I dvr’d a film off of the Turner Ancient Movie channel on Friday night because the description sounded like one of those rather cheesy films that I love to watch on a Saturday afternoon. Plus, this movie was released in 1981 and I reasoned that the hair alone would have to be worth a giggle. There just isn’t much in the horror/batshit genre that I haven’t already seen or at least heard about. This one was completely unknown to me.

Possession, it turns out, isn’t your typical friendly romp through anything this side of the looking glass. This film is like having Piccolo Pete’s for eyeballs and you can’t stop lighting the fuse. It does a fantastic job of keeping you just grounded enough in reality to prevent you from calling it out on its bullshit. It is a magnificent showcase of acting on a scale that I, at least, have never seen out of a leading lady before. All of this may be a side effect of the highly disturbing nature of much of the film on my Amygdala. I don’t know for sure. After doing some post-viewing research, I learned that the claustrophobic shots and intense no cut long sequences were intended to cause the wiggling I experienced while watching it.

This is not to say it is without special effects datedness at times. A welcome distraction here and there.

I also learned that I missed just about everything this film was trying to say. I’m ok with that as I’m not sure I would like me too much if I could have been so unaffected by the shocking scenes that I could immediately read the underlying philosophy tickling my toes.

If you like bonkers cinema and philosophical puzzles, and this film has somehow escaped you, try to find it. I think it may be out of print but it is worth a viewing, if not several viewings.