Wednesday 31 October 2018

Halloween Retro Review: Repossessed (1990)

Repossessed 
1990
Cast: Leslie Nielsen, Linda Blair, Ned Beatty, Anthony Starke
Genre: Comedy
U.S Box Office Gross: $1.4 million

Plot: Parody of The Exorcist with Linda Blair once again possessed by Satan, and Leslie Nielsen as The Exorcist 






'Not As Gag-Worthy & Minus Zucker Bros Charm'

Repossessed is not good and as a comedy, it is rather weak; on the other hand, this wasn't completely unwatchable & the much-revered mess that the critics have lambasted in their reviews. 

Much like with the Scary Movie films that came after the success of Wes Craven's Scream trilogy, this spoof is not part of the Exorcist canon/franchise, rather it tows more in line with other comedy parodies like Airplane!, Naked Gun, Hot Shots with its low brow humour. 

The plot sees Nancy (Linda Blair) experiencing symptoms of repossession and a young priest is enlisted to deal with the demon with the help of Father Jedediah Mayii (Leslie Nielsen). 

Not all of the jokes land, nor are they as hilarious, amusing and free-flowing as in Airplane! and the original Naked Gun, but for the unexplained nudity and fart gags, I did get a bit of a chuckle in places. 1 or 2 of sight gags tickled my funny bone a little. Yes, I chuckled but I didn't laugh. Even when they piled on gag after gag, they became less funny and these eventually got tired, fast. The Mean Gene and Jesse ''The Body'' Ventura WWE/then WWF cameo, was a little odd also. 

Leslie Nielsen's role is the same as Frank Drebin and in Wrongfully Accused as a deadpan priest, only he is not the main lead and I wouldn't say this is up there as Leslie's best. That belongs to Linda Blair of the original The Exorcist, who goes about her role in an upbeat way and pretty much revelling in the sheer silliness of it and she hammed it up for the cameras.

As a fan of Naked Gun and Airplane! but being unfamiliar with The Exorcist, this was a comedy disappointment that came up short. The film eventually loses its way, quickly with the exorcism scenes that eat up way too much of the film's run-time. 





Final Verdict:

Repossessed is your typical farce and silly comedy with silly humour - think Naked Gun/Airplane template copy and pasted onto The Exorcist, although as I sat through it, there wasn't much in terms of funny and outlandish scenes that I could understandably sense that without Jim Abrahams, as well as Jerry and David Zucker's involvement, this horror parody sank without a trace.  



Overall:




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