Possum

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

A disgraced children's puppeteer must confront his sinister stepfather and a hideous puppet he keeps hidden in a brown leather bag in order to escape the dark horrors of his past.

Directed by Matthew Holness
Starring Sean Harris and Alun Armstrong

Dark Sky Films has this for US distribution.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Good to see something new from Matthew Holness, hadn't heard of him for a while.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Looks interesting. Reminds me of Cronenberg's Spider.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Dark Sky is giving it a limited theatrical run and VOD release on 11/2 after it gets a premiere at the Brooklyn Horror Festival on 10/12.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Watched this today. Grim and haunting, I liked it a lot. Alun Armstrong was excellent. The locations felt very 'real' to me - the sort of spaces that seem to dot about the landscape in provincial working class towns of the kind that I grew up in. I need to see this again to let the whole thing sink in, and it reminded me very strongly of something else - or maybe the curiousness of the film provoked a strong sense of deja vu in me.

[Mr. Deltoid Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mr. Deltoid]

Watched this today. Grim and haunting, I liked it a lot. Alun Armstrong was excellent. The locations felt very 'real' to me - the sort of spaces that seem to dot about the landscape in provincial working class towns of the kind that I grew up in. I need to see this again to let the whole thing sink in, and it reminded me very strongly of something else - or maybe the curiousness of the film provoked a strong sense of deja vu in me.

I really wanted to like this, but Possum ultimately left me cold. It is well shot and acted, with, as Paul says above, a real eye for the abandoned hinterlands of provincial towns (the desolate army barracks, lonely rows of garages, etc), but I felt Holness relied too much on this dread-landscape to conjure his atmosphere. It all felt a little fetishized to me. Mind you, I felt the same about Ghost Stories too, so I'm obviously a hard man to please! As I said on another forum, this would have made a great little short (and it does recall in it's imagery some of the great, nightmarish stuff Channel 4 used to show on the Shooting Gallery), but the running-time killed it for me. Possum itself was a great little creation though. Especially if your an arachnophobe like myself!

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

a real eye for the abandoned hinterlands of provincial towns (the desolate army barracks, lonely rows of garages, etc), but I felt Holness relied too much on this dread-landscape to conjure his atmosphere. It all felt a little fetishized to me. Mind you, I felt the same about Ghost Stories too,

That's a really interesting point, and I have to admit that I'm a sucker for those kinds of landscapes myself and probably often end up fetishising them myself in my photographic work - which is possibly why both this and GHOST STORIES 'spoke' to me. (It's also arguably a little like the manner in which Lawrence Gordon Clark fetishises the coastal landscape in his adaptation of 'A Warning to the Curious', for example, which I also love.)

[Keeth Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeth]

The UK has this film on bd but Dark Sky did it as a dvd..? DiabolikDVD has both; the blu is all reg.

The film looks interesting, for sure. I like spiders.

What is 'Ghost Stories'?

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

What is 'Ghost Stories'?

and: http://www.rockshockpop.com/forums/s...Stories-(2017)

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Watched this on Prime over the weekend, it's interesting. Reminded me of David Lynch in spots. Like Mr. Deltoid said, the 'possum' is creepy as hell. The story is decent, maybe they over-explained things a bit at the end? Either way, interesting visuals, good acting and a genuinely weird atmosphere. I think it worked. Not a masterpiece but worth seeing.