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THE POSSESSION OF NURSE SHERRI

In the early 1970s, Roger Corman had a big hit with Stephanie Rothman's sexploitation flick THE STUDENT NURSES, and the folks at Independent International Pictures - namely producer Sam Sherman and director Al Adamson - wanted to cash in on it. By the time they got rolling on it, the latest phenomenon in movies was THE EXORCIST, so they decided to put a different spin on their picture by making their nurse a possessed killer. By the time their film was finished, CARRIE was the big horror hit, so they threw in some ideas from that, too.

With the film ready for release, producer Sam Sherman still wasn't satisfied. As he explains in his commentrak, Sherman felt that audiences of the late '70s now expected more spectacle, so a few more scenes of stunts and special effects were added, and several (now less marketable) sex scenes were removed. Thankfully, NURSE SHERRI was playing drive-ins before Sherman could shoehorn in any shots of killer sharks and spaceships.

Despite its history, SHERRI is actually one of Adamson's more coherent features, and retains some of the goofy charm that marks his best work - though that's not saying much in the company of BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR and DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN. Unfortunately, by the time it was released the days when this type of picture could clean up in the drive-ins and grindhouses was all but over.

Buxom Nurse Sherri (Jill Jacobson, who went on to a successful television career after her debut here) happens to be on duty when notorious cult leader and faith healer Thomas Reinhaur (Clay Foster) suffers a stroke while trying to resurrect a dead follower in the desert. In an attempt to save him, doctors perform an operation on Reinhaur against his will, but he dies on the operating table.

That night, after her boyfriend Dr. Peter Desmond (Adamson regular Geoffrey Land) goes on duty, Sherri is attacked in her bedroom by sparkles and green splotches on the film. The next day she blows off a lunch date with Peter so she can visit the head surgeon that operated on Reinhaur - and stab him with a pitchfork.

Desmond and Nurse Tara Wilson (Marilyn Joi, who many will remember best as "Cleopatra Schwartz" in KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE) become concerned when they notice Sherri is speaking in other people's voices and stabbing doctors. Fortunately, Tara is having an affair with one of her patients, blinded pro football star Marcus Washington (Prentiss Moulden). The sightless running back's grandmother was a voodoo priestess, so he knows just what to do.

Producer Sherman has by now become an old hand at commentraks, having started providing them when Roan began releasing Adamson's films on Laserdisc several years ago. His talk avoids play-by-play for the most part - which is doubly fortunate since the insertion of the Shock-O-Rama logo has caused EI to start the audio 14 seconds out of sync from the video.

The DVD thoughtfully includes the original cut of the film, which has several out of place softcore sex scenes. In their place, the final release expands the role of Reinhaur follower Brother Stevens (J.C. Wells) and puts him through a drunken poltergeist attack, car chase, and a spectacular death in a steel plant. Shot on 35mm (as opposed to the 16mm used for the rest of the picture), they're some of the best scenes in the film.

The disc also includes the original trailer and a TV spot for the feature. Rounding things out is the usual EI "Trailer Vault," which includes trailers for 13 of their DVD releases.