Repossessed * (1990, Linda Blair, Ned Beatty, Leslie Nielsen) – Classic Movie Review 4886

Writer-director Bob Logan somehow managed in 1990 to persuade Linda Blair back to her most famous moment and she gleefully sends up both herself and The Exorcist (1973) movie that once made her world renowned.

Alas, this is a fatuously childish, tawdry and smutty spoof. But, game for it all, Blair is funny as Nancy Aglet, the woman repossessed after her childhood exorcism, and so is an equally game Leslie Nielsen, in an ideal role for the reliable funnyman as the Max von Sydow-style exorcist, Father Jebedaiah Mayii.

Also the premise is fine, but writer-director Logan doesn’t deliver the comedy goods or the laughs. The sideplot with Ned Beatty (who had a role in the 1977 Exorcist II: The Heretic) as a TV revivalist preacher called Ernest Weller (sending up the televangelist Jim Bakker) is particularly poorly handled, though Beatty is fine too.

Despite its juvenile humour, it is an ‘adult’ comedy with strong language and nudity.

Also in the cast are Anthony Starke, Thom J Sharp, Lana Schwab, Benj Thall, Dove Dellos, Jacquelyn Masche and Willie Garson.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4886

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