Paramount is stacking the deck on its remake of Possession, adding Madeline Brewer, Emory Cohen, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez to a cast already brimming with names. Margaret Qualley and Callum Turner were previously announced, and Paul Dano and Diego Calva are also on board. Parker Finn — the writer-director behind the Smile horror franchise — is directing from his own script, according to Deadline.

The original Possession, released in 1981, is a cult supernatural thriller about a woman who begins behaving dangerously after asking her husband for a divorce. What starts as suspected infidelity curdles into something far more sinister. The film has long carried a reputation among genre devotees, which gives Finn a rich, unsettling blueprint to work from.

The producing credits are layered. Finn and Jonathan Fass produce through their Bad Feeling banner. Roy Lee and Andrew Childs produce through Vertigo, Lee's shingle that has specialised in genre and elevated-horror projects. Robert Pattinson is also producing, bringing his own creative interest in daring material to the table. Marc Bienstock serves as executive producer.

For the new arrivals, the casting is a step into a project with serious festival-circuit pedigree. Brewer was most recently seen in Lionsgate's Anniversary, alongside Kyle Chandler, Diane Lane, and Zoey Deutch. She remains best known to streaming audiences for her work in The Handmaid's Tale. Chavez broke through as Lyle Menendez in Ryan Murphy's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which debuted as the number one show worldwide on Netflix. Emory Cohen, whose credits stretch from Brooklyn to The Place No One Knows, adds further depth.

What makes this remake one to watch is the concentration of horror-savvy talent behind and in front of the camera. Finn has proven he can deliver a premise that fills seats; the Smile films were commercial successes for Paramount. Pairing that sensibility with a property as tonally extreme as Possession signals a studio willing to swing for something darker than a conventional genre remake.

No release date has been announced. Production details remain under wraps, and Paramount has not yet slotted the film into its theatrical calendar.