This film is part of Rentals
Possession
Andrzej Zulawski’s out-of-control horror masterpiece is one of cinema’s most bare-souled and open-veined accounts of a broken relationship.
Horror 1981 124 mins
Director: Andrzej Zulawski
Overview
Mark (Sam Neil) sends a private detective to follow his wife (Isabelle Adjani) suspecting her of having an affair, but the horrors are far worse than he imagines after it’s revealed her lover is a strange tentacled creature.
If this synopsis seems strange enough it can’t do justice do a wild, careering story that presents a hyper-real allegory on fidelity and identity. It’s also dense with political and literary allusions – a tale of Dostoevskyian doppelgangers set in the divided city of Berlin. The relentless energy of Zulawski’s prowling camerawork is matched in kineticism by Adjani’s thoroughly demented performance, which earned her a best actress award at Cannes. Completing the film’s bizarre backstory, Possession also found itself ill-fittingly included on the infamous ‘video nasty’ list of outlawed cassettes in the early 1980s. With creature effects by the Oscar-winning creator of E.T, Carlos Rambaldi, Possession is filmmaking at is most frenzied, fraught and furious.
Contains strong violence, sex and horrorRelated
Horror
Anna and the Apocalypse
Horror 2017 98 mins Director: John McPhail
A Scottish schoolgirl has the ultimate weapon with which to quell the zombie apocalypse: showtunes.
Possum
Horror 2017 85 mins Director: Matthew Holness
"Can you spy him deep within? Little Possum. Black as sin." The reliably deranged Sean Harris is plagued by an evil puppet in this dark, brooding fable from Matthew Holness.
The Little Stranger
Thriller 2018 111 mins Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Lenny Abrahamson (Room, Frank) directs this Gothic mystery, with Domhnall Gleeson as a doctor helping the heir of a haunted stately home (Ruth Wilson).
Ghost Stories
Horror 2017 98 mins Director: Jeremy Dyson
Being scared has never been this much fun, as Martin Freeman, Andy Nyman and Paul Whitehouse bring the chilling London stage play to the screen.
The Endless
Horror 2017 112 mins Director: Aaron Moorhead
Two brothers who escaped a cult are drawn back in by a mysterious message… Acclaimed directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Spring) return with another hybrid piece of raging intensity.
The Cured
Horror 2017 95 mins Director: David Freyne
Ellen Page stars in this inventive and surprising post-zombie film from Ireland, in which the rehabilitated undead are transitioned back into society.
Halloween
Sauna the Dead: A Fairy Tale
Comedy 2016 21 mins Director: Tom Frederic
A night in a gay sauna turns into a fight for survival. Two men must over-come prejudice and join forces in taking down a horde of towel-wearing zombies.
Videodrome
Fantasy 1983 87 mins Director: David Cronenberg
James Woods and Debbie Harry star in David Cronenberg’s mind-melting sci-fi about media domination.
Evolution
Drama 2015 82 mins Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
The long-awaited second feature from Lucile Hadžihalilović (Innocence) is a gorgeously surreal coming-of-age tale laced with bizarre body-horror.
Creep
Horror 2004 82 mins Director: Christopher Smith
The tube will never look the same again after this frenzied chiller about a woman trapped in the London Underground for the night, pursued by twisted killer.
The Mummy
Horror 1959 88 mins Director: Terence Fisher
Classic Hammer horror of a reanimated ancient Egyptian mummy, who returns from his tomb to seek vengeance on its desecrators.
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Horror 1954 79 mins Director: Jack Arnold
Jack Arnold’s monster classic about the discovery of a prehistoric, amphibious Gill-man that takes a shine to a female expeditionary.
Featuring Sam Neill
Sweet Country
Period drama 2017 113 mins Director: Warwick Thornton
Australian director Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) brings a vital Indigenous perspective and great cinematic vision to this powerful, revisionist Western, with Sam Neill and Bryan Brown.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Comedy 2016 101 mins Director: Taika Waititi
Juvenile delinquent Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) forms an unlikely partnership with Sam Neill’s grizzled bushman in this hilarious wild adventure from Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows).
New
Sunburn
Romance 2018 92 mins Director: Vicente Alves Do Ó
The simmering sexual tensions of a group of old friends come to the boil in this sizzling psychological drama, which playfully evokes the spirit of François Ozon.
Sorry to Bother You
Comedy 2018 111 mins Director: Boots Riley
A mild-mannered call centre operator whizzes up the corporate ladder after he discovers a unique ability to adopt a "white voice" in writer-director Boots Riley's breathlessly inventive satire.
Heat and Dust
Drama 1983 130 mins Director: James Ivory
Julie Christie and Greta Scacchi star in this sensual and evocative Merchant Ivory classic, adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from her Booker Prize-winning novel.
The Caretaker
Drama 1963 105 mins Director: Clive Donner
Clive Donner directs this classic adaptation of the Harold Pinter play, with Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence and Robert Shaw.
Shakespeare Wallah
Romance 1965 122 mins Director: James Ivory
When a young British actress from a touring troupe falls in love with an Indian playboy, the star-crossed lovers must overcome cultural differences and the scheming of a fierce rival.
Rafiki
Drama 2018 83 mins Director: Wanuri Kahiu
Romantic sparks fly between the daughters of two opposing politicians in Wanuri Kahiu’s neon-bright story of forbidden love in Kenya.