Nurse Sherri

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!

I bought this on VHS as "Terror Hospital", and when I got home I checked IMDb and was like OMG it's the legendary "Nurse Sherri"!!! So here's another one from Al Adamson, who had clearly learned some minuscule amount about film-making since the "Blood of Dracula's Castle" days. Where that earlier effort is a more or less totally sclerotic lump, this one mixes it up a little, adding a definite element of variety and surprise amid the incompetence. Sure half of the movie is a blind post-op football player shooting the breeze with his stacked nurse, but at any moment we might be cutting away to the cackling disembodied head of the satanist mastermind, or Nurse Sherri running a farmer through with a pitchfork, or a wee bit of abstract student-film quick cutting to go with the pulsing-blob effects in the possession scene, or the most gratuitously half-hearted topless bit ever, or god knows what else (I forget, to be honest). As dumb-ass pieces of sh*t go, this one runs toward the high end. Congrats, Al.

I love just about everything the late Al Adamson directed in his long and varied career, but "The Possession of Nurse Sherri" stands head and shoulders above fun yet admittedly grade-Z schlockfests like "Horror of the Blood Monsters" and "Blood of Ghastly Horror". This film is actually scary! Am I saying that you're going to jump out of your seat when you watch "Nurse Sherri"? No, of course not. But this pastiche of elements from "The Exorcist", "Ruby", and "Carrie" is one of those nice, eerie little horror movies common to the '70s. You can't put your finger on what's so spooky about it, but the film drips with atmosphere. (And what an ending! Don't worry, I won't spoil it for you.) Adamson and producer Sam Sherman really nailed it with this one, and it doesn't matter whether "Nurse Sherri" was a calculated success or a happy accident. Jill Jacobson is likable but not outstanding as the hapless nurse who becomes possessed by the spirit of a recently deceased cult leader (Bill Roy, who shines in his brief role). Geoffrey Land is okay as her surly doctor boyfriend. There are some blaxploitative elements here (profit was the bottom line with these cheap drive-in flicks, after all) but they actually contribute to the plot rather than just being window dressing. "Nurse Sherri" was a Poverty Row production, and it shows at times (sets, special effects, etc.). Still, the film has heart, mostly decent acting and direction, and some genuine chills. Sam Sherman also saw fit to use Harry Lubin's theme music for the late '50s/early '60s television series "One Step Beyond" in this film, which certainly adds to the creepy atmosphere. The DVD contains two significantly different cuts of the movie (the early version features a lot of T&A that wound up on the cutting room floor to make way for more horrific stuff) as well as the theatrical trailer, the TV spot, and a great commentary by Sherman. Does anybody know whatever happened to Bill Roy, by the way? Next to John Carradine, he's the best actor I've ever seen in an Al Adamson film, and he plays the cult leader like he means it.

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?

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).