Possession, a radical, disturbing horror and drama masterpiece, was released at the beginning of the 80s. The film is coming to German cinemas again in March. Watch the exclusive trailer here first.
There are horror movies and then there is Possession. If you haven’t yet seen director Andrzej Żuławski’s disturbingly radical mix of marital drama with wild genre elements, prepare yourself for a haunting borderline experience. Possession was released in 1981 and was only shown sporadically in German cinemas.
In March 2025, it will return to the big screen – beautifully restored and with a new language version. 8kstreaming is showing you the trailer for it in advance.
Watch the exclusive trailer for the German 4K re-release of Possession here:
Horror masterpiece back in cinemas: this is Possession
Zulawski’s film is set in divided Berlin in the early 1980s and sheds light on the crumbling marriage of Mark (Sam Neill) and Anna (Isabelle Adjani). One day, the former secret service agent discovers that his wife is having an affair with German intellectual Heinrich (Heinz Bennent). He hires a private investigator who stalks Anna and stumbles upon a much more monstrous secret.
Possession can be roughly described, but its incomparable force must be experienced for yourself. Polish director Andrzej Żuławski developed a special technique for his films, borrowed from the theater, in which the actors repeatedly play themselves into an exhausting rage close to complete madness.
In Possession is only superficially about a bitter marital crisis, which Zulawski used to process his own divorce from actress Malgorzata Braunek. Instead, the film is a disturbing mix of slimy, repulsive genre elements, a portrait of a divided city still scarred by war, and an apocalyptic descent into hell.
One scene in which Isabelle Adjani finally plays herself into delirium is particularly unforgettable. The sequence in which her Anna runs through a subway station, utters a mixture of cries of pain and laughter of euphoria, and suffers a kind of demonic miscarriage for minutes on end, is one of the most incredible moments in horror film history.
When is Possession showing again at the cinema?
The distribution company Drop-out Cinema eG, together with Camera Obscura Filmdistribution, will be releasing the film in selected German cinemas again from March 13, 2025. The revised 4K version will be shown for the re-release. Possession can also be seen with German dubbing for the first time.
