Nurse Sherri (1978) d. Al Adamson (USA) (88 min)
Attempting to jump on two exploitation bandwagons at once, producer Sam Sherman and director Adamson (in their final collaboration) concocted this mash-up of The Exorcist and Roger Corman’s “Nurse” movies which features the titular character (Jill Jacobson) being possessed by the spirit of a religious nutbag (Bill Roy) and murdering off half the hospital staff and patients where she works, growling in a none-too-convincing dubbed male voice all the while.
While there is a smattering of nudity, car chase action, and the occasional blood splatter, this is a mostly lifeless affair designed to kill 90 minutes and a few brain cells along the way. The one point of interest is that Sherri’s African-American co-worker Tara (Marilyn Joi) ends up being the smartest character on screen and essentially ends up saving the day. I’m not prepared to call Adamson a progressive, but it was a pretty ballsy move on his part.
Also worthy of note is the fa.ct that the evil spirit (which appears as an animated green mist/blob thingie) appears to, ahem, lie on top of Sherri as its means of, ahem, inhabiting her. Not sure if this qualifies as spectral assault, but it beat The Entity to the punch by four years.
While Vinegar Syndrome released this to Blu-ray back in 2017 (and Severin recently announced a 31-film Al Adamson box set headed our way next month), this viewing was of the Retro Shock-O-Rama double bill (with Five Bloody Graves) DVD.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio commentary by producer Samuel M. Sherman
The Possession of Nurse Sherri (alternate “sexy” cut) (84 min)
Interview w/ Marilyn Joi
Retro Drive-in Theater promos
Nurse Sherri is available now in a variety of formats as noted above, but if you’re not inclined to shell out for the box set, Vinegar Syndrome is probably your best bet (although the only added bonus features are the “Nurses Confessions” featurette with Joi and Jaconson and a “Then and Now” locations featurette, so do as you will).
https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/nurse-sherri
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