Dir. Al Adamson
84 Minutes
USA 1978
Starring: Geoffrey Land, Jill Jacobson, Marilyn Joi, Katherine Pass, Prentiss Moulden, Bill Roy
***/*****
Nurse Sherri (with other titles such as The Possession of Nurse Sherri, Black Voodoo, Hospital of Terror, and Hands of Death, among others) is an almost singular entry in Al Adamson's cavalcade of oddities: a strange melding of a demonic possession horror film inside the skin of a sexy nurse exploitation feature, finding an interesting balance of both modes to present a pretty satisfying (and sometimes, and take this with a slight grain of salt considering the filmmaker, with some artful ambition regarding mood. Going through Adamson's filmography, one can typically get the sense of which projects he is more enthusiastic about than others, and typically when he is able to fully execute a singular "vision" the pictures have something effective about them outside of the pure monetary value of the work. Nurse Sherri operates within the confines of two genres, but the mix often works.
The film begins with an attempt of ritualistic resurrection as a group of cultists led by Reanhauer (Bill Roy continuing his thread of thought from Death Dimension) in the middle of the desert (a scene apparently added in a effort to get some exteriors into the picture). When Reanhauer suffers an attack of some sort during the procedure, he is rushed to the hospital where he dies on the operating table, though not before his soul rushes into the body of Nurse Sherri to have a vessel to finish the job. As Sherri-as-Reanhauer begins piling up bodies, her doctor boyfriend and two pal nurses (one of which begins carrying an affair with a blind patient) look for a way out.
Not a particularly huge fan of horror movies, Adamson's work within the genre sometimes lacks the enthusiasm of his western or crime films. But there is an energy behind Nurse Sherri that feels like it comes from its experimental qualities: partially through its emphasis on mood and surrealism, and partially through using the "nurse" exploitation to give something to the horror portions. And while the scenes often feel individually entertaining rather than cohesive, they are all quite fun instead of a slog, with a wide range of tones across its duration. Sexploitation also did not entice Adamson as a filmmaker, and goes more for the comic jugular over the erotic (an early sequence where Sherri and the doctor trade their "strangest sexual experiences" has him regaling a story where a student hides in his podium to give him oral sex while he attempts to give a lecture, though this is followed by Sherri's first, and only, lesbian encounter). But these scenes allow for a little bit of playfulness and humanity to the two characters, giving both Sherri's switch to possession and the haunting final moments some weight instead of just being a plot device (plus the shot of her emerging from behind a shower curtain covered in blood while wielding two knives is just plain cool). Adamson goes for the dreamy, surreal, and somber tone, with the possession sequence and its montage of color and still image is a highlight (and people can say what they will about Adamson's output, but his title sequences are consistently neat). Nurse Sherri is a surprising highlight in the Adamson canon: a resourceful use of two genres to appeal to larger crowds, though done to a nice, and even occasional artful, effect.
Septemer 26th, 2020