Possum Review (Film, 2019) #31DaysofHorror
A man walks around with an old leather bag. He is horrified by its contents and can’t seem to get rid of it no matter how hard he tries. Inside is a puppet, one that cost him his career and forced him to move back to his childhood home until he can find a way to redeem himself.
Possum is a dense, high-concept horror film. It’s quiet psychological horror about what you can’t see. You get little glimpses here and there of what is in the bag—a set of legs, a nursery rhyme about its contents—but never get to see exactly what is so horrifying about it in its entirety. All you know is what the man tells you. It cannot be killed because it is a puppet. Once he destroys it, he can reclaim his life and career.
This is a challenging film. It is so tense and suggestive that you have to be ready to engage with it as a text. You are reading a horror film where there is a constant sense of movement, however slow, onscreen. The characters are stalking each other, ready to strike each other’s egos at any point and kill their spirits and sense of self worth.
Possum feels like a living piece of art. Everything in writer/director Matthew Holness’ debut feature is carefully planned and executed. This film is crafted. Every shot, every angle, every direction given to the actors is there to serve the aesthetic and tone of the film.
The challenge here is one of intended audience. This is an unpleasant film to experience. It is designed to make you feel uncomfortable the whole way through. The lack of knowledge combined with the increasingly bizarre and inhuman behavior of the puppeteer is unbearable. I applaud the craftsmanship and commitment but am left without a clear answer of why.
Holness has a clear artistic voice and an understanding of suspense. The actual scares tend to be a bit overly reliant on jump scares. The camera will focus on one spot, cut to a reaction, cut to a click glimpse of something scary, and jump back to the actor’s reaction. The glimpses get longer as the film goes on, but the formula is the same.
Is Possum scary? Yes. Is it well made? Yes. Does it have a unique style? Yes. Does it have a clear voice as a horror text? That’s the big question. This is a horror film for an experienced viewer who wants to be challenged with something new and different. I’ve never encountered another horror film quite like it and that’s pretty exciting.
Possum is streaming on Amazon Prime.
