Nerdly » ‘Possession: Limited Edition’ 4K UHD Review (Second Sight)

18th Dec2025

‘Possession: Limited Edition’ 4K UHD Review (Second Sight)

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent, Johanna Hofer, Carl Duering, Shaun Lawton, Michael Hogben | Written by Andrzej Żuławski, Frederic Tuten | Directed by Andrzej Żuławski

Some films are easy to recommend. Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is not one of those films. Not because it isn’t brilliant – it absolutely is – but because watching it feels less like sitting down with a movie and more like being dragged through someone else’s emotional breakdown. This is the kind of film that doesn’t politely ask for your attention. It grabs you by the collar, screams in your face for two hours, and then leaves you staring at the wall, wondering what the hell you just experienced.

Set in a bleak, divided Berlin, Possession starts out looking almost like a grim relationship drama. Sam Neill’s Mark returns home from some vaguely defined spy work to find his wife Anna, played by Isabelle Adjani, cold, distant, and very much done with the marriage. What follows isn’t a tidy story about divorce or infidelity; it’s a full-scale emotional implosion where love, jealousy, identity, and repression all bleed into each other until nothing feels stable anymore. And that’s before things get… weird.

Let’s talk about Isabelle Adjani; her performance is the beating, bleeding heart of the film. It’s one of those rare turns that feels less like acting and more like possession in the literal sense. The infamous subway scene still feels shocking, not because it’s grotesque (though it absolutely is), but because it feels honest in a raw, nerve-scraping way. This is someone falling apart in real time, with no safety net. It’s one of those performances that makes you slightly uncomfortable just watching it, like you’re witnessing something too personal to be filmed. That she won Best Actress at Cannes for this feels deserved, but also somewhat miraculous, given how confrontational the film is.

Sam Neill is equally crucial to why Possession works. Early on, Mark feels rigid, emotionally distant, almost hollow – a man who clearly doesn’t know how to deal with anything he can’t control. As Anna spirals outward, Mark spirals inward, and Neill plays that breakdown beautifully. He never turns Mark into a sympathetic hero, but he also never makes him a cartoon villain. This is a man unravelling because the emotional rules he’s lived by no longer apply.

And yes, there is a creature. But Possession isn’t really a “monster movie,” even when the monster shows up. The practical effects are disturbing in a deeply uncomfortable, almost intimate way – squelchy, organic, and unmistakably wrong – but the creature isn’t there to deliver jump scares. It’s a physical manifestation of everything the characters can’t say out loud. Żuławski doesn’t bother explaining it, and honestly, thank God. The mystery is the point.

Stylistically, the film is aggressive in the best possible way. The camera rarely sits still. It prowls, swings, and invades personal space like it’s emotionally invested in the argument. Dialogue often feels secondary to movement, body language, and pure emotional chaos. Everything is turned up to eleven – performances, emotions, imagery – and while that might sound exhausting (and it kind of is), it’s also what makes Possession unforgettable. This is a film that commits fully to its madness.

Is it an easy watch? Absolutely not. Is it messy, loud, uncomfortable, and emotionally draining? Completely. But it’s also fearless, uncompromising, and genuinely one-of-a-kind. Possession doesn’t just explore the horrors of love and identity, it throws you headfirst into them and dares you to look away.

The new Possession 4K presentation from Second Sight is a real stunner, boasting a native 2160p transfer encoded in HEVC/H.265, presented in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, and enhanced by both Dolby Vision and HDR10, resulting in an image that feels filmic, detailed, and beautifully faithful to Żuławski’s original vision. It also comes with a TON of extras:

Special Features:

Includes the North American Re-edit: newly restored from an archive print
New Audio Commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Alison Taylor
Audio Commentary by Director Andrzej Żuławski moderated by Daniel Bird
Audio Commentary by Frederic Tuten moderated by Daniel Bird
New Audio Commentary by Daniel Bird and Manuela Lazic (The North American Re-edit)
The Horror of Normality: Guillermo del Toro on Possession
The Shadow We Carry: Kat Ellinger on Possession
Repossessed: The Film’s UK and US reception
Andrzej Żuławski – Director: archive documentary
A Divided City: The Berlin locations
The Sounds of Possession: an interview with Composer Andrzej Korzynski
Our Friend in the West: an interview with Producer Christian Ferry
Basha: a featurette on poster artist Barbara ‘Basha’ Baranowska
The Other Side of The Wall: The Making of Possession
Archive interview with Andrzej Żuławski
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical Trailer

Limited Edition Contents:

Rigid slipcase with Basha’s original theatrical artwork
220-page hardback book with new essays by Daniel Bird, Elena Lazic and Alison Taylor, ‘The Creature: Preliminary Sketches’, ‘Filming Possession’, ‘The Poster of Possession’, pressbook feature, archive articles and interviews and Behind the Scenes gallery
211-page original shooting script with notes by Andrzej Żuławski and Frederic Tuten
Six collectors’ art cards

Check out our unboxing of Re-Animator:

Possession is a film you don’t just watch once and move on from. It sticks with you. It crawls around in your head. And even if you never quite like it, you can’t deny its power.