Possession

A poor excuse of a horror movie, made worse by the idiotic, annoying killer, who seems to have some sort of brain damage and goes around murdering young girls for no reason. This guy lives with his mother who controls his life (sound familiar), and won't let him date girls, because they'll take him away from her, she proclaims! Years of this kind of "mothering" has turned him into a pathetic, whiny-voiced madman, who crawls around parking lots in his huge Buick looking for new female victims, to lure back home, rape and kill.

The movie starts off with some blonde nurse being abducted by our killer, and taken back to his house. They seem to know each other (from where?), and while mother is yelling at him the nurse makes her escape. Humiliated, the killer strangles his mother and sets about seeking vengeance on the nurse, who lives with a bunch of scantily-clad female friends. They decide to enact their own revenge on the killer, and funnily enough, run into home quite quickly in the middle of a suburban street! Determination now gone, they flee and manage to call the police while he chases them in his Buick. After being cornered, the killer stabs a cop and speeds off with two units in pursuit, all three cars driving very slowly so as not to crash, because with the lousy budget this film has they wouldn't have been able to pay for any damage! Eventually, they reach the waterfront and the killer jumps into a rowboat to sail away. The cops run up to a pier and open fire with shotguns, eventually causing the WOODEN rowboat to EXPLODE! That's right - the killer is rowing away with oars in a wooden boat and when shot at with guns it blows up into a plume of fire! I laughed so hard at that scene, especially when the cops lower their guns, stare at the fiery wreck and then just walk off, without even attempting to recover a body! Can you believe this shoddy writing? Anyway, with the killer presumed dead, a few months later the nurse and her friends decide to take off to some wilderness cabin for a week. A couple of girls stay behind. But low-and-behold, the killer is still alive, sitting in his old house (what about the bills?) and complaining in his whiny-voice to his mother's headstone (which he put in himself). He decides again to get the nurse and her friends and goes to their house, only to find the two stragglers and their boyfriends, whom he kills. Then he conveniently discovers where the girls are staying via an answering machine message, and takes off to the cabin. There he kills just about everyone else in standard format until only two girls are left. What a good plot! Bah. Apart from the terrible writing which pits characters into the most ridiculous of situations (one girl goes out to photograph trees, for God's sake), the killer will really get on your nerves with his teeth-setting laugh and expressions that are not frightening to the extreme. He also has a habit of sneaking up behind his male victims to kill them so they don't have the chance to defend themselves, because it is clearly obvious they are all much stronger than he is and would easily win in a fair fight! I could only shake my head at such stupidity when we're supposed to be "afraid" of this killer, who dispatches of his victims with red-hot fire pokers, lumps of wood and the hood of a Mustang.

Gore-wise the film barely rates in that department. There is minimal blood in most of the kills except for one where a girl is offed in the shower, which is also a frequent moment of nudity, although that is all very lame in itself. These girls are nothing special. The acting is also ridiculous, the worst being the killer, and the fact that he keeps regaining consciousness after some of the things that are done to him by the survivors defies belief. Watch out for the twist ending! Ha! I'm sure you can guess what it is... I don't even remember which two girls survived (I think one was the nurse), and all they do is hobble off into the woods, not even bothering to check if the killer is dead. The killer also has the habit of being in two places at once or getting between places in rapid time, and there is no sense of continuity or style in this film at all. A very average horror that has its moments, but there aren't really enough of them to give it a decent rating. The only laugh comes from that boat explosion, which is a must-see!

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.

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.

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.

Low budget slasher. One gets that impression that the creators improvised the script around their resources. For example, if the director gets last minute word that police cars will be available for a car chase, he writes a scene where he can use police cars in a chase sequence.

Pros: John Johnston as the killer. This is his only acting credit. He has real potential. He tends to overact making some of his scenes unintentionally funny. However, that's more of the director's fault than his fault. He has a few scenes where he is genuinely creepy and able to chew the scenery in a captivating way. With a better director, he could have delivered something special.

Also, a couple of the death scenes were done well and appeared to be higher quality when compared with the rest of the film.

Cons: Most of the acting is pretty bad. Most of the decisions by characters are very dumb. Lighting is bad in a number of scenes.

Overall, this was a valiant effort but misses the mark.