Repossessed (1990)

Pretty Good

Powerful

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

My original viewing of Repossessed, back in 1990 (yes, I was one of those who stupidly paid to see this garbage at the cinema), was an experience far more disturbing than my first viewing of The Exorcist, the film it sets out to spoof (only 17 years too late): Leslie Nielsen's desperately unfunny antics and Linda Blair besmirching her own legacy prove far more difficult to endure than anything in William Friedkin's 1973 horror classic.Written and directed by Bob 'Meatballs 4' Logan, Repossessed is a succession of quick-fire gags that repeatedly fail to hit the target. Dated topical jokes and crap sight gags abound, Ned Beatty's career hits an all-time-low with a role as a TV evangelist, and wrestler Jesse Ventura proves even more cringe-worthy than he was in Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (also 1990—what a great year that was for terrible Jesse Ventura movies!).It really is hard to believe how anyone ever considered any of this funny: the film makes the Scary Movie series seem like comedy gold by comparison, which is no mean feat. The finale, where Nielsen defeats the devil through the power of rock and roll, miming badly to a god-awful song while imitating several famous musicians, must go down as one of the single-most embarrassing attempts at humour I have ever witnessed.

This is one major disappointing and occasionally even downright insufferable horror-parody. Ironically enough, the funniest aspects about "Repossessed" are the trivia details behind it. Apparently the initial screening tests didn't fail just once, but twice! At first the script contained almost exclusively jokes and typical situations referring to the 1973 horror landmark "The Exorcist" but, being released no less than 17 years overdue, a large part of the target audience was too young to already have seen that film and hence didn't comprehend the humor. Subsequently, entire parts of the script got replaced with more general and contemporary 80's comedy (for example: an extended sequence set inside a fitness center with guru Jake Steinfeld) in order to appeal more to younger viewers, but it still failed because … well, the movie simply isn't funny! Writer/director Bob Logan's only remotely praiseworthy accomplishment was that he (or at least his producers) managed to trap Linda Blair into playing a mocking version of the one role that made her world famous. But even that you have to put into perspective, as Blair was probably so tired of getting typecast that she considered a comical part her last resort to get rid of her 'that-Exorcist-girl' reputation. Leslie Nielsen, with his almost naturally comical charisma, narrates the events of "Repossessed" in front of a class of college students. The films opens with a flashback of Nancy's first exorcism in 1973, but then jumps forward 17 years in time, when she's a married woman with two annoying brat-children. Via the TV-set, the devil takes possession of her body and yet again she spurts gooey green stuff all over her beloved ones. Father Mayii is reluctant to perform another exorcism because of his heart condition, so Nancy relies on the inexperienced young priest Father Brophy and a couple of power-hungry Televangelists that don't even believe in demonic possession. There aren't any truly laugh-out-loud moments in "Repossessed" at all. If you're lucky, you might briefly chuckle once or twice but the majority of jokes are just plain embarrassing. There are numerous lame literal jokes and uninspired puns that'll make you roll your eyes in disbelief. For example, one character says: "The word on the street says that your career is history…" and at the same moment the camera actually shows a piece of street with the words "your career is history" painted on it. Lame! The finale is pitiable and seems to go on forever, especially when the entire cast starts imitating the greatest rock stars of the eighties. Remember the intro of "Scary Movie 2" (which simultaneously is the only worthwhile sequence in the whole film) where James Woods does a wacky 10 minutes re-enactment of "The Exorcist"? Well, it might be crude and vulgar, but that scene is much funnier and more effective as this dud.

OK, so we all know that Leslie Nielsen stars in the silliest parodies. It seemed inevitable that he would eventually star in an "Exorcist" spoof. What makes "Repossessed" especially eye-opening is that it's got Linda Blair spoofing her own famous role. So, as they just want to be as goofy as possible, much of the humor revolves around projectile vomiting (you'd better have a strong stomach for this one). Aside from that, they poke fun at what were then current events, namely with Ned Beatty as a Jim Bakker-resembling clergyman; there's also Oliver North having a memory problem, Sean Penn having a short temper, and a little something about Morton Downey. Oh, and of course they admit that they're in a movie at one point.Yes, it's basically low humor, but they're not afraid to do whatever they want. You gotta love this one. And the next time that someone asks "May I?", you know what to say.

Father Mayii exorcised a possessed child named Nancy 17 year's ago- but now she is repossessed while watching the TV. So Father Brophy tries to get Father Mayii out of retirement to help him perform Nancy's exorcism and also it's going to be played on live TV to boost ratings for some has-beens.This a reasonably okay spoof on 'The Exorcist' that has it fair share of hits and misses, led by Leslie Nielsen as the head priest and the one who is telling the story about the repossession to a class of students. The film itself isn't great as a whole, as you got a couple good scenes and one-liners that standout from the rest- but you got a couple scenes and lines that are incredibly in bad taste or just lame.One thing I noticed that some gag's were borrowed in the opening sequence of the awfully bad Scary Movie 2, with the 'The Exorcist' part being the only amusing thing about that movie.The story itself is weak and really of no importance, as it's the gags that are the main attraction, with one gag or joke after another- though some of the gags start getting really tiresome and repetitive halfway through the film. So because of the one-idea film, it drags towards the end, making it feel longer than its 80mins-running time.The performances are nothing special, Leslie Nielsen has most of the funny parts as the retired Father Jebedaiah Mayii who makes a comeback to face his old demons (in many amusing ways) and also Ned Betty as Ernest Weller has his comical moments as the TV host. Linda Blair reprises her role that made her big- but this time mocking her performance in 'The Exorcist', as the possessed women named Nancy Aglet, while she was quite funny at first especially with the hilarious scenes involving her family- but after a while it got kind of stale and Anthony Starke plays the young unexperienced Father Luke Brophy, who is basically wooden and is pretty light of the laughs.This is worth a look if you want to see a stupid mockery of a classic film- but still it's quite forgettable and if you want a good comedy in the same vein with Leslie Nielsen watch the Naked Gun films instead.2/5