I've watched some weird, obscure horror movies throughout my life. I can now add this lurid 1974 schlockfest to that growing list.
In a castle in the desert, Dr. Arthur Blackwood runs a sanitarium filled with mentally disturbed patients (as well as staff). He claims to be working on finding a way to cure people of any violent tendencies they have, and brags about his younger sister, innocent, child-like Melanie, as evidence that his treatment works. When she was a child, their parents had to keep her locked up and chained in the basement, to control her violent fits. Now that he's cured her, Arthur has his wife Diane come to the castle to meet Melanie, so that they can be one big, happy family. Diane begins to grow suspicious that something is amiss after a Sheriff shows up investigating the murder of 2 local teens, and sets about on her own investigation, hoping to uncover the sinister secrets that she feels her husband is hiding.
Help Me... I'm Possessed is an outrageous, bizarre but entertaining movie, filled with torture, slayings, crazed characters, horrible music cues, and a whole lotta silliness. For instance, Arthur keeps sending his sister Melanie out at night, to free some monster they have in a cave, so that it can take care of any meddling troublemakers. These attacks are done with a bunch of quick cuts of the victims screaming and being tossed on the ground, intercut with clips of these red, waving tentacle things that are supposed to represent the monster. There's also a dungeon where Arthur's hunchback servant terrorizes these mental patients locked up in cages. Between these frequent scenes of bloody mayhem, and everyone in the cast hamming it up, the flick manages to be laughable but fun. If you're a fan of 70's style schlock, then you're sure to enjoy this one. I streamed it on YouTube.
The other film I watched was a 2024 found footage about a social media influencer couple who go missing, and the vlogger who decides to go and look for them.
We're introduced to Austin & Janna, a young couple who document their adventures on the road. They reveal to their viewers that they've purchased property out in a remote location, and decide to film footage of themselves moving in, setting up house, and exploring their new surroundings. Since they seemingly vanished without a trace, this other vlogger, a friend of theirs who runs a page called @Found Persons Report, decides to go to their desolate home in hopes of finding them, as well as comb through their footage for any clues that might give more insight. The movie alternates between this vlogger's footage, and Austin and Janna's, and as things progress, it becomes clear that something seems to be stalking the couple.
To my surprise, this movie turned out to be pretty good, with a few creepy, eerie touches, and did a decent job in slowly revealing things to keep you invested. Another thing it did well was keep you guessing whether the stuff happening is paranormal or not. The acting is good, with the two leads actually being likable and not obnoxious like in some other found footage movies, and it has a pretty decent twist, which, despite being kinda obvious, still manages to be effective. Check it out if you're a fan of the found footage genre. I streamed it on Tubi.
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