Possessor (2020)
Bodyhopping Assassins
The second film from Brandon Cronenberg, a fascinatingly original work about body-hopping assassins
Bodyswap and Identity Exchange
Bodyswap is a term used on this site to refer to films where characters swap their minds into different bodies. Usually the body the person finds themselves in is someone who is very different to their self.
Variations include where people swap age; where men and women swap gender; where characters find themselves in a body of a different race; or where people are transferred into the bodies of animals.
Most of the treatments here are light comedy but there are also a number of horror treatments concerning brain transplants and body hijacking. There are also various SF versions that take place in futures where people regularly switch into ‘sleeves’. There have also been a number of variations in the genre of Surrealism.
Soul (2020)
Pixar Animation/Man Tries to Return from the Afterlife
Pixar film with a head-scratchingly odd plot but also one of the better efforts of the divided post-2010 period that goes a long way towards recapturing the things they did so well in their heyday
The Father (2020)
Alzheimer's Sufferer/Reality Blurrings
A film that received great acclaim at awards season. Anthony Hopkins is a dementia-ridden senior and we experience his state of mind subjectively in a constantly shifting sense of what is real
Freaky (2020)
Bodyswap Slasher Film
A slasher film with a novelty (gimmicky?) premise where the Final Girl and the hulking killer of the show end up swapping bodies. Essentially a conceptual mash-between a slasher film and Freaky Friday
Addams Family 2 (2021)
Kinky Perverse Family/Animation
The animated revival of the Addams Family was a mixed affair. All of the same creative personnel and voice talents return here for a sequel, which takes the Addams Family on a road trip
Warning (2021)
Anthology of Future SF Tales
An anthology film that has been intended in the same vein as tv’s Black Mirror, offering a series of dark reflections of technological changes
The Grandmother (2021)
Sinister Grandmother
Paco Plaza, best known for the [Rec] movies, returns with an unsettlingly effective film about a girl forced to tend her grandmother only to find increasingly sinister things going on
Plurality (2021)
Multiple Personalities Implanted in a Body
Taiwanese film in which multiple personalities are implanted into a prisoner’s body, one of which is a serial killer, in an effort to find a missing child
You Won’t Be Alone (2022)
Folk Horror/Body Hopping Witch
An absolutely extraordinary work of Folk Horror about a young witch who learns the ability to inhabit the bodies of others
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Multiverse Comedy
A multiverse comedy in which Michelle Yeoh is propelled through an hilarious series of alternate selves. One of the most mind-spinning films of recent viewing. Also the first SF film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture
Cerebrum (2022)
Frankenstein Film
A young man recuperates from a brain injury while tended by his father. As he tries to piece together what happened, we discover we are in the midst of a Frankenstein-type film
Corrective Measures (2022)
Prison for Super-Villains/Comic-Book Adaptation
Another of the last films made by Bruce Willis before his retirement. This one has a watchable central idea and is set around the idea of a prison for super-villains even if Bruce is not up to much
Moloch (2022)
Folk Horror
Folk Horror about the discovery of a witch’s body in a bog, this is a slow burn film that falls together with great subtlety
Suitable Flesh (2023)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation/Bodyswap Horror
An H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, this is a venture into bodyswap horror that proves immensely entertaining ride
Assassin (2023)
Bodyhopping Assassins
Another of the low-budget films Bruce Willis made before his retirement, this has a plot about body-hopping assassins that has surprising similarities to Possessor
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Comic-Book Superhero
Shazam! was one of the more enjoyable DCEU superhero offerings, placing a light-hearted spin on the superheroics. This is the sequel
It’s What’s Inside (2024)
Bodyswap Device
An interesting twist on the bodyswap film where millennials at a party use a device that allows them to swap bodies – only for two of the host bodies to be killed in an accident
Kryptic (2025)
Mysterious Identity Exchange/Bigfoot Creature
As the title suggests, this is cryptic. Chloe Pirrie wanders off in the woods, encounters a mysterious Bigfoot creature and afterwards experiences a baffling identity exchange
Freakier Friday (2025)
Bodyswap Comedy
The 2003 Freaky Friday was one of the better Disney remakes with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan giving inspired performances as mother and daughter who swap bodies. The two reunite for a sequel here