Possession (1981) is a Metaphor of a Crumbling Marriage
Possession is one of the most brutal horror films ever made. It feels like you're being exposed to the personal lives of a family, and it feels so wrong to watch these people stuck in a failing marriage. This movie is about a young woman who admits to her husband that she is having an affair, and wants to leave him. He becomes outraged and obsessed with her, angry that she would dare to ruin their marriage, and leave behind their only son.
The couple beat each other and appear to even take a sick delight with harming one another, as they both try to navigate this toxic love now within their marriage. During the film, we later learn the man that Anna, the wife, is having an affair with. It turns out to be a real monster, a creature that has appeared to latch onto Anna, leaving her wanting more, and turning her into a crazed mad woman. Mark, the husband, eventually finds out about this creature, and instead of anger, there is a moment of disgust, as if he feels bad for what Anna is subjecting herself to.
She then pleads with him that there is a reason why she is with this creature, and we later find out what she meant by this toward the end of the film. Mark meets the monster again toward the end of the film, who now resembles him, an exact doppelganger. Anna and Mark are then killed by authorities, and they both die, sharing a kiss before the end.
We then see the doppelganger to a woman's place who is named Helen, who looks exactly like Anna, a woman that Mark had taken an interest in. She had been babysitting his son, since Anna was no longer in the picture, and Mark himself was going insane to get back his wife. Their son pleads with Helen to not answer the door for the doppelganger, as he runs upstairs to end his life in the bathtub.
The film ends with Helen going to the door, seeing Mark's doppelganger waiting. Sirens, bombs, and chaos are heard outside as Helen stares off into space, the doppelganger in the background.
I'm curious if maybe this film was a secret metaphor for a dying love.
From the very beginning of the film, we see how the marriage is slowly breaking once Anna confesses her affair to Mark. I felt that the couple took things way too far, and the real victim in this marriage was their son, who should never have witnessed what was taking place. The way that the couple was willing to hurt each other or even themselves was complete madness. There is a literal scene where the couple use a tool on themselves, and then they calmly talk to each other, acting like they never bothered to cut themselves, as Mark pleads with Anna to return to the family.
What's creepy is how both of them appear to be possessed in some way, but for very different reasons. Anna is possessed by her love for the monster, while Mark is possessed by his love for his wife.
Then we literally watch them both die toward the end of the movie, their madness finally coming to an end. I think the chaos that was happening around the couple was like a curse in some way, maybe the toxicity within the marriage was spreading like a virus to the city around them, and it explains why the film ended with the two lookalikes of the couple hearing the madness taking place around them.
Maybe Helen and the doppelganger of Mark were going to be the next ones with the toxic madness, and they would now continue the cycle of hatred and toxic love, like Mark and Anna did.
I could be taking this film way out of proportion, but again, this is only a theory of what I think is happening in the film.
This film is extremely disturbing, and there is no way something like this could be filmed again.
How they got away with so much disturbing content in this film is beyond me. I can't even mention half of the things that happen in the film, because it is way too dark to even talk about.
Possession is one of the most insane films ever made,
and I can't believe half of the scenes that were even shot in this film.
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