing, like she can't do that one thing.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: And whether that's more for self-preservation and self-fear or any sort of empathy, I do think that that's an interesting thread that kind of goes through the rest of the movie that I have a thought on when we get to the end.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: I have a thought on that too.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: The thing that I thought was really going to interest Ian is this like job that Colin Tate has, where he is this like very like underlying, um I don't know, like not important person at this big business tech firm where they are doing what we all fear everyone is always doing, and they're spying on people through their technology, but to get like the most like mundane information, like their lamps and their curtain types, all in um all in cahoots with like the algorithm and what are we selling people?
26:32
SPEAKER_00: That seemed like a very Ian thing to me.
26:36
SPEAKER_03: I'm just gonna say if you don't think shit like that's happening, you're but we don't wrong.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, but we don't the it's something that we can't see happening, and it's something we're all afraid is happening, that we know is happening, because sometimes you get something that's like, do you want to share your data with this app?
26:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you're gonna take it anyway.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: But here is like a really cool visual representation.
27:01
SPEAKER_03: It reminds me of um, I don't know if you know this, but Facebook like outsources like video approval of like when you when someone uploads a video to Facebook, there's a manual review, and like those people have to watch like horrible things like every day.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it just when people report a video, it goes through a review process to see if it's like actually something bad or not?
27:34
SPEAKER_01: And so there was an article that came out about it a while ago, and like people like murdering animals on videos and then they upload it to Facebook.
27:44
SPEAKER_03: Oh, everything.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that's not fun.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: And how spooky, I mean, I know that kind of the exciting part is when you see the naked people, and y'all saw the cut version.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: In the uncut version, the woman's legs are just wide open and you can see straight through her, but um I'm gonna watch this uncut version.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but um, that's kind of the exciting part.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: But I find when he gets to one of the videos and it's just a little girl holding a phone, that's pretty creepy.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
28:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: Isn't there also um like uh Alexa is programmed to like if she hears shattering glass or something like that, you can like have it call the police, like think someone's breaking into your house.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty scary.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: I break plenty of things in my apartment, but I use Google, so maybe Google cares less about me.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
28:48
SPEAKER_03: Doubt it.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: So what's interesting is he has this job where he is surveilling people through their cameras and then imitating their habits uh for whatever this algorithm is.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Very social dilemma, which I know Ian is a fan of.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's interesting to me is that Voss's job is essentially the same thing.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: She's violating people in a much more extreme way, but she's watching them through the windows and picking up their mannerisms and taking in all of their personal data so that then she can take over their bodies.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: So I I don't know quite what my theory is there or what message I'm trying to give y'all right now, but I do think that that's a really interesting comparison.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: Well, just taking that a step further, we have the scene where she goes to visit her own family and it's like she's rehearsing a character before she walks in.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: So if his job is to observe other people, eventually that can also wear him down to not know who he is, which maybe is why he has a hard time, you know, that fight of like who's controlling the host happens.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I mean, perfect segue, Caroline, because her having to practice her humanity and like how she's going to say hi to her son and that she wants to she's hungry to her husband, who maybe she's getting a divorce from, I don't know.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that's really interesting because like I said earlier, she's taken on so many identities from other people that she's really unclear on what her own identity is.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like in the movie her family is one of the main things that's tethering her to her reality, which is obviously why her boss wants her wants that family gone.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that that gives some really sinister weight to that twist at the end when she shoots her own son, which s appeared to be Voss doing it and not Colin.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what's so fun about the end is it's like who's orchestrating what.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: I think that's super sinister because instead of the boss like getting in her son and being like, Hey, this is your boss, stop, her boss, like kind of orchestrates her killing her family, and now she is like total blank slate to be even more brainwashed by this company into who they want her to be.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: I even I didn't even think about that, but it's crazy.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: This movie contains multitudes.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: But also, I think that what's really fun about it is that it doesn't.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Like, I think that when you see something that's so visually interesting, my brain starts being like, ooh, what's the metaphor?
