POSSUM (2018)

Studio:      Dark Sky Films
Director:    Matthew Holness
Writer:      Matthew Holness
Producer:  James Harris, Mark Lane, Robert Jones, Wayne Marc Godfrey
Stars:     Sean Harris, Alun Armstrong

Review Score:

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Summary:

A disturbed puppeteer returns to his childhood home to confront a haunting family secret connected to a missing boy.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Disgraced by an unspecified scandal, puppeteer Philip Connell takes the train to his childhood home in Marshwood where his abusive uncle Maurice still lives. On the train, Philip tries speaking to 14-year-old schoolboy Michael Browning, but Michael and his friends pass off Philip as a creep.

At the house, Philip finds the disturbing storybook he wrote and drew in 1978 about a spider-legged creature called ‘Possum’ that he built as his primary puppet. Haunted by strange visions, Philip avoids a burned-out room in the home.

Desperate to destroy his puppet, Philip discards it in a barrel outside. Philip inexplicably finds the puppet next to him in bed the following morning.

Philip has his first of several uncomfortable confrontations with Maurice. Philip carries the puppet in a bag around Marshwood. When he returns home, Philip briefly sees a newscast report that Michael Browning disappeared.

Philip stands entranced outside his former school, where Michael is also a student, before an administrator forces him to leave. Philip experiences more haunting visions involving his puppet.

Philip discards the puppet in a creek. After collapsing to the ground during a nervous breakdown, Philip retrieves the puppet.

Maurice taunts Philip about his puppet while also vaguely referencing childhood trauma perpetrated by Maurice. Philip goes out into Marshwood and searches abandoned military barracks for clues regarding Michael’s disappearance.

Philip punches and stomps his puppet before leaving it behind in a lot filled with other junk. He then weighs down the bag with bricks and drops it in water.

Philip returns home to find a newspaper whose cover story concerns Michael. Maurice taunts Philip by reading his ‘Possum’ storybook aloud.

Philip experiences more visions while walking around Marshwood. Philip comes home to discover the puppet hanging on a wall.

Maurice mentions the missing boy. Philip sets the puppet on fire in a barrel where Maurice was burning papers. Maurice cryptically talks about Philip’s puppet before convincing Philip to eat a candy that is a touchstone to his traumatic past.

Philip continues suffering from disturbing visions. The news reports that police are looking for a man matching Philip’s description who was seen with Michael Browning multiple times.

Philip searches all of the locations where he previously tried disposing of the puppet. Philip also sees police conducting a search, but Philip avoids them.

Maurice tells Philip that cops came to the house looking for him. When he sees Philip searching through the fire barrel outside, Maurice tells Philip he is confused about having burned the puppet.

Philip goes to the school to meet with a teacher who helped him in his youth. Philip leaves when he hears administrators discuss calling police.

Black rain falls on Philip as he looks at a photograph of his deceased parents. Philip has more visions of the puppet pursuing him before he confronts it. Philip wakes from his final vision and spits one of Maurice’s candies from his mouth.

Philip returns home to finally enter the burned-out room he has been afraid of. Philip finds cloths on the floor like a makeshift bed along with small jars of teeth.

Maurice suddenly attacks Philip using the puppet bag Philip threw in the water. Maurice references responsibility for Philip’s parents having burned to death in that room. Maurice also mentions how the police suspect Philip in the abduction Maurice committed. Maurice forces his fingers into Philip’s mouth. Maurice also forces Philip to lie on his stomach with his pants down while Maurice whips him with Philip’s belt.

Philip finally fights back. Philip snaps Maurice’s neck. Philip unlocks a nearby trunk and releases Michael from inside.

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Review:

For a solid 10 minutes, some might say longer, “Possum” doesn’t make much narrative sense. Every sentence in the forthcoming summary can be followed by “for some reason” to highlight an artistically intentional, yet no less vexing lack of context in early exposition.

In voiceover, puppeteer Philip Connell reads rhyming passages from a storybook he wrote as a child. Accompanying imagery depicts Philip opening a leather bag in a forest. Spiderlike legs on a possibly anthropomorphic puppet poke out from inside.

Disgraced by an unspecified scandal, Philip takes his bag on a train headed toward his hometown of Marshwood. Philip oddly eyes a teenage boy sketching on the train. When Philip sidles up to ask unsolicited, “what were you drawing,” the boy shoots a cross glare and leaves.

Philip arrives at the house where he was raised. There’s a specific room he won’t enter. Black smoke seeps out of wallpaper to envelop yellow and orange balloons. Philip asks out loud for a man named Maurice, who doesn’t answer. After taking his bag to a barrel outside and stuffing his puppet into it, Philip stares down a stray fox as though renewing a longstanding rivalry.

That’s the strange style “Possum” exhibits. It’s a macabre mood piece molded from cryptic characterizations, interpretive inferences, and non-sequitur cutaways to symbolic scenery that may or may not be part of the populace in Philip’s fractured mind.

Shot on 35mm film, “Possum” opens with a blurred and dirtied credits sequence ending on a title card with a copyright date. Coupled with weird woodwind warbles provided by The Radiophonic Workshop, the original incarnation of which scored BBC programs such as “Doctor Who,” the segment means to evoke a feel akin to British chillers of the 1970s. The movie itself doesn’t echo that timbre as loudly, though it does unsettle as a patient psychological portrait of a haunted man.

Genre fans popularly recognize writer/director Matthew Holness as his onscreen alter ego Garth Marenghi. Take heed that not even a faint whiff of “Darkplace’s” satirical tone exists in “Possum’s” purposely humorless horror. Although its themes are implied more than they are given graphic representation, viewers sensitive to subject matter involving child abuse should be aware that triggering traumas motivate both tension and mystery in the movie.

Disturbing drama puts a shaky foundation beneath the film’s feet. “Possum” then doubles down on discomfort by drafting a problematic protagonist to tread that ground. Swaddled in a heavy suggestion that he may be a murderous molester responsible for a 14-year-old boy’s disappearance, Philip morphs into an unsympathetic person nigh impossible to root for. Consequently, “Possum” distances itself from audience intimacy by extending another arm discouraging vicarious involvement.

To be sure, Sean Harris and Alun Armstrong are quite effective at making Philip eerily enigmatic and Uncle Maurice disgustingly unseemly. None of the few supporting players tally more than 30 seconds of screentime, effectively making “Possum” a deconstruction of one man’s tortured psyche interspersed with confrontations featuring the man responsible for that torment. An example conversation between the two men plays out like this:

“Something from the jar?”
“What’s in them?”
“Same as always.”
“No then.”
“All grown up now.”

It’s not a challenge to decipher the meaning behind such an exchange regarding a sinister connotation to Maurice’s sweets. It’s merely indicative of the way Philip and Maurice often speak indirectly. “Possum” always elects to tighten atmosphere through unspoken insinuations and dream logic sequencing over unmistakably tangible actions.

But one can only see Sean Harris glumly grimacing like the sides of his mouth are about to fall from his face so many times before a “get on with it” desire ignites. Cyclical scenes of vague visions and dour demeanors really wear down engagement as the creepy character study trudges onward.

“Possum’s” peculiarities very much make it a “your mileage may vary” experience. An arthouse skin applied over upsetting images and ideas brews a niche tea poised to burn some tongues while pleasing other palates. Despite its deceptively Spartan setup and relatively short duration, “Possum” probably requires a second viewing to uncover the nuances hiding in initially ambiguous fiction. No matter how much it appeals to personal tastes however, “Possum” isn’t the type of inviting excursion to inspire booking that return visit too soon after the first.

Review Score: 50

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