THE POSSESSION OF NURSE SHERRI (1978)

  Director Al Adamson rarely fails to bore the crap out of me with his films and this one is no exception. The plot here is about our titular nurse who gets possessed by a patient, who's also a Satanic cult leader, who dies after trying to resurrect a body, having a heart-attack and then croaking on the operating table.  He's now seeking vengeance from beyond the grave and all those who let him die. There's a bit of meat-cleaver mischief, a guy gets pitchforked to death, there's a crappy car chasing a truck scene, there's weird green animated junk to show someone's getting possessed and most importantly we get to see a couple of large black boobs along the way. There is a sexier version of this simply titled NURSE SHERRI that removes some of the horror elements and makes it into more of a sexploitation flick with way more boobs. including Sherri's!

  Other various aka's of this are BLACK VOODOO, HANDS OF DEATH, HOSPITAL OF TERROR, TERROR HOSPITAL and KILLER'S CURSE Those certainly sound like the more horror-centric version. This was also shown on T.V. as  BEYOND THE LIVING, which I'm sure wasn't very sexy at all.

 

                                       The non-sexy poster!:

They really tried to fool people into thinking this was a blaxploitation flick with this poster!:

The worst thing about this movie is that it's title makes this dumb song pop into my head!:

VAMPIRE MEN OF THE LOST PLANET (1970)

 Al Adamson is a director that more times than not lets me down. This attempt of his to make a sci-fi film with vampires in outer-space is no exception to that rule. Probably more commonly known as HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS this one recycles lots of footage footage from earlier films including that constantly reused scene of those two lizards(made-up to look like dinosaurs) fighting each other from 1940s ONE MILLION B.C. They get away with using old black and white footage because most of the movie is itself in black and white. Most of the scenes that take place on the alien vampire planet are tinted different colors, which the ads called "Spectrum X color!" You get lots of scenes of cavemen(because it's apparently a prehistoric planet) battling vampire cavemen and occasionally other monsters like the bat-demons and claw monsters. While that might sound exciting it's not exactly executed particularly well. The reason for this is probably because these bits were "borrowed" from a 5 year old Filipino film titled TAGANI. John Carradine doesn't do much but give advice every once in a while. My favorite parts are the opening sequences of folks on earth being overrun by bloodsuckers while the great Brother Theodore narrates. If only the rest of the movie could maintain that kinda insane energy level. Other aliases=  BLOOD CREATURES FROM THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, CREATURES OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, CREATURES OF THE RED PLANET, HORROR CREATURES OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, SPACE MISSION OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, SPACE MISSION TO THE LOST PLANET and THE FLESH CREATURES and probably more.





                                    An Al Adamson Drive-In Double Feature crapfest!:

More Adamson  drive-in goodness(badness?)!:

THE BRAIN (1971)

 I picked up a weird nondescript VHS with this title and a badly drawn picture of a dude with his brain sticking out a while back just because I was curious as to what the hell it could possibly be and also because it was only $1. Turns out it's a re-titled version of Al Adamson's 1971 epic BRAIN OF BLOOD so I feel I got my moneys worth. I also feel that this is one of Adamson's better efforts and it's just strange enough to make for a decent time-waster. You get Angelo Rossitto as the evil midget assistant, a big mutant-faced retarded gentleman named Gor, women kept in chains in the basement/dungeon and actual bloody scenes of heads being sawed and brains being worked on by surgeons to help gross you out! There are certainly parts that drag a bit but for an Adamson flick it's not the worst you could do.
 There's a bunch of aka's for this besides BRAIN OF BLOOD including BRAIN DAMAGE, THE CREATURE'S REVENGE, THE UNDYING BRAIN and my personal favorite THE OOZING SKULL!




Shown on a double-bill with what I think is that Filipino horror flick also know as THE BLOOD DRINKERS:

PSYCHO A GO-GO (1965)

 This is advertised on the DVD as being Al Adamson's first fright film but it's not really a horror film of any sort. It's actually about a jewel heist that goes wrong which leads to some mobsters terrorizing citizens in search of their missing treasure. There is a bit of blood and a character who is a murder-happy, woman-hating psycho but I would put this more in the thriller category. There's also a few fairly dull scenes of singing and go-go dancing. It's an OK watch overall just for what it is but nothing spectacular.
 From what I can gather the original version of this film, without the go-go dancing and singing, was released as ECHO OF TERROR. Later on large scenes from this were used by Adamson in BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR with John Carradine which is a bit more of a horror deal about zombified killers.

I SPIT ON YOUR CORPSE (1974)

 I think Al Adamson's films have to be rated on a curve since they're generally pretty bad. This one I would rate pretty high and is surprisingly well done and action-packed from a guy who I recall nothing but boredom from in most of his other movies. You get lots of boobs, mafia shenanigans, cat-fights, a tough evil Pam Grier-esque character and even some topless kung-fu here. The other neat thing about this is you have Georgina Spelvin from DEVIL IN MISS JONES starring as a sadistic hit-woman. She's so bad-ass that in one scene she rapes a guy at gunpoint and murders him halfway through. It's too bad she didn't have more roles like this and it's too bad Adamson didn't make more movies that didn't instantly cure insomnia. Original title= GIRLS FOR RENT, AKA FATAL PURSUIT

BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE (1969)

Who knew there was a halfway decent Al Adamson movie? Not that this is anything great but it is watchable and sorta amusing in it's ridiculousness. You get a vampire couple who kinda remind me of Morticia and Gomez Addams, a giant humpback, named Mango, who keeps girls chained up in the basement, a homicidal kill-crazy lunatic and a moon-worshipping nutty butler played by John Carradine. All the ingredients of a good time. A young couple inherits the castle that this kooky crew inhabit and silliness ensues. The really silly part is how, after being chained up and held by the family, they manage to get out of their predicament and overcome all the odds stacked against them. If they only threw in a werewolf and maybe a bigfoot or caveman this thing would be perfection! Definitely the best thing I've seen from director Adamson yet.

Groovy tune for a groovy kidnapping!: