Nurse Sherri

Nurse Sherri (1978)

** (out of 4) - Erotic version

* 1/2 (out of 4) - Horror version

A religious cult leader is doing some sort of voodoo on a dead corpse when he suffers a massive heart attack. He's taken to the hospital where his spirit leaves his body and enters that of Nurse Sherri (Jill Jacobson). Soon the nurse is possessed with the spirit and goes on a killing spree.

Oh yes, here's another film from cult director Al Adamson. If you're familiar with Adamson's work then you probably already know that he would make a movie and often times it would be released under countless titles and sometimes different versions. NURSE SHERRI is one example of there being two different versions out there and thankfully Vinegar Syndrome has released them together. Both versions try to cash-in on the "Nurse" genre that was so popular in the 70s. One version adds in some CARRIE moments and tries to pass it off as a horror film while the other contains more softcore sex scenes.

Personally speaking, I thought the erotic version was much better simply because you've got some very beautiful women and seeing them naked was a major plus. As with most of Adamson's films, this one here has a rather sluggish pace but for the most part it's coherent and entertaining. I thought the softcore version worked the best because it didn't have as many boring dialogue scenes and instead we're treated to the beautiful Jacobson and Marilyn Joi doing what they do best. The horror version has them delivering more lines of dialogue than anything else so the spicy version is much more entertaining.

The horror version does contain some pretty bad special effects with a green animated thing floating around the screen and this here was supposed to be the spirit. I doubt this would have scared anyone who originally saw this at the drive-in. I think Jacobson was entertaining in the lead role and she certainly at least keeps your attention throughout. With that said, NURSE SHERRI certainly isn't a masterpiece but if you're a fan of Adamson then it's worth watching.

"Nurse Sherri" is proof positive that even a hack genre filmmaker like Al Adamson can still have it in them to produce something interesting and worthwhile. Compared to much of his output, this is actually pretty good. The acting (some of it, anyway) and the script (by Michael Bockman and Greg Tittinger, who also edited the picture) are above average. Dare I say it...Adamson crafts some striking and memorable horror here, especially the scene in the foundry.

The film is still rather crude if you put it up against slicker, more mainstream horror, and the animation effect is primitive, but this viewer still has a good time with this one.

Jill Jacobson plays the title role, who was present for an operation performed on a cult leader / necromancer named Reanhauer (Bill Roy). The trouble is, this was an operation that the patient did NOT authorize himself, so when he dies, his angry, vengeful spirit comes to rest inside Sherri, and compels her to murder the doctors who were involved. Sherri's lover (Geoffrey Land) and two of her co-workers (Marilyn Joi, Katherine Pass) all try to do something to reverse this possession.

There is some stiff and awkward acting, but the actors and their characters are engaging nevertheless, especially lovely exploitation veteran Joi, whose nurse lusts after star football player Marcus Washington (Prentiss Moulden), who was blinded in a car accident. Although quite serious overall, there is time for levity as Pass demonstrates a very sexy bedside manner to a male patient. Jacobson isn't really given enough to work with to make her character all that sympathetic, however. It's the devilishly good Roy who manages to steal the show, although J.C. Wells gives him some competition as a follower who is terrorized by the dead mans' spirit. John F. Goff, another prolific actor in exploitation features of the time, does a fine job as a psychiatrist.

It appears that the music used is stock music, but it's wonderfully theatrical schlock horror movie music that suits the material. And Adamsons' filmmaking may not be that slick, but it's clear that after a decade or so in the business, he'd honed his craft to some degree.

Good fun, for undemanding genre fans.

Also available in an 85 minute alternate version which puts the accent on sex rather than horror.

Seven out of 10.

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).

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.

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?