Paramount has reportedly locked June 11, 2027 for Possession, Parker Finn’s new take on Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 psychological horror classic. The film stars Margaret Qualley and Callum Turner, with Paul Dano also joining the cast, while Robert Pattinson is among the producers. Finn has written and directed the remake, making it his first major feature outside the Smile franchise.
For psychological horror fans, the project is particularly intriguing because Possession is not the kind of film that can be easily reduced to a conventional horror formula. Żuławski’s original starred Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill as a married couple in Cold War era West Berlin whose relationship begins to disintegrate before the film takes an increasingly surreal and supernatural turn. Adjani’s extraordinary performance became one of the defining elements of the film and earned her the Best Actress prize at Cannes.
The new casting immediately gives the remake its own identity. Qualley, who has already demonstrated her ability to inhabit disturbing psychological material in The Substance, takes on the role made famous by Adjani, while Turner steps into Neill’s part. Dano has also come aboard, although details about his character are being kept under wraps.
The biggest reason the remake is attracting attention, however, is Finn himself. The filmmaker turned Smile into a successful horror franchise and followed it with Smile 2. His decision to move from an original commercial horror property to a film as singular as Possession makes this a significant next step in his career.
The original has developed an unusually strong cult following over the decades because its horror is inseparable from its themes of marital collapse, obsession, sexuality, paranoia and psychological disintegration. The creature at the centre of the story is only one part of the nightmare. Much of the film’s power comes from the increasingly unhinged behaviour of its characters and the way Żuławski blurs the boundary between emotional breakdown and supernatural horror.
That is also where the remake becomes genuinely interesting. Finn is not simply adapting an obscure horror title with a recognisable name. He is taking on a film that continues to be discussed precisely because of how difficult it is to categorise. It is part relationship drama, part psychological horror, part body horror and part surreal nightmare.
The production has already moved into filming, with Qualley recently photographed shooting scenes in New Jersey. Those first glimpses have added another layer of curiosity around how Finn intends to approach material that has remained visually and emotionally distinctive for more than four decades.
There is also an interesting generational shift at work. The 1981 Possession was built around Adjani and Neill at a time when neither performance could have been anticipated as the benchmark it eventually became. The 2027 version now has Qualley and Turner taking on those central roles for a contemporary audience, with Finn attempting to reinterpret the story rather than simply reproduce the original.
For fans of Żuławski’s film, that is likely to be the biggest question. Can Finn retain the psychological intensity and unsettling unpredictability that made Possession a cult classic while giving the material a distinctly contemporary identity?
Paramount’s June 11, 2027 theatrical release gives the film a significant runway to build curiosity, particularly among horror audiences who know the original and viewers discovering it for the first time. And with Qualley, Turner, Dano, Finn and Pattinson attached, the remake has enough contemporary talent around it to become far more than a routine catalogue revival.
The real fascination lies in seeing what Parker Finn finds inside Possession that has not already been exhausted by Żuławski’s extraordinary original. For a film this revered, that may ultimately be the reason to watch the remake rather than simply compare it with what came before.