The premise of this movie is what drew me to see it. Sadly, the premise is the film’s strongest asset.

Possessor Uncut is a confused film. It’s not a confusing story, just confused in how to tell it. We’re presented with what we presume to be the protagonist, an assassin who takes on a new body to carry out her mission. Cool idea, but there’s a lot of holes to the concept as well as the execution (don’t mind the pun).

Spoilers ahead…

Andrea Riseborough (Birdman, Oblivion) is the assassin Tasya Voss. She begins the movie using her first victim to kill her target, then goes home to her family who are unaware of the details of her day job.

Her disconnect from reality is apparent, but we’re given no support as to why we should care, ever. We’re never shown her life before she began killing, or presented with the possibility that she ever even wanted a normal life. I compare this with True Lies. We know Arnold’s family life is a sham, but the audience and character are shown he does care, first through jealousy, then actual concern. In Possessor, we’re never given that character growth, so when Tasya’s family is put in danger, it lacks any sense of tension.

Our only alternative as an audience is to consider Tasya as the villain. She is certainly cold. The only thing she seems to care about is killing. She relishes it, choosing murder weapons of pain and blood over the gun she carries. The problem is Cronenberg gives us more time trying to make us care for Tasya, rather than spending time making us care about the true protagonist.

Christopher Abbott (First Man, Girls) plays Colin Tate. Tate is Tasya’s next unwilling body to be possessed, intending to have him use his relationship to gain access to and assassinate John Parse (Sean Bean). Tate is well into the killing when he begins to resist Tasya’s possession. This is great for the story, but we’re in a similar character dilemma. We don’t feel emotionally connected to Tate, and since we were misled to consider Tasya as the protagonist, we are torn on who to root for.

While I respect Cronenberg’s attempt to play with the edges of good and evil, a story needs a true protagonist for the audience. The protagonist doesn’t need to win. They don’t even need to be morally grounded. We just need to be presented with a clear champion to back. Had this been told in another way, it could have been a better film, but I guess that could be said of most crappy films.

Cronenberg is more concerned over the look of the movie, and it does look nice, but it also feels very much like a product of someone fresh from film school. He tries to play with color and imagery too much, and his dedication to the rule of thirds is laughable.

Like his father, David Cronenberg (Naked Lunch, The Fly), Brandon has a predilection for gore. While the blood effects and murder scenes are entertainingly horrific, they don’t serve to better define the characters since both Tasya and Tate are guilty of equal horrors. It also takes us into the horror-movie realm without fully committing to the genre, so it just feels out of place.

Possessor Uncut’s personality was confined to the visuals, leaving none for the characters. The genre straddled horror and sci-fi thriller, and this lack of commitment will make it difficult to find a common audience.