(2020) — Possessor

The performance of identity in a digitized, gig-economy world.

Cronenberg brilliantly highlights the devastating toll of this constant performance. When Tasya returns to her actual home and her real family, she is shown sitting in her car, practicing her own "natural" dialogue and expressions before entering her house. She has worn the masks of others for so long that her own authentic self has been hollowed out. She must actively perform being a wife and a mother. This dynamic serves as an extreme metaphor for the hyper-commodified worker under modern capitalism, where individuals are forced to fracture their psyches and adopt artificial personas to fit corporate molds. III. The Violation of the Physical Self ‎'Possessor' review by Mike D'Angelo • Letterboxd Possessor (2020)

The concept of "somatic wholeness"—the understanding of the human body as a unified, self-contained, and sovereign entity—has long served as the foundation for personal identity. However, the rapid advancement of modern surveillance and biomedical technologies has severely fractured this boundary. In his 2020 film Possessor , writer-director Brandon Cronenberg pushes this anxiety to its absolute limit. The film introduces us to Tasya Vos, an assassin working for a secretive corporate syndicate that uses brain-implant technology to project her consciousness into the bodies of unwitting hosts to carry out high-profile hits. II. Identity as Performance and the Gig Economy The performance of identity in a digitized, gig-economy

The Ghost in the Borrowed Shell: Corporate Parasitism and the Dissolution of Identity in Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor . She has worn the masks of others for

Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor utilizes the tropes of body horror and cyberpunk to argue that late-stage corporate capitalism inevitably leads to the total commodification and destruction of the human self, rendering individual identity an obsolete illusion. Key Themes: Somatic wholeness and its violation via technology.

In the world of the film, Tasya Vos is not simply executing targets; she is performing a grotesque extension of the modern gig economy. Before she inhabits a host, she must intensely study their habits, speech patterns, and personal mannerisms to mimic them flawlessly. Identity is no longer viewed as an intrinsic, sacred human trait; instead, it is treated as a software skin or a set of behavioral scripts that can be downloaded, practiced, and discarded once the job is finished.

The erosion of human empathy and connection under corporate mandates. 📄 Full Paper: "The Ghost in the Borrowed Shell" I. Introduction