The recent news that Parker Finn and and Robert Pattison are exploring a remake of Andrej Żuławski’s Possession met with, well, some strong opinions from horror fandom. And with valid reason: Żuławski’s delirious 1981 epic, about a couple in Berlin going through a volatile separation while one is sleeping with a slimy, otherworldly being is as autobiographical as it is inscrutable. Made in the wake of the filmmaker’s divorce, and once described as a film that only made sense to the man who made it, one might as well remake Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. It’s hard to imagine what a remake of Possession would even look like.
But frankly, we don’t have to, because earlier this year that’s exactly what Indonesian filmmaker Ertanto Robby Soediskam did.
Possession: Kerasukan is a reworking of Żuławski’s film, starring Darius Sinathrya and Carissa Perusset, and from the looks of the trailer it takes a good deal of liberties with the original (and adds a whole lot of red). Nevertheless, when you watch the trailer you’ll see moments that are unmistakably pulled from the 1981 original. Tumultuous marriage featuring self-harm? Check. Flamboyant other man? Check. Kid in a bathtub? Check. Woman melting down at a train station? Oh hell yes. I don’t see a cuckolding, tentacled thing from another dimension in there, but maybe they’re saving something for the full viewing.
Reviews online are not especially kind, but nor were they for the film’s source material. Is it as insane and as captivating as its original? Only one way to find out: the film is currently available to watch on Netflix.
Thanks to Fango contributor Simon Abrams for sending this our way.
