Possession

My review was written in December 1987 after watching the movie on Cinema Group video cassette.

"Possession" is a scatter-brained horror film made in Vancouver, which debuted domestically on video cassette. It's the latest from Lloyd A. Simandl, who has progressed little since collaborating on the late Dorothy R. Stratten's feature "Autumn Born" in 1979.

Two separate storylines meld unconvincingly, as nutcase Frankie (John R. Johnston) fails to cure his mother fixation by choking the old lady when she opposes his capturing (a la "The Collector") pretty Madeline (Melissa Martin) and bringing her home. A chase by Madeline's girlfriends and shootout with the police leaves Frankie seemingly torched in a boat explosion.

He comes back, however (it's not clear whether it's supposed to be supernatural), paints his face camouflage-black and heads for the woods to terrorize Madeline and her four girlfriends who have gone camping.

Lots of filler involves the girls' two boyfriends, a visit to a male strip joint and requisite exploitation footage of each girl taking a shower None of it makes any sense, right down to the cornball open ending.

I generally like grade B horror movies, but this one just plain 'ol stunk! Bad plot, acting, filming and dialog. Don't waste your time. Some movies are so bad they're funny. This one is so bad it'll just make you regret that you wasted 90 minutes of your life.

Okay, a strange tale for you. Last night I narrowed down my VHS choices to Last of the Warriors (aka Empire of Ash III) and this. I started Warriors, which was directed by Michael Mazo and Lloyd A. Simandl, but wasn't feeling it. So I put in Possession and it was made by...Michael Mazo and Lloyd A. Simandl! WEIRD!

This Canadian slasher focuses on Frankie (John Johnston), a momma's boy who kidnaps Madeline (Melissa Martin) and forces her to wear his favorite dress. She escapes and a convoluted series of events take place that end with the cops blowing up Frankie on a boat...or so they think. When Madeline and her friends go up to an isolated cabin for the weekend, Frankie soon follows to stalk them. I guess not everything can be My Bloody Valentine (1981). This one of those dumb as dirt slashers. I mean, dumber than your regular slasher. Example: After Madeline escapes her killer, she and her roommates call the cops, who say they can't do anything if she can't remember where she was being held hostage. A roommate then says, "We need to go find him!" (WHAT!?) and they are out into the city and find him right away. Huh? It is one of those slashers (you know the type) where the girls run and run and run from the killer they just knocked out but then he is suddenly ahead of them. Also, I had a hard time telling the girls apart. I'm not dumb (I think), but they all looked the same and the directors never try to establish who is who. It also doesn't help that the killer constantly cackles and give wide-eyed looks in every shot.

Simandl appears to have gone on to have a very prolific career as a producer and director. The latter had him getting his freak on with softcore BDSM titles like Chained Fury: Lesbian Slave Desires (2003) and Medieval Fleshpots 2: Hot Wenches (2003). There doesn't appear to be a Medieval Fleshpots 1.

First of all, the title makes no sense. There's no evil spirits in this movie, so "Possession" is misleading. The relationship between the killer and his mother was obviously ripped off from "Psycho" (what's with the Oedipus complexes in horror movies?). Overall, this flick has everything that just about every other slasher movie has, except creativity. Most of it looks as if it got made for fun. I seriously doubt that Vancouver wants to be remembered for this. Among the much cooler horror flicks from Canada are "The Brain" and "The Clown Murders".

So, this is definitely not one that I recommend...unless of course you want to see a few naked young women.

This is one of the better of the cheezy and cheaper films I've seen so far under the likes of "Slumber Party Massacure", "Friday 13th" and "April Fools" day. It tries to take the same plot as "Phyco" but falls flat with the end of Frankies mother which could have been more usefull in the movie if her character would have continued on. Frankie plays a strange guy that is looking for love in all the wrong places like underground parking lots, male dance parties and apartment houses. He keeps finding the wrong girl, or what he thinks is the wrong girl and when his contience tells him this, he kills the girl. He then stalks a girl who got away and finds her at a party and begins stalking her there along with the rest of the group which gives him plenty of victims. Frankie is hillarious with his Gomer Pyle laugh, mad war makeup and intence facial expressions. He even kills me with the things he says "What are you doing? Mother would get mad if she saw you doing that, don't you ever do that again!" It's one of those movies that I like to watch just to get a good laugh and in my opinion the killings are even worth watching than most cheezy horror films.