Welcome one and all to the 18th part of my weekly blog feature, The 52 In 52. Last week I reviewed the fantastic Sorry To Bother You. Remember I also posted a recap article for the first 15 Weeks.
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This week I am reviewing the bizarre and altogether unsettling Possum. Written and directed by Matthew Holness (Garth Marenghi's Dark Place) and follows the story of Phillip (Sean Harris), a disgraced children's puppeteer that arrives home to face all of the ghosts of his past including abuse from by his uncle after the death of his parents.
I have to admit I was a little lacking in details about Possum before I read up on it and was sold on just how creepy the poster is, after watching it I must say that Possum is one of the most disturbing horror films I've watched in a long while.
Possum is a very stylised film. There is a grainy quality to the way it was shot that makes it feel that it is an old film, like an obscure VHS tape that you would have found in a loft. There is a claustrophobia to the film and that is in part to the way a lot of the more intense scenes take place in dark rooms such as the abandoned army barracks and the dirty and smoke damaged home that Phillip shares with his uncle Maurice.
The score throughout Possum is a great device at setting the atmosphere. As the terror and dread ramps up the music almost becomes deafening and really adds to the unsettling and a little confusing story unfolding on the screen.
The real shining light of the film is the performance of Sean Harris. With a very sparse cast Harris fills the screen from the opening scenes. There is a really unsettling creepy quality to Harris performance that makes your skin crawl but, there is another aspect to the character that I felt shone through. Phillip has encountered isolation at every point in his life and this is highlighted in the scenes with the Possum where he treats it as a person, the only person he had a close bond with. There is a brilliant physicality to Harris's acting in Possum where he holds himself like a helpless child.
The Possum puppet has been designed incredibly well and is gruesome. The way in which the puppet crawls across the screen is terrifying and quite possibly one of the scariest things I've seen in a horror film in a long time.
Overall Possum is an inventive and stylish horror and one of the most unsettling films I have watched in a long while. Sean Harris is skin crawling and vulnerable in equal measures. Possum is a refreshing change from the current crop of modern horror.
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