One of the Best Horror Sequences Ever Is in a Banned '80s Movie

The Big Picture

• Possession is a psychological horror movie that slowly unsettles viewers with eerie and incomprehensible scenes.
• The subway scene in Possession is one of the most disturbing and terrifying scenes in the horror genre, featuring an on-screen miscarriage.
• The ambiguity and unexplained nature of the subway scene makes it even more terrifying, leaving viewers with unanswered questions and multiple interpretations.

Some horror movies are so shocking and terrifying that they end up being withheld from audiences everywhere, a fate that the 1980s cult classic, Possession, also faced. No, this isn't a jump-scare-filled horror ride that will make you fly out of your seat every five seconds. Instead, this is a psychological horror drama that slowly creeps into unsettling every part of your psyche by piling one eerie and incomprehensible scene on top of another. There are a few scenes that feel a bit more like the capital "H" horror that we come to the genre for, though. The ending wraps things up in a pretty gonzo fashion as we catch glimpses of a tentacled creature, and there's even some spooky doppelgänger horror involved! Yes, Possession does indeed have some eerie sequences, but nothing is more upsetting than the subway scene that happens about halfway through the film.

If you've never seen Possession and don't mind some spoilers about this subway scene, then read on. Just know that there is no way a block of text could ever do this scene justice. What ends up happening here is, in short, an on-screen miscarriage. This plays out in the most violent and upsetting way possible — even more so than you might already assume, given the devastating nature of something like this. Like any other day, Ana (Isabelle Adjani), one of the film's main characters, is seen walking off of her neighborhood subway after going to the grocery store. In a flash, she erupts into a convulsive bodily spasm that sends her groceries flying in every direction, eyes rolling into the back of her head and screams blasting like a distorted siren. This all culminates with the information that Ana miscarried in the process. It's an absolute nightmare of a scene that transcends typical horror movie scares.

Possession (1981)

A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.

‘Possession’ Is a Horror Fan Favorite With One of the Most Disturbing Scenes in the Genre

Possession is one of those classic horror movies that also hasn't quite achieved the "classic" status. Genre fans that are in the know love this film. It also has a bit of a mythic quality to it because it was so hard to track down for so many years. As a matter of fact, Possession was banned for years and deemed to be a "video nasty", leading to a butchered cut of the film being the only thing that audiences could see for years. The film's director, Andrzej Żuławski, wasn't able to have his cut seen for years. This heavily revised version left many plot points feeling unresolved and unfocused, and earned the film a mixed reception for years. It is only in recent years that Żuławski's full vision has been unleashed onto audiences, and we have been able to lay eyes on his most terrifying film.

‘Possession’ Is More Than Just a Horror Movie, It’s a Psychological Family Drama

If you were just to read what Possession is about, it wouldn't sound as much like a horror movie as you might expect. Instead, the plot synopsis initially reads like a depressing family drama. Possession follows Ana and Mark (Sam Neill), a married couple, as their life spirals out of control after deciding to get a divorce, only for Ana to show more disturbing behavior as time goes on. What comes to pass is more than infidelity from Ana — she's possessed. The biggest question is what Ana is actually possessed by? Is it a supernatural possession, or is she overcome by repressed desires? It depends on your reading of the film. What's undeniable is that, be it a literal reading that points towards supernatural possession, a more metaphorical reading that indicates desires outside of marriage, or even a little bit of both, all of these options come to a head in the subway scene.

The Subway Scene Is Terrifying Because We Can't Explain What We're Seeing

By the time we arrive at the middle of Possession, Ana and Mark have miserably been going head-to-head as a byproduct of their marriage falling apart. They've had screaming matches, broken things in fits of rage, fought over their son, and even a fight that came to a head with both parties getting cut by an electric knife. It's a nightmare, but nothing overtly "horror" has happened – barring the sight of an unexplained tentacled creature in Ana's secret apartment. Then, when Ana is returning home from the grocery store, she steps off of the subway and begins walking towards the station's exit. This scene is particularly quiet, an odd thing to notice in an already quiet movie. Once she reaches the top of an escalator, Ana starts laughing for no reason and repeatedly throws herself against the wall. Something is off.

Ana continues laughing, but her voice gets more strained the longer she does. Eventually, these cackles turn into shrieks that chillingly reverberate throughout the subway station. She rolls her body along the wall and swings her grocery bags at it, exploding the goods and sending them flying in multicolored streams of liquid. A disturbing, flashy eruption of food covers her body as Ana continues to howl in misery. You have to remember that this is brought on with no explanation and lands at the beginning of a new scene. It's all seemingly unprovoked, but there's more to this than we know. Ana gasps for air and hurls her arms up like she's struggling to swim to the surface, and eventually falls to the ground, where she revels in the mess that she's made. Żuławski then hard-cuts to Ana crouched on her knees. The scene ends with bile seeping from her mouth, a slimy substance flowing out from her neck, and eventually, blood from her miscarriage coming out from under her. Ana screams one last time in agony.

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"Was it the boogeyman?"

This is one of the most upsetting scenes you'll find in the entire horror genre. The way it comes on unprovoked makes it all the more disturbing and baffling at first. It's scary when you're watching a horror film and someone takes a machete to the head, or a mysterious figure is standing outside of someone's window. At least you can answer what exactly you're scared of in those situations, though, there's no real question about what's happening. In Possession's subway scene, all we're doing is asking questions. Why is Ana screaming? What is hurting her? Why is she throwing her body at the wall? Once we see her bleeding at the end of the scene, some of these questions become more clear, but we're still left with several questions. Is she literally being possessed in this scene? Or is the titular "possession" metaphorical? Is Ana possessed by extramarital desires, or is she possessed by the grief that she feels in losing her marriage?

Possession and its subway scene are terrifying because we're never left with clear-cut answers. Everything is up to the viewer to decide, but what's scarier than having to make sense out of the incomprehensible? It's one of the scariest scenes that you'll ever find in the entire horror genre and surely had to play a big part in why this movie was so heavily cut when it was first released. This is one of those movies that must be seen to be believed.

Possession is currently available to stream on Shudder in the U.S.

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