Nurse Sherri

Reanhauer (Bill Roy), the leader of a strange religious cult, suffers from a heart attack while trying to resurrect a three week old corpse. When he pops his clogs on the operating table, his spirit possesses buxom nurse Sherri Martin (Jill Jacobson) and forces her to exact revenge on those present at his death.

Nurse Sherri is incredibly cheap and technically inept in almost every way imaginable. The production values are pathetic: for the operation scene, cult director Al Adamson shells out for an oxygen mask and a saline drip—and that's it. The film also has one of the worst optical effects that I've ever seen in the form of the badly animated spirit that possesses Sherri, which looks like someone spilt some corrosive chemical on the negative and then scribbled on it with crayons. The performances are uniformly crap and the direction amateurish. The only half-decent death scene is an impalement by pitchfork. I watched the film last night and it had me drifting off quicker than a shot of Diprivan in the ass.

However, today I have learnt of an alternative edit…

Version two is, of course, still cheap and technically inept in almost every way imaginable, but Adamson compensates for this by throwing in a lot more T&A, which as all fans of low budget horror know, always makes z-grade trash far easier to bear. In the spirit of fairness, I've checked out these racy scenes on YouTube and can testify that the naughtier 'adult' cut is the more entertaining option: curvaceous star Jill Jacobson gets naked (she remains frustratingly clothed in the tamer version) and the film benefits from a lesbian fantasy and an amusing scene in which a nurse gives a doctor head while he is presenting a lecture—all of which is more likely to keep the viewer awake for the duration.

2/10 for the tame version; 4/10 for the saucier cut (which I'll average out to 3/10 for IMDb).

Yes...this movie is bad. After all, what did you really expect? It was directed by the king of low-budget exploitation films of the 70s....Al Adamson. He was, if you remember, the same cinematic genius that brought us Dracula Vs. Frankenstein, Brain of Blood, and the classic Blazing Stewardesses. Yet, despite all the negative response to this film, I liked it. There is no question at all that it is poorly acted, poorly directed, has poor sets and scenery and terrible special effects. The story is ludicrous about a religious zealot who exacts his revenge on those people that would not let him die naturally. What the film DOES have is heart. The people involved really seem earnest about what they are doing, and it comes across the screen. The film is also a fountain of laughs. a fun time for anyone who likes to see the ridiculous treated like the sublime. If you like bad film-making, then look no further than Nurse Sherri. I promise you will not be disappointed!

Al gives us his take of THE EXORCIST. A cult leader has a heart attack in the desert while performing a ritual to raise a follower from the dead and subsequently dies on the operating table at a local hospital. No big deal, he'll just turn into a glowing green blob and possess Nurse Sherri (Jill Jacobson) to get revenge on the doctors who he feels killed him. This is bad news for Sherri's love life as her boyfriend Peter (Geoffrey Land) was one of the docs. Peter notices the changes in Sherri and it seems only a blinded former NFL player with knowledge of voodoo (!) who is a patient can offer the way for two nurses (Marilyn Joi and Mary Kay Pass) to help release Sheri from this transcendental terror. If you are familiar with Adamson's work, you'll know what to expect here as this has lots of static shots that go on too long and flat acting. There is also one of the funniest and most random car chases when a drunken follower confronts Peter – who is oddly not intrigued by this man's story, despite knowing his girl is now possessed – in a parking garage. They then burst out onto the city streets and end up in the desert within minutes. The poor follower survives having the roof of his car ripped off and leaps out just before it drives off a cliff and explodes (the film's highlight). The Shock-o-rama DVD offers an alternate version of the film title simply NURSE SHERRI and it is actually really interesting. It removes all of the drunken follower bits (including the car chase) from the POSSESSION version and replaces them with nude scenes.

I first saw this movie at the local drive-in as part of a double bill with "Eyeball" - What a complete laugh-fest! The "acting" and production values are definitely par for the course for Al Adamson (In one scene alone is it daytime or night - or just blue filter over the camera lens? Who cares? Apparently not Mr. Adamson) I had to buy this one as soon as I found a copy and now that it's on DVD, I highly recommend this to any fans of the genre...I think it's Al Adamson's...uhhh...masterpiece (?!) One that truly has to be seen to be believed...

Oh yeah! Jill Jacobson's breasts should have had their own credit in the movie (if you know what I mean) Whatever happened to Jill Jacobson??

Shock-A-Rama offers this DVD edition which features two different versions of the movie, commentary track on one feature by producer Sam Sherman, and the usual assortment of trailers that come with the majority of DVDs released under the Seduction Cinema umbrella.

Essentially, there are two different movies presented: Possession of Nurse Sherri, a remastered release of the horror cut with optional track with Sherman, and Nurse Sherri, the original drive-in release of the sexploitation version. Sherman provides juicy details on the canny presentation of the "horror" version, detailing what was edited/added to the initial release. At a glance, 70% of both movies are the same, but with noticeable differences: the horror cut has at least three additional scenes with character actor JC Wells being pursued by the disembodied spirit of a dead spiritualist, while three edited scenes of sex/nudity are provided by the sexploitation cut. These last three scenes are certainly eye-openers: a scene of hospital seduction between a buxom nurse and blind patient, another that has the chief surgeon receiving oral gratification at his podium while giving a lecture in front of a college classroom (!), and an extended scene between the surgeon and our Nurse Sherri with ardent lovemaking culminating in Sherri's flashback of her sole lesbian encounter. These last two segments show how Sherri fills that nurse's uniform with more than ample results!

Previous reviews at IMDB have decried the lack of horror elements and nudity, one even saying that if released today the movie would probably get a PG rating! I can assure anyone that neither of these versions are remotely PG.

Al Adamson--along with Jerry Warren and Jess Franco--had the notoriety of "film doctor", constantly re-editing and re-marketing product that had already saturated a film niche. This wonderful DVD shows how Sam Sherman and Adamson worked in that process.

A highly recommended DVD (regardless of the quality of the movies) which begs one question; whatever happened to star Jill Jacobson, and where is the inevitable Celebrity Sleuth layout?