31:59
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
32:00
SPEAKER_00: I think that this movie is really wearing it all on its sleeve.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think there is a lot of metaphor to this movie.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: I think that what we're seeing is what it's saying, that identity, she's lost herself so much to other people's that she just like, she just can't.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: She wakes up every morning, she has to tell herself who she is.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: And I also think it's fascinating how like queer this movie is because it's like a genderless struggle.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Um like her identity is not rooted in something that's female.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: Even in that scene that y'all clearly didn't see, when she's having sex with Ava and she's getting really into it, and she sees herself with a penis.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: I think that that's a pretty powerful moment visually that's shocking, but it shows the power dynamic that we usually associate with gender, especially in sex, having like no sway on Voss's identity.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think also the uh mask sequence really just kind of lays it all out there for us.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: And I think that was done it was still like artistically done because it they weren't just like saying it in like canned dialogue.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: It was just like this beautiful kind of short in the middle of the movie where you see that struggle physically.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, where he's putting on her skin and then he's r tearing through it, and you can see her screaming inside of it.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: Well, and then it's it's her face of the mask, and then it goes back to things that she experienced.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: So it's like, yes, it was her, but on the inside it was him, meaning like different people or different characters that were actually experiencing that as her.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, as an assassin who supposedly has this high fortitude to be able to take over people's minds, like clearly her barriers were so deteriorated that then Colin's able to flip back and steal all of her information, and that's how he can go to her house in the first place.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: I also really like that typically, like, when we think of a woman's role in society, like it's family one, job two.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Voss clearly does not give two shits about that family.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: She does not seem upset at all that she has just seen her son brutally shot to death.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, and she just-I mean, she's having sex with her husband, looking not very pleased, and she's imagining her job where she just murdered someone.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: I think that I I I really enjoy.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: I think that ultimately her company office, I don't know, what you would call an assassination um business, but I I think it's sinister.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: I think that it's choosing to actively make her like a blank slate that they can use instead, like I think they're helping her lose her identity when she's trying to grasp onto it.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: But I do think that part of her is that she does like that job and she is weighed down by her family, and I think that that brutal ruthlessness at the end where she uh murders her son is kind of like, no, I'm not a family gal.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I just think that's a type of thing that we don't see as often in movies.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: And then my last thought is that the movie ends with this test that Voss and Goethe do over and over to test that she is aware that she's back in her body, back in her mind, back in her space.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: And when I first saw it, this kind of like slow zoom in on the butterfly in the case being the the last image, I thought was kind of lame.
35:53
SPEAKER_01: But then but it's not.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: She is word for word repeating back what they want to hear and how they test her to make sure she's still her.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: But there's one thing that she leaves out when they get to the butterfly, and in the first sequence she says, I felt guilty about killing it and putting in this box, and I still feel guilty about it.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: And at the end, once her family is gone, she says that that was just a butterfly, no mention of the guilt.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: Exactly, and Gerter gives a little smile.
36:33
SPEAKER_01: So, do we think if she were to go back on another contract, she would now be able to kill herself, given that signal?
36:44
SPEAKER_00: I think so, because that's what I was alluding to earlier, is that she's never been able to kill herself.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: She even apparently doesn't even like using guns.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: She wants to have her hands on the victim.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that her not saying that she feels bad about killing the butterfly anymore means that she has completely lost all semblance of humanity, and that's what's so disturbing about the end, is I think now she is like a no no nothing held back assassin.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Like she is just ready to kill, kill, kill.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: Why do you think it it was so important for the character to for her to kill herself rather than other people killing her?
37:30
SPEAKER_01: Because the the like doctor or the the mechanic on the machinery said like you have to kill yourself.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm not totally sure about that either.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think in terms of like the story, it has meaning, like we were saying, like it's her job to have to choose to end this person who she has become, which is emotional, but also um, I have no reason for that.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously you'd want to kill the person because that's a a loose end, but I don't know why it would have to be you technically.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: My last thought about the plot, why I think the story is so excited about this exciting in this movie, is that how many like job gone wrong movies have we seen?
