{"id":4259,"date":"2024-09-30T19:41:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T19:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4259"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:31:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:31:26","slug":"repossessed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/30\/repossessed\/","title":{"rendered":"Repossessed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Repossessed <\/strong>(1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Seven Arts\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 84 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (crude sexual humor, nudity, language, comic violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Bob Logan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Bob Logan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Charles Fox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael D. Margulies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 14, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Linda Blair, Ned Beatty, Leslie Nielsen, Anthony Starke, Lana Schwab, Thom J. Sharp, Benj Thall, Dove Dellos, Jacquelyn Masche, Melissa Moore, Willie Garson, Jesse Ventura, Gene Okerlund.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1.4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although its official release date is given as 14 September 1990, I didn\u2019t see the Exorcist spoof Repossessed<\/strong> until a friend loaned me a VHS screener copy in January \u201991. It didn\u2019t open in any cinemas here in Philadelphia. I would have gone to see it. At that time, I saw every single movie that played in theaters. Such is the life and psychological pathology of a movie geek.<\/p>\n

\u00a0My opinion of Repossessed<\/strong> hasn\u2019t changed at all between then and now. I still think it\u2019s just okay. It\u2019s a mildly amusing takeoff that actually serves as a quasi-pseudo-sequel to the 1973 horror classic. Linda Blair reprises her role as the possessee only this time her character is named Nancy instead of Regan (get it, get it?). She was possessed by the devil as a child, but survived the ordeal thanks to Father Mayii (Nielsen, The Naked Gun) who conducted the exorcism.<\/p>\n

\u00a017 years later, the devil comes back and repossesses Nancy who now has a family of her own. Mayii refuses to do another exorcism as he barely survived the last one. This time, it\u2019s on young, inexperienced Father Brophy (Starke, Licence to Kill) to cast out the evil demon. After getting the go-ahead from the Supreme Council for Exorcism Granting which consists of four priests named Crosby, Still, Nash and Young (ha ha), he finds out the exorcism will be televised nationally as the behest of televangelist Ernest Weller (Beatty, Exorcist II: The Heretic) and his wife Fanny Ray (Schwab, The Silence of the Hams). They need the money and the Catholic Church needs the converts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Predictably, Father Mayii steps in at the last minute to combat his old foe in a big grudge match with play-by-play commentary by wrestlers \u201cMean Gene\u201d Okerlund and Jesse \u201cThe Body\u201d Ventura. Did I mention Repossessed<\/strong> is framed as a lecture Mayii is giving to a college theology class? The nerdy student with glasses is played by the late Willie Garson who would go on to greater fame in Sex and the City and White Collar. Also, the female student who flashes her boobs to Mayii is played by Melissa Moore of Samurai Cop and Sorority Massacre II.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Team ZAZ set an insurmountable level of excellence with their classic spoofs Airplane and The Naked Gun. Repossessed<\/strong> doesn\u2019t even come close. It has a few amusing moments scattered throughout, but most of the jokes fall flat. To its credit, it\u2019s nowhere near as unfunny as any of the spoofs concocted by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer- e.g. Date Movie, Epic Movie and Disaster Movie. For all its faults, Repossessed<\/strong> is at least competent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One thing Repossessed<\/strong> definitely has going for it is the cast. They actually look like they\u2019re having fun, especially Linda Blair. In an interview, she talked about how stressful it was making The Exorcist and how she appreciated getting to spoof it. Call it a delayed catharsis. It turns out Blair has a hidden gift for comedy. She showed it in the cheap Police Academy knock-off Night Patrol and does so again here. Nielsen, the undisputed King of Spoofs in the 80s and 90s, just does his thing in Repossessed<\/strong>. He hadn\u2019t yet reached the point where he was on autopilot. He gets off a good line or two. Beatty doesn\u2019t do too badly either as a character clearly modeled after disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker. Schwab is slightly better as the Tammy Faye character. Starke does okay as the hapless priest taking on a far more powerful force.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Written and directed by Bob Logan (Up Your Alley, Meatballs 4), Repossessed<\/strong> is definitely a product of its time with dated references and jokes to trash TV talk show host Morton Downey Jr., actor Rob Lowe\u2019s infamous sex tape and Sean Penn\u2019s tumultuous relationship with paparazzi. A lot of it would fly right over the head of young people not familiar with late-80s pop culture. It\u2019s also filled with corny jokes and amusing sight gags in addition to all the nods to its original source- e.g. pea soup, projectile vomiting and cleaned-up variations of Blair\u2019s profane tirades. The finale features cast members rocking out to \u201cDevil with a Blue Dress On\u201d. It\u2019s fun even if the song choice is too obvious. Guess what color dress Blair\u2019s character wears through the whole ordeal?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Repossessed<\/strong> is a very mediocre comedy that might tickle your funny bone in a silly state of mind. It\u2019s not as bad as some spoofs, but it\u2019s in no way, shape or form a classic of the subgenre. It\u2019s the kind of goofy comedy I would have watched many times on cable as a teen much like I did with Pandemonium (1982), the Friday the 13th<\/sup> takeoff with Tom Smothers, Carol Kane and Paul Reubens. I\u2019ve seen Repossessed<\/strong> twice now and I think that ought to do it for me.\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Repossessed (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Seven Arts\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 84 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (crude sexual humor, nudity, language, comic violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Bob Logan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Bob Logan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Charles Fox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael D. Margulies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 14, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Linda Blair, Ned Beatty, Leslie Nielsen, Anthony Starke, Lana Schwab, Thom J. Sharp, Benj Thall, Dove Dellos, Jacquelyn Masche, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Repossessed-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4259"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5209,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions\/5209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}