Y-a-t-il un exorciste pour sauver le monde ?

Linda Blair is certainly an example of how cruel Hollywood can be. Out of the blue as a young kid, she landed a part in one of the most shocking films of its time that really redefined the modern horror film. In 1973, hardly anyone had ever heard of exorcism and then it was on the cover of Newsweek. Maybe there have been more bloody and graphic horror films, but none that so grabbed people at the time. People fainting and getting sick in the theater was a common occurrence. The cruel fact is that this film was both a blessing and a curse for Linda Blair. Amazingly other then Airport 1975 and the TV films Born Innocent and Sarah T...Portrait Of A Teenage Alcoholic, Blair was never really offered another decent part in a film that would become someone who had been nominated for an Oscar in their first major role (for you trivia lovers she lost to another child actress Tatum O'Neil). Blair is a fine actress who can bring style and class to even the most mundane role. Wasn't it great when she was a hit on stage with Grease a few years back? Seventeen years later, she made this film with Leslie Nielsen spoofing The Exorcist (by the way Exorcist III was released the same year). Making this film must have been like therapy for Linda, she was able to spoof her most famous role that was a blessing and a curse for her. Besides, she must have had a ball working with Leslie Nielsen. This is one of those films that you really have to watch closely to catch all the gags. Nothing is sacred, everything from the Pope to Oliver North. They also spoof so many scenes from The Exorcist from the pea soup vomiting to her....well doing that thing with the cross. I also liked the way this film pokes fun at TV evangelists like the one Ned Beatty plays. I even noticed that Robert Fuller, Doctor Kelly Brackett from Emergency, has a part in this. Linda gets some really funny lines and have fun spoofing herself. She must be a great lady and a really good sport. Looking at the legacy of comedy, Leslie Nielsen has left us, it is hard to believe that for the first thirty years of his career he was exclusively a dramatic actor! Hard to believe isn't it?

Like Spaceballs, Repossessed was released too long after the film it is spoofing. 17 years is a long time, especially for us in the UK, where The Exorcist has only recently (1999) been released on video for the first time since pre-video censorship (c. 1984). Aside from that, too many jokes miss their targets, and too many subjects are lampooned. Some sequences are genuinely funny, such as Ernest & Fanny's TV Show (a brilliant spoof of hypocritical TV evangelists). Most, however, are not - the hospital scene is just not funny. Nielsen, Blair and Beatty give it their best, whilst Anthony Starke spends the whole film looking like he's just trodden in something unsavoury. Watch it if you will, B for effort, C- for results.

Repossessed (1990)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Seventeen years after having the Devil removed from her soul, adult Nancy Aglet (Linda Blair) finds herself possessed yet again so she brings back Father Mayii (Leslie Nelson) but this time a fake preacher (Ned Beatty) wants to put it on live television to make some money. A spoof of THE EXORCIST with Linda Blair returning and Nelson coming off THE NAKED GUN should have meant a sure-fire hit but sadly this is a rather boring, unfunny and at times painfully bad movie that probably had more cash in its eye than anything else. There's so much that could have been done with the material but this is a perfect example of why certain films work and why others don't. Stuff like AIRPLANE, HOT SHOTS and THE NAKED GUN work because of the talented screenwriters who make the jokes work. Writer-director Bob Logan simply doesn't get the material to work for a number of reasons but the biggest is that the jokes are all rather lame and just seem forced. One such example of Blair fixing her kids pea soup. Another has a priest saying something about "head" and it of course being taken the wrong way. The stuff with the preacher and his wife is so forced and annoying that it just never gets any laughs. Even worse is how the story structure is because for the most part we see Nelson teaching in front of a class and then we see the "other" story dealing with Blair. We go back and forth between the two and usually we get Nelson making a few comments but those two are unfunny. Nelson seems bored in his part and Beatty simply overplays his. Blair doesn't give a very good performance but I'm not going to blame her since the material just wasn't right and she appears to really be forcing herself to try and get laughs. REPOSSESSED should have worked and probably could have worked in better hands but as it is the movie is just cheap and weak.

• She has an ungodly voice, maniacal facial expressions...
• That doesn't prove a thing, she could be related to Joe Cocker.
• No.
• Could it be she had PMS?

A comedy made as a sequel to a famous horror "The Exorcist". In the original movie, in 1973 devil takes possession of a girl named Reagan, while in "Repossessed" he takes the same person 17 years later, but here she is named Nancy. Linda Blair plays both roles, Nancy and Reagan... Nancy Reagan :D For her role in "The Exorcist" she got Golden Globe and Oscar nomination, while in her later performances she was nominated for the worst actress six times. The movie is full of typical Leslie Nielsen humor, references and parodies to everything and anything. To me, it was very entertaining and definitely worth watching, maybe even more than the original.

7,5/10

Leslie Nielsen stars in another spoof, this time parodying The Exorcist. Linda Blair returns and spoofs her own character, as Nancy Aglet, and is again possessed by the demon. As a result, Nielsen's character, Father Jebedaiah Mayii, is called upon to help vanquish the demon - all the while the exorcism is being broadcast on live TV by a sensationalist show.

As with any Nielson spoofs, there are lots of gags from start to finish, along with some slapstick humor and endless parodies of various movies, from The Wizard of Oz to Rambo III. It was nice seeing the return of Linda Blair and she does a good job in recreating her role as the possessed girl, inserting tastefully done humor when necessary. However, the plot did lose steam by the time the movie focused on the TV show broadcasting the exorcism, which I thought made the film become more like a game-show than a comedy spoof. Therefore, it's not the best of Nielson's spoofs, but still laughable nonetheless.

Grade C+