38:14
SPEAKER_00: We've seen a billion.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: This movie is like he gets to the house to kill the girlfriend and the dad, and then he does it.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: Like I thought, I thought something was gonna go wrong, and like it does, and the dad ends up living, and the big thing that goes wrong is that you know she can't kill herself in Colin's body, but I was just kind of shocked that like she does just actually kill them.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: I think that's pretty crazy because I was shocked when I saw that, and especially the visceral way that she does it, digging into his like brain and smashing his teeth.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Gross.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: But um I I just thought that that was really fascinating and bold of the movie because they were like, you know what, the job goes right, we're ready to focus on the characters, which I think is really um you know what we ask for all the time from our horror movies.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: I loved how genuine and developed and deep the world was and the characters.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: I thought that that was masterful.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: I have a question for you.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: Do you think that there is any kind of like sub-commentary on mental illness from this movie?
39:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't think she's mentally ill.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: I think this is almost like a cult thing where like she she is not she does not have the the stamina or the tolerance to stand up against these uh these forces that are pressing against her.
39:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess so.
39:47
SPEAKER_01: It was just like kind of jarring for me to like I don't know, you th you see like these like weird murdering sprees sometimes in real life, and like the way that Colin was like talking and speaking, and I found myself thinking like, wow, if I saw that guy doing that on the street, I would be terrified.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: But like those behaviors like happen sometimes.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, and he was in shock, and like trauma and guilt are big forces as well that Voss has had to, as we saw at the end of the movie, spend her time overcoming those emotions.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: But those are very human emotions that we should feel.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: But like, I guess it's like the lack of control.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: Like he kept saying, like, I haven't been myself, like I don't Yeah.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: What would you guys say from Possessor is your most memorable murder?
40:46
SPEAKER_03: I would have to say.
40:48
SPEAKER_03: Definitely the hatchet into the the dad.
40:51
SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure that's it.
40:51
SPEAKER_01: It's like one of those really nice cooking knives.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, a butcher knife, that's what I'm butcher, yeah.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but those fingers fly across the room.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Gross.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Not like the most like crazy effects murder, but Eddie really caught me off guard because everything was going swell, he was there to help, and then we go into that sequence where Colin is choking Foz and that whole thing, and then when he wakes up, it's just like okay, another one down.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go with John Pars.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: When he is stabbing that poker through his head and it's gooing out blood, and you see his teeth scrape off, you see him scoop out an eyeball.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: It is disgusting.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: That is one of the most vile things I've ever seen.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: It was so gross.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: And if you watch that behind the scenes, well, he doesn't die.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't die.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
41:54
SPEAKER_01: Does it count?
41:55
SPEAKER_01: Take it back!
41:56
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm using it because it is a set piece of this movie.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: And if you watch the behind the scenes thing, they made a puppet of his head that they can control the dad squirming around as they just stabbed it over and over again.
42:13
SPEAKER_03: Most memorable attempted murder.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: I think that that was.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: If you want to go with the real murder, the subsequent murder of the girlfriend was shocking and sad.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to go with John Parse.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: I loved that murder.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: I thought, what a show of your skills and effects here.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: On a scary scale, one to five, how would you rate Possessor?
42:41
SPEAKER_01: I'd give it a two.
42:42
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it was that scary.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: Not to say I didn't enjoy it.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: It just wasn't that scary.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: Ian?
42:51
SPEAKER_03: I would give it a two as well.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to ruffle any feathers here, but I've been thinking about this a lot.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: I give Possessor a four and a half.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: I think that this movie has one the most disgusting gore I've ever seen in a movie.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: I think that that's really intense to sit through, and you cannot show the faint of heart that gore.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: I also think that emotionally it's very distressing.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't I don't can't think off the top of my head of any movie where you see a bullet go through I mean, martyrs, but a bullet go through a child.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: Like, it is, I think that this is a a rough, a hard movie to handle.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: I think that it's gorgeous and it's really interesting, and like I said, unlike any movie I can think of that I've seen, but I think that this is a really disturbing movie and really dark and bleak, and I think that that's really difficult to handle.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: Would you give Possessor a smash?
