I keep telling my friends co-workers to watch this, but I lost a lot of credibility with movie suggestions when I forced a bunch of people to watch Fish Tank with me once. So I'm discussing this one here.

I'm forty-two years late on this one, but Possession is amazing. It toes the line between that 70's style melodramatic horror - like a giallo film or something by Dario Argento - and more modern subdued sensibilities. I can't believe that I never watched this, but also that I never even heard anyone talking about it. Is this not a classic or am I just out of touch?

I cannot emphasise enough how well this has aged. If it weren't for the setting being 1980s West Germany with a focus on the Berlin wall, it would seen contemporary. It's genuinely scary or chilling, but also very upsetting (and I just generally like movies that go out of their way to upset me).

I don't know this. Is it on Streaming?
Will look it up and watch the Trailer.

Thanks for the Recommend, Ben.

Possession rocks.

So does Fish Tank by the way. Arnold is one of the greats.

I mentioned when reviewing it here that I appreciated the recent indie effort The Scary of Sixty-First for trying to get some Possession-style physicality going on. But nothing compares to Isabelle Adjani's big sequence in Possession. Has to be seen to be believed and will never leave your head.

For what it's worth, most of Zulawski's movies are well worth checking out. His final film as director, Cosmos, is incredible (but is full-blown arthouse and way more inscrutable than Fish Tank or Possession).

We loved Fish Tank too!

Fish Tank is literally, no exaggeration, the best movie to come out in the 21st century IMO. I would give anything for Arnold to release another narrative feature.

Also - the Scary of Sixty-First made me so angry. It had so much potential that was wasted on the two most annoying millennial characters in the world. I have never hated a character more than the girl the director played. If it wasn't trying to be so steeped in irony, a movie with that premise and set-up could have been scary and topical.

Haha, fair enough. I tend to like any cinematic mischief, including drowning one's own movie to death in endless irony. But you're not wrong that it would have been cool to see someone actually try to do that story sincerely.

I think you're in luck with Arnold, supposedly her new feature's in production right now!

Possession is a stone-cold titan. Wish I'd come up with the concept myself. Adjani's performance fits effortlessly among the GOATs to the point where I almost don't think it need be referenced or reexplored ever again. I've seen it done a few times (Climax, The Scary of Sixty-First among others), even admirably, but they're all immediately recognizable as recreations and then you simply can't see them as anything but.

Genre fans need to do their homework and seek this out. Don't let the streaming wastelands stop you.