POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT (1994) A "Turkey of the Week" film review by Justin Felix Copyright 1998 Justin Felix
Rating: ** (out of five)
Screenplay by Mark Thomas McGee. Original Story by Fred Olen Ray. Starring Shannon Tweed, Ted Prior, Sandahl Bergman. Rated R (contains nudity, profanity, and violence) 84 mins.
Synopsis: A novelist struggling with his latest work buys a weird brain with a protruding eyeball encased in a jar. The brain exerts its evil influence upon the novelist and his secretary, while his wife disapproves. Meanwhile, a loan shark in need of a shave tries to leave his profession.
Comments: Why is this movie called POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT? It's hard to speculate. Most of this film takes place during the day, and the only thing possessing anyone is an icky, pulsating, bubbling brain thingie in a jar. In case you haven't picked up on this yet, POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT is a bottom-of-the-barrel "thriller" (I use the term "thriller" loosely here) which is really cheap and bad. The plot, which sounds like a cheesy pulp science fiction story from the 1950s, actually serves one purpose: to exploit nude women as often as possible.
Writing a movie review for a film like this proves oddly challenging. There's really not much to say. The acting is lousy; although, occasionally, the attempts at acting are so absurd that they garner a chuckle or two from the audience. Most humorous is Frank Sivero, who plays Murray, the novelist's agent. He is so horrible in this role that one can't help but be amused. The plot sucks. Nearly half the film is devoted to a loser loan shark who wants out of the profession, even though he has only limited relevance to the movie as a whole. The dialogue stinks. A loan shark, for instance, tells another how much he loves bimbos, which is something the audience really doesn't need to know. Everything about POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT is second rate, even the film credits. As the names of the not-so-talented film crew scrolled by at the end, Joseph Scales came up, credited as being "Assistsant to Foley Artist." Someone could have used an editor!
To be honest, the film is basically an excuse to flash frontal nudity and show some sex scenes. Playboy Playmate Shannon Tweed, after all, is the star here. I suppose that if one wanted this sort of thing, he would like this movie. Why did I give this turkey two stars and not one? As a bad movie, it is unintentionally funny enough to keep someone passingly interested in the film. If you feel possessed to see POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT, however, I'd recommend you exorcise this impulse and watch something else.
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