Brief and messy, ‘Help Me…Im Possessed’ is a strange title, make NO mistake. But it’s one that I felt had potential…

The plot follows the head doctor of a sanitarium who’s on and off being investigated by the local town sheriff as a series of unexplained murders appear to be happening in the desert surrounding the hospital. the investigations are all largely for show however, as the doctor has more or less confirmed that he KNOWS the murders are happening. He just hasnt outright confessed it to the Sheriff and the Sheriff hasnt got the evidence available to take him in.

It transpires that the doctor is using the Sanitarium as some kind of demonic torture dungeon, keeping the inmates in caged cells, only releasing them to torture and murder them, and running some demonic rituals in the process. Its also revealed that somehow, the doctor has control of some kind of tendril based demon creature that can materialize at will, and the doctors been using it to get rid of his enemies and any unwanted attention.

Its around this time we’re introduced to the doctors sister, a young woman with a childish demeanor who was previously a viciously aggressive woman, until the doctor ran some experiments on her, reducing her to a childish state. At the same time, the doctors love interest flies in to meet up with him as she hasnt seen him in a while, It doesnt take long for her to start hearing rumours about what he gets up to at the hospital. and soon all is revealed to her.

Script wise? this isnt great, while it is mercifully short at 76 minutes long, the story is lumpy, confusing and uneven, the pacing is all over the place the tone is undecided between serious moodiness and campy over the top-ness.

Its not entirely clear what the motives of the characters are, just wanting to summon some demons on the fly isnt really grounds to make a movie about it, the dialogues ultra basic and kind of bland and the ending, while somewhat satisfying, doesnt really make too much sense and ends things kind of abruptly.

The direction is…well, its an attempt! theres some really solid attempts at styalising the scenes, but the knowledge of lighting and composition just, isnt quite there. Sometimes it looks wonderful and atmospheric, but for the most part it looks floodlit, feels washed out and the severe damage of the available print on this one, while in some ways giving it a style all of its own, is for the most part kind of distracting.

There are some fun little sequences here, theres a cop car chase that livens the mood, the kill scenes are manic and flailing, which really suits the nature of the picture honestly. Some of the characters animated reactions help towards the cine and vibe. and the sequences, while a little on the slower side, just about do the job.

The performances arnt particularly great, our core cast are all very dry on delivery and have that stiff 50’s B-movie vibe running throughout, when things start to get more interesting, they do up their game a little. But this is a very one note film acting wise with characters AT MOST getting a touch melodramatic, and more often than not just staying bolted in place throughout there scene.

Honestly? if you’re looking for some deeper cut B-movie goodness, this WILL absolutely scratch that itch. theres some interesting moments dotted throughout and the incoherency of the whole thing does have an endearing quality to it. But, with that being said. This absolutely isnt a *good* movie by any stretch.

When the best thing I can say about it is “At least 15 minutes of this thing is worth your time” and “At least its mercifully short” you KNOW somethings gone wrong somewhere. I didnt hate it, it killed an hour for me. But It’ll probably be a while before I watch this one again.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/help-me-im-possessed/