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"Exorcism: The Possession
of Gail Bowers" DVD
The Asylum's steadily
growing string of Leigh Scott-led bastardy continues with "Exorcism:
The Possession of Gail Bowers".
And I'm beginning to
wish Leigh would turn her attention to something OTHER than grave
robbing.
For those of you who
don't pay much attention to the overall progression of the direct-to-video
horror genre, The Asylum has been swept up in a program of releasing
movies based on long-established classics. Most of these movies
are handled by Leigh Scott. For instance, "Beast of Bray Road"
was Scott's putsch on the old werewolf pictures of the fifties.
"Frankenstein Reborn" was a shot at "Frankenstein".
Even Scott's recent shot "King of the Lost World" was
a run at "King Kong", and not the Peter Jackson one, either.
So now, we get Scott's
attempt to revamp the seventies' "The Exorcist." In fact,
the front of the box even says as much--this is "from the horrifying
true story that inspired 'The Exorcist'."
Now, some might question
this move, especially after the tepid box-office success of "Exorcism
of Emily Rose", which bears more than a passing resemblance
to Scott's latest grave robbing excursion. I'm one of them, frankly.
But it's here, and so we have to deal with it. We also have to deal
with the mind-boggling question of why The Asylum went and put the
Amityville house on the box art, but that's neither here nor there.
Basically, "Exorcism..."
gives us a soul-rending look at a teenaged (I'm guessing) girl whose
parents died mere weeks before this movie takes place. From this
low point, she somehow manages to tunnel below rock bottom and get
possessed by an agent of the devil.
Which of course allows
a heroic priest figure the opportunity to come in and, as they said
in "Dead Alive," "kick ass for the Lord."
Now, I'm not going to
deny that Scott has skills in her own right. The lady is capable
of some really impressive stuff, and it's exhibited in the first
five minutes that are totally without dialogue. That's right, folks...it's
gonna take until just past the five minute mark before a character
actually speaks. Having seen my share of simulated possessions,
I can also state that the bit with the hand near the ten minute
mark is also utterly unlike any other attempt I can recall.
That having been said,
I cannot take issue with Scott's directorial skill. She's got an
incredible arsenal available to her.
What her direction lacks
is stamina.
She can't keep it up,
folks, and finds herself apparently drawn to schlock tactics almost
directly before or after she tries something good. Like a fat man
in a foot race, she gets seemingly winded by her own innovation
and has to fall back on the utterly stupid to get her wind back.
For instance, after that
killer opening sequence and bit with the hand, she's then pulling
out the Ouija boards at the sixteen minute mark. Apparently, despite
almost universal cries of warning from the paranormal expert community,
the Christian church, pretty much every horror movie that's had
one in it since the seventies and several different branches of
pagans, people are STILL buying and using Ouija boards.
Then, Scott leads in
with a slow bedsheet pull on poor sleeping Gail at twenty three
minutes twenty nine seconds. Yawn. Done many times before. But then,
as though recovering, Scott throws out a surprise at twenty three
minutes thirty seven seconds.
Twenty four minutes eight
seconds gives us a strange and unique glowing figure running down
a hallway, but then, yipes! Leigh's run out of steam again, huffing
and puffing her way through a sequence where Gail gets felt up and
held down by her attacking demon.
And then...and then.
Oh, and then.
Then, for reasons that
I can't fathom, Leigh Scott
engineered the single most baffling freak out in cinema's recent
history. It all gets started at the twenty eight minute forty eight
second mark, when the neighbor girl jumps and screams at the sight
of an illegible blur and doesn't stop until almost two minutes later,
when said girl dies from massive blood loss while taking a shower.
No, I haven't been drinking.
Why do you ask?
The ending is fairly
straightforward. There are no twists, no surprises, which itself
is a surprise for an Asylum picture. But there ARE, however, six
whole minutes of credits.
The special features
include a behind the scenes featurette, deleted scenes, bloopers,
audio options, cast and crew commentary, and trailers for "Dead
Men Walking", "King of the Lost World", "Shapeshifter",
"Resident Demon", and "Exorcism: The Possession of
Gail Bowers".
All in all, "Exorcism:
The Possession of Gail Bowers" is a massive study in duality,
showing us what can happen when an innovative director gets so badly
winded she can barely move through her own script. The result is
a movie that cannot be accurately called good or bad, containing
elements of both, and left as a fair choice for a single rental.
OVERALL
GRADE: 2 stars **
Exorcism:
The Possession of Gail Bowers
**
DVD
Directed by Leigh Scott
Written by Leigh Scott
Starring Noel Thurman, Brick Firestone, David Shick, Tom Downey
Produced by David Michael Latt, David Rimawi, Sherri Strain
R
85 mins
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Video Store Guy knows the best movies you've never seen. Check his
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