This practically unknown 1970s gore movie was "presented by" Will Zens, the guy who made TO THE SHORES OF HELL (1966), THE STARFIGHTERS (1964), and SPY SQUAD (1961), all memorably daffy Z-movies. HELP ME, I'M POSSESSED, slackly directed by Charles (VOODOO HEARTBEAT) Nizet, has an anything-goes quality that cuts through the subpar acting, dialog, and plot.
Arthur Blackwood is a psychiatrist treating hopelessly crazy patients at his private sanitarium in the Nevada desert. He's a bit hopelessly crazy, too, with his torture chamber basement -- complete with a guillotine -- and a twitchy, hunchbacked assistant, Carl. When a patient dies, Carl hacks her to pieces with a hatchet while, nearby, one of the imprisoned madmen gets very visibly excited. It's that kind of movie.
Blackwood's experiments on his sister have created a barely-seen tentacled creature that lives in caves near the sanitarium. It makes sounds like the inside of a kennel just before the dogs get fed. Blackwood describes her having a "disembodied sense of evil" that lives in all people, which he was able to bring to life. Instead of taking his amazing discovery to the scientific community, Blackwood sends it out to murder local teens and cops.
A rather dim Sheriff shows up a number of times, questioning the increasingly belligerent and paranoid doctor. Bill Greer, who plays Blackwood, also wrote the incredibly lame dialog. For example:
BLACKWOOD: Death is a state of mind.
Later, when Blackwood's sister meets the Sheriff:
WOMAN (to Sheriff): Are you a real sheriff?
SHERIFF: As a far as I know...
When Blackwood's wife Diane (Deedy Peters) shows up, the movie picks up a bit. The doctor's mute chauffeur makes a pass at Diane, so Blackwood puts out one of his eyes with a hot poker -- "If thine eye offends thee, pluck it out," he rants.
When a male patient gets loose and attempts to torture a near-naked woman, Blackwood tosses her into a coffin with a poisonous snake and closes the lid. The patient refuses to repent his sins, so Blackwood decapitates him in the guillotine as he quotes scripture. Later, Diane finds her husband's notes while snooping around his lab, in which he writes, "When I saw his head severed from his body, I felt a definite sexual thrill."
Other riotous elements include the Sheriff's office set, which features a bright green prop phone; the filmmakers' desire to use women with red or silver hair; and a mouse that kills a cat (off-screen).
Also known as THE POSSESSED! And VANGITTU.
