The short film POSSUM by Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, directed and co-written by Daisy Rosato, is a satirical horror about five young adults at an artist retreat. Going into this film, I had no idea what to expect, but I found it to be a creative and unique visualization of how people figure out their true beliefs and the impact this process can have on the people around them.
The five characters—Hadley, Blaze, Annabella, Pinecone, and Tilly—play a game at the beginning of the movie called “Werewolf.” In this game, one person is the werewolf, one is the seer, one is the victim, and the rest are the townsfolk. What I found interesting about this scene is how it foreshadows the larger themes of the movie, suggesting that anyone could be the killer just as easily as they could be the victim.
After watching POSSUM, I looked up the characteristics of the titular animal, curious about the creative choice for the title and the victim of the movie. Possums are non-aggressive, very resourceful creatures that will eat what they can find and take shelter wherever they can. In the film, the possum is killed while eating cauliflower from the garden on the retreat’s property. The killer, feeling instant regret over the possum’s violent demise, brings the body to the group to determine what to do next.
As the characters attempt to make sense of the killing and why it happened, tensions rise. A discussion takes place about honoring Indigenous people and the land they live on, and people begin to feel personally attacked. When the group finally decides on a course of action, it is not unanimous, leaving one person on the outskirts. What I found intriguing is that the person ousted was the same person who was the werewolf during their game in the beginning.
POSSUM is an artistic and imaginative depiction of how quickly a situation can make us question who we want to be and how we want to be perceived. The POSSUM cast and crew clearly each brought their own perspectives to the film, which I believe makes it memorable and gives it lasting impact. The diversity of the cast and characters is what I found the most significant to the overall plot and theme for the film.
Rosato and Sagan-Gutherz were intentional about including diverse characters, especially those with disabilities. Sagan-Gutherz told Disability Belongs™ that “sometimes you have to be the change you wish to see.”
“It was important for me to write a character who was an ambulatory cane-user as well as identified as trans but was in the earlier stages of their gender journey,” they added. “Someone who was complex and problematic! I’m excited to keep writing disability into the satirical horror genre, stories that are for both disabled and not yet disabled audiences.”
POSSUM will be screening as part of the Superfest Disability Film Festival on October 19. Sagan-Gutherz is an alum of the 2024 Disability Belongs™ Entertainment Lab.
