Music.Film and Lakeshore Records have released the soundtrack to Possesssor, featuring score by Jim Williams (Raw, Kill List). See album purchase links and players below to listen now. The British composer creates unnervingly hypnotic soundscapes utilizing electronic minimalism and twisted orchestral accompaniment to create ominous backdrops to the sci-fi thriller.
The NEON film directed by Brandon Cronenberg (Porfirio), is in theaters now.
The British composer creates unnervingly hypnotic soundscapes utilizing electronic minimalism and twisted orchestral accompaniment to create ominous backdrops to the sci-fi thriller. – Bloody Disgusting
Williams provides insight on the inspiration and composition of several tracks and notes: “Prior to the shoot I provided material that referenced ‘small avant garde chamber ensembles of the 1950s/60s/70s’ that turned into ‘The Mind in It’s Own Place’, which provided some edginess early in the film.”
He continues to describe recurring musical themes that connect with the director’s vision: “The visceral, aggressive nature of ‘Skin After Successive Skin’ and variations on that throughout the film were responses to the director’s description of the ‘the process of the body transfer [being] painful and deafening.’”
Soundtrack Available Now: [Download/Listen]
New York TImes Critics’ Pick
While this is only his second feature, Brandon Cronenberg has already achieved a formal sophistication that he uses to drive down the movie’s emotional temperature to a very precise chilliness – Glenn Kenny, New York Times
ABOUT JIM WILLIAMS
Educated in classical and jazz composition, Jim Williams first established himself in popular music writing and performance, with his subsequent extensive television experience culminating in an Ivor Novello Award nomination for Hotel Babylon. More recently he has focused on some of the more innovative feature films of recent times.
For Ben Wheatley’s Kill List press accolades described an ‘unsettling score – the film’s saturnine heartbeat – puls[ing] underneath’ (Financial Times), and a ‘brilliant score, which is filled with strings so taut, they sound like screams you might hear in the distance’ (LA Times). The score for Wheatley’s A Field in England ‘[underpinned] ostensibly calm pastoral scenes with a constant undertow of clanging, churning menace’ (Hollywood Reporter), and Julia Ducournau’s highly acclaimed RAW used ‘folksy lighter numbers giving way to heavier, more psychedelic freak-out tracks as the characters degenerate into madness’ (Variety). The score for RAW was César Award nominated.
2018’s score for Beast was nominated for a BIFA for Best Music, with Variety noting ‘the many, varied screeches and squeaks of Jim Williams’ terrifically rattling score’. This year Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor premiered at Sundance featuring a ‘booming and distressing score… [that] helps to hammer home psychological breakdown’ (cinemasmack.com) and Indian horror Kriya with ‘an unforgettable score’ (First Showing) premiered at Fantasia Festival.
From the visionary mind of writer/director Brandon Cronenberg, Possessor is an arresting sci-fi thriller about elite, corporate assassin Tasya Vos. Using brain-implant technology, Vos takes control of other people’s bodies to execute high profile targets. As she sinks deeper into her latest assignment Vos becomes trapped inside a mind that threatens to obliterate her.
Neon presents Possessor, in select theaters and Drive Ins now.
