Brandon Cronenberg may be following in the footsteps of his father in terms of style but he sure isn’t in a hurry about it as this is his first film since Antiviral in 2012, which we really liked. I found this one less impressive unfortunately. It is of course very visceral in its depiction of a killer of takes control of the bodies of others to commit murders but the theme of her sense of self blurring as a result just isn’t a particularly original one.

Tasya Vos is an assassin whose team kidnaps people and installs an implant in them so that she can take control of their bodies. She then uses the body to perform the targeted assassination and is supposed to commit suicide to return to her own body. In between missions, she tries to lead a normal life with her husband and son who are seemingly unaware of her activities. Her handler Girder who used to be an assassin herself however disapproves of this human connection. Her latest assignment requires her to spend more time than usual possessing the body of a man, Tate, who is the prospective son-in-law of the CEO of a major tech company in order to get to him at a party. She keeps up the pretense of being the daughter’s boyfriend but hides the connections problems she has from her handler. On the day of the party, she manages to pull off the attack but unsurprisingly is unable to commit suicide and Tate instead becomes the dominant personality while she is stuck inside.

This is a film that does not care much about world building and so questions like just who is this organization that apparently has access to this technology and is using it to kill people are left unaddressed. It isn’t even clear why Tasya is working as an assassin at first. It appears that she lives a relatively modest life when not doing her job. But that’s all right because the film is laser focused on the horror of a mind taking over from another and the questions of identity that arise. The central point is easy enough to discern: every time Tasya does this, she becomes less herself and more someone else. When she reverts to her normal life, she is playing a role just as she does when impersonating others. A deeper horror here is that Tasya seems aware of this but doesn’t seem at all distressed by it. This seems to be pushing her to develop a murderous personality which revels in especially gory kills with blades and other objects when using a gun would be cleaner and easier.

What Cronenberg does best is fully embrace the messily biological nature of the process. Calibrating the connection involves stabbing a nasty looking electrode right on top of the skull. When Tasya and Tate struggle for control of the body, the imagery is all viscous fluids and ripped skin. Plus of course the murders are as bloody as possible. This is in stark contrast with other directors who prefer their explorations of identity and memory be clean and cerebral. The implication here I think is that just as blood mixes together so too does identity such that there is no way of cleanly extricating one from the other afterwards. The imagery is vivid and visceral so that’s a point in its favor. Yet at the same time that’s pretty much all there is to the film and it’s not like identity is a rarely explored topic in films. This film differs in its presentation of loss of identity but that is all.

I really liked Antiviral because on top of the inherent squickiness of its premise, it’s also saying something about society’s obsession with celebrities. This one is so much less ambitious in comparison and well it’s alright and well-made, it’s also not that notable.