43:58
SPEAKER_00: Or A slash.
44:06
SPEAKER_03: You're a loser, baby.
44:08
SPEAKER_03: A slash.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Wow, you just Zorroed it.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give it a smash.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: I give it a smash.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to let Voz overtake my body and smash it herself.
44:26
SPEAKER_00: That's how much I love it.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: Now, you guys, what's your favorite scary movie?
44:35
SPEAKER_01: Let me just dig back through my files here and tell ya.
44:40
SPEAKER_03: Hellhouse.
44:41
SPEAKER_01: Black Christmas 2006.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, I never thought I'd see the day when Gremlins would be dethroned, but I think that Possessor is one of the most exciting horror movies I've seen in a long time.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: I think that it's really like, wow, this is a movie that is breaking boundaries, and I want to see more movies trying to just even achieve a tiny bit of what Possessor achieves.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: Possessor is my new favorite scary movie.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
45:19
SPEAKER_03: Who hired you?
45:21
SPEAKER_01: Not an ad, folks.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: I know, this is not, this is not, but I did love it.
45:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, you guys, it was so nice seeing you.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: But next week, alas, they're back in the coffin because Julianne is going to be rejoining me to discuss the movie that we thought we would be reviewing last week.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: But in or last week, last month.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: But with some shenanigans with movies only coming out in theaters and me not reading the fine print of the emails I receive.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: We had postponed that episode.
45:54
SPEAKER_00: So now it's actually happening.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: We are reviewing Promising Young Woman next week.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: And you can watch it yourself on VOD this Friday, Jan 15th.
46:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a hot conversation, a movie that people are definitely going to be talking about.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: So you'll want to get all of the juice from us.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: Until then, you can head on over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a rating and a review.
46:24
SPEAKER_01: Ugh, I love this review already.
46:26
SPEAKER_01: Title Chef's Kiss.
46:30
SPEAKER_01: From Ryguy NJ.
46:33
SPEAKER_01: Wow, as a huge horror fan, I'm obsessed with this podcast.
46:38
SPEAKER_01: Absolute perfection.
46:41
SPEAKER_03: Oh.
46:42
SPEAKER_01: I love how they dive into all of my favorite movies.
46:45
SPEAKER_01: You guys are amazing.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: Keep it up.
46:47
SPEAKER_01: No, you keep it up, Ryguy NJ.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Ryguy, my guy.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: That's so sweet of you, Ryguy.
46:57
SPEAKER_00: Is it like the greatest two?
47:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you want to give us the greatest 2021 gift at all for all of the free entertainment that we give you, you can also head on over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a rating and review.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: Or you could head over and look at our not free content at patreon.com slash scary moviepod, where we always have fun bonus episodes coming.
47:28
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Scarymovie Pod uncut.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: Uncut.
47:32
SPEAKER_03: Uncut.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: Alright, my name is Parker.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and letterboxed at Parker DelRay.
47:41
SPEAKER_01: My name is Caroline.
47:42
SPEAKER_01: You can find me on Instagram at Caro Manifesto.
47:46
SPEAKER_03: My name is Ian.
47:48
SPEAKER_03: You can find me on uh on Caroline's Instagram.
47:54
SPEAKER_00: Nice! And you can find all of us, the whole Scarymovie Pod team, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Scarymovie Pod.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Again, find us on Patreon at patreon.com slash scary moviepod.
48:09
SPEAKER_00: You can head on over to scarymoviepod dot com to view our calendar.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: And you can contact us with any feedback or requests at Scarymoviepod at gmail dot com.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: Huzzah!
48:23
SPEAKER_03: Bye now.