Possum

Possum ultimately has to stand or fall on its own merits, and at heart is a serious and dark journey into the labyrinths of cruelty and abuse.

In the end, there's little payoff for all the repetitive series of evocative visions and mute stares.

Propelled by a limitless feeling of dread, Holness' film blurs the lines between nightmare and reality to conjure what is a deeply unsettling experience.

The film is scary and intriguing in equal measure, with subtle elements of homage to 1970s horrors.

Flawed but skin-crawling feature from Matthew Holness.

Not an easy film to like by design, but formally impressive nonetheless.

Holness makes his debut behind the camera in expertly clammy style.

It is deadly serious, but carries with it an echo or ghost of how this same material could have been played as ironic black comedy.

While Possum's resolution is a little disappointing -- rendering text a plot development that could easily have been left ambiguous -- it does little to dampen or dismantle the dread that's come before it.

A disturbing, curiously beautiful British horror exercise. Recommended, but with a warning: next time you wake up in the middle of the night, you'll find Possum at the end of the bed.

With Possum, Holness has constructed a dark and twisted contemporary fairytale, designed to confront the impact of neglect and abuse.

Possum is all demented nightmare fuel filtered through mental instability and emotional repression. Its business is 'chill', impure and simple.