Before Ari Aster and Robert Eggers began their demented careers in the horror genre or even before Darren Aronofsky started sending chills down your spine as he delved into the dark nature of people, there was polish director Andrzej Żuławski and his demented classic film, 1981's Possession. The film, which was banned in the US in it's initial release in 1981, focused on a professional spy Mark (Played by Sam Neill) who returns to his West Berlin home to find his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) insistent on a divorce. Oh and part of the reason involves a strange creature whose special effects were the creation Carlo Rambaldi, known for his work on a little film called Alien (1979).
Making the film itself was one of real trauma as apparently Adjani suffered from PTSD following her time working on the film (though she won Best Actress at Cannes for her performance) and recently Neill recently spoke about his work on the film, quoting the following about his experience as the following:
“I call it the most extreme film I’ve ever made, in every possible respect, and he asked of us things I wouldn’t and couldn’t go to now. And I think I only just escaped that film with my sanity barely intact.”
Since then, however, the film has become a cult classic and to many a masterpiece of the horror genre with it's entrancing cinematography and twisted thematic presentation. So much so that the film is getting a 4K restoration, courtesy of Metrograph Pictures. It will first be released at the upcoming Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, before moving on to open exclusively at the Metrograph in New York and on the theater’s digital platform October 1st before a nationwide expansion that will follow on October 15th.
An official trailer (via Indiewire) has been released ahead of the release to remind people how, even by cinema standards today, remains one of the most twisted cinematic experiences of all-time. Check the trailer out below:
Stay tuned!
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