Possession
(Psycho)                                                                             2**skulls

*Strong Language* *Nudity* *Blood* *Violent* *Sexual Situations*  *Gory*

1983/Color/80 Min./Vestron Video & Euramco International, Inc.
& Limelight Ltd. Productions & Oliane Productions S.A.
& Marianne Productions & Soma Film Productions/Germany/France/Rated R

Director.............Andrzej Zulawski
Screenplay.......Andrzej Zulawski
Music................Andrzej Korzynski & Art Phillips
Producer...........Marie-Laure Reyre
Special Visual Effects by Carlo Rambaldi
Special Effects.......Daniel Braunschweig & Charles-Henri Assola

Dramatis Personae
Anna........Isabelle Adjani
Mark........Sam Neill (Damien: Omen III)
Margie.....Margit Carstensen
Heinrich...Heinz Bennent
Bobby......Carl Duering

Critique: American cut down of 127 minute original. The question is, how could they cut out over forty minutes and still end up with something so boring? Unless, of course, they only cut out the good stuff. This movie is very hard to make out. It is full of tantalizing cuts that in the end neither pan out nor make sense. The cuckold Mark's vain attempts to get Anna back are hard to watch. Sometimes Anna's descent into madness is interesting. Why Miss Adjani's stardom has never translated into American could be answered here: Americans aren't smart enough to figure out things that don't make any sense at all, and not cultured enough to pretend to appreciate terrible art. God bless 'em . The fact that she was awarded the best actress award for this role at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival bears painful testimony to the significance of said event. Simply dreadful.

Plot Summary: Berlin. Mark turns down continuing a job, saying his staying on is impossible. A sadistic ballet teacher causes a student to flee. Anna stares at a statuette of Jesus. The quitter, Mark, and Anna aren't getting along. They've grown apart since he's been away. Anna's takin to growling at crucifixes. Mark picks up the phone and someone stranger speaks obscurely on the phone. Mark thinks to check out the book shelf and there's some occult books in German. When he finds a postcard from a "Heinrich", Mark infers his wife is having an affair. Anna calls soon after to say it's over. They meet at the cafe' Einstein. She gets more out of it with Heinrich. He says he doesn't want to see their son, Bobby. There's a scene. He's pulled to the ground by cooks. Mark wakes up in a sanatorium after three weeks. When he returns home, Bobby, their son, has been largely alone for weeks. He says he got a sailboat from uncle Heinrich. Anna gets home and Mark declares that the place is a mess and that he's taking over here. Anna has gone off again to see Heinrich, leaving a note. Margie, Anna's friend gives Mark the telephone number. Anna is then in a subway laughing and screaming maniacally. She thinks of the statue of the crucified Jesus, and she seems to have a little possession going as vomit mixed with blood mixes in with her growls. She vomits and seems to miscarry as well. When Mark goes to Heinrich's, Anna isn't there. Heinrich is mystical and ridiculous. He claims they reached some great mystical-sexual state together. When Mark decides to get violent, Heinrich is a Karate guy. Mark returns to their apartment to find that Anna has returned. She says she's been with new friends. The fighting continues. She can't stand him touching her. Soon he's belting her. She leaves oozing blood. He shows up at Margie Gluckmeister's place and she acts all spacey. This is a boring nonsequetor. It appears they have some kind of affair going. Margie takes to staying over. Mark goes to a private investigator whom  he hires to follow his wife. In another fight scene, Anna plays with the electric knife as he asks her questions about their relationship while he has his back turned. She tries to cut her neck. Once she's bandaged up he takes a few gouges out himself. The private investigator follows Anna on to the train and watches as she sits in a trance as a man steals a banana out of her shopping bag. She's running about the streets of Berlin and goes to an apartment. The investigator finds a dark ooze in the bath room and as he stares at it she comes at him with a bottle and soon he's dead. After another boring interlude with Heinrich, the teacher looks like she's moving in. Mark tells the teacher that he's at war against women--that that they have no foresight, that there's no stability to them--nothing to trust. Surprisingly, this pickup line seems to have worked. Bobby wakes up screaming. A man, presumably another investigator, comes and visits Anna at the evil apartment where Anna is cleaning up. He starts poking around and sees the corpse of the other fellow. As well as the monster. She bludgeons and then shoots him as well. Anna comes home and is obviously insane. She starts stuffing clothes in the refrigerator. But then Mark goes and starts talking to himself as well. He suggests they sit a while as she writhes and dry washes her hands. She announces that after mudwrestling, sister faith miscarried leaving sister chance. After this declaration he decides at that moment that she looks vulgar to him. She's off. As we would expect, Heinrich is standing on his head when Mark cheerily calls, informing Heinrich of the address. Heinrich arrives at the evil apartment and then paws Anna for a while before he notices what's going on in the next room. It appears to be some fishy alien being. It puts the hex on Heinrich. Anna has people's body parts in the refrigerator. She stabs him in the shoulder and he finally stumbles out of the apartment. Mark's fooling around with Bobby when Heinrich calls bleeding. Mark goes to the monster-apartment. The apartment is looking pretty seamy what with the body parts all over the place. Mark is taken aback. He meets Heinrich at a bar. Heinrich insists that Mark give him money to restore his harmony. Mark smashes his head in with a toilet tank cover. Mark then goes and blows up the monster apartment. He goes back to their apartment and appears to have an rapprochement with Anna. She insists that he take her. Mark arrives at the monster apartment again and finds that the place isn't burned. He finds some octopus thing crawling over and having some kind of sex with Anna. She looks up at him and says "almost". He rides out on his motorcycle, wipes out and stumbles around some more.  Anna chases him up the stairs with a replica of Mark. Mark guns her down and then she shoots him as well.