'Possessor' Trailer: You're Not Prepared For Brandon Cronenberg's Ultra-Violent Sci-Fi Thriller

This is going to sound like hyperbole, but I'm going for it: you're not ready for Possessor. I caught Brandon Cronenberg's ultra-violent nightmare at Sundance earlier this year, and I haven't stopped thinking about it ever since. It's brutal, it's horrifying, it's truly unique. The name "Cronenberg" immediately lends itself to body horror thanks to Brandon's famous filmmaker father. And while some will no doubt draw connections between this and the elder Cronenberg's work, it's a much different experience. In Possessor, Andrea Riseborough plays a woman who gets inside people's heads – literally. Watch the Possessor trailer below.

In Possessor, "Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of the company. While she has a special gift for the work, her experiences on these jobs have caused a dramatic change in her, and in her own life, she struggles to suppress violent memories and urges. As her mental strain intensifies, she begins to lose control, and soon she finds herself trapped in the mind of a man (Christopher Abbott) whose identity threatens to obliterate her own."

This was the best movie I saw at Sundance this year, and currently, it's sitting at number one on my "Best of the Year" list. As I wrote in my review:

"Bathed in blood and gore, and unrelentingly aggressive, Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor is unlike anything you've ever seen before. It is a singular work – one so ghastly, so unique, and so brutal that it will awe some and disgust others. It is a film about extinguishing humanity and embracing savagery. The philosophy of Possessor is one of carnage. Of cutting ties with the things that make you human, and reverting back to the predator within."

Am I over-hyping this thing? I don't think so. I firmly believe Possessor is a movie unlike anything you've seen before. Of course, that doesn't mean everyone is going to enjoy it. Indeed, the film is often so unrelentingly brutal that I expect plenty of viewers to reject what they're seeing immediately. But for those who can stomach the violence Cronenberg is displaying, there's something special here.

Also starring Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Neon will release Possessor this year.