Ossorio Week: The Possessed

Back again all as we finish Ossorio Week with a lesser known film than the whole Blind Dead tetralogy.  It deals with gypsies, curses and absolutely no tramps and thieves.  Well maybe a theft or two; so hop in that bean bag chair, grab some Cheetos and a carbonated beverage.  This is The Possessed a.k.a. La endemoniada.

Why the long face, gypsy?

Spoilers will swallow your soul!

As it seems with most movies, there is always homage, something similar and a blatant rip-off.  The Possessed has the qualities of being a rip-off but only in the fact that it combines witchcraft and devil worship in the same sitting.   This under-budget made-for-TV movie starts us off with an immediate story of a gypsy woman is who was nabbed by the local fuzz.  I am guessing what herb she deals with. She is immediately a suspect of the disappearance of a small child and rather spending her less than golden years fending off the big mutha of cellblock D, she hurls herself out a window after admitting that she planned to sacrifice the little scamp to her dark lord and master: Carrot Top…um I mean Satan…I get them mixed up.  

Naturally her coven is most vexed on these proceedings, so they send the saucy gypsy (Kali Hansa of Les ebranlees, Diary of a Nymphomaniac, La cometesse perverse and the Lustful Amazons) to befriend the daughter of Police Commissioner Barnes, Susan (Marian Salgado of Hora once and Who Can Kill a Child?) as a convoluted plot of revenge.  After handing over a bizarre dagger and a bone necklace she tells Susan to keep these presents a secret from everyone.   Unbeknownst to naïve Susan, the weapon and necklace McGuffin were items belonging to the late witch and therefore…yeah she became possessed.  What? Did you want a cookie for guessing that?   Through the powers of darkness (or possibly half hearted FX makeup) the old witch claims the body of young Susan for her own.  Never before have you seen such levitation and well, mood swings!

Just hide the bong, kid.

Okay before I go any further, there are some issues to be addressed.  The following for your approval is thus: Castration, um baby sacrifice and some of the worse English dub actors I have ever heard.  Cashing in on any exploitation film that loves using the Devil as some end all standing for why people kill and maim.  While this seems to be fitting with this one and frankly I could have done without possessed Susan skipping along with a sack in hand.   Not a knapsack or hacky sack.   Yeah I really lost dinner appetite during that sequence of events. 

Lover/fiancée Anne (Lone Fleming of Tombs of the Blind Dead, Return of the Blind Dead, Bad Man’s River and It Happened at Nightmare Inn) worries of Susan’s behavior of late and consults Father Juan (Julian Mateos of Novela, Novios de la muerte, La Carmen and Teatro Club) in the possibility that Susan is possessed.     Susan is present to the coven’s baby sacrifice and she gets to gulp down some of that baby blood beverage too thus, beginning her down her dark and evil path of gypsy witch reincarnate.  The writing is confusing witchcraft or wicca for black mass so a lot of this story arc seems off its rocker.    

The production is not stellar, the lighting and my God the sound was less than impressive for this to be Ossorio’s fourth movie when the Blind Dead films were into their third.   The story feels as though it is forcing too many coincidences and facts down your throat and then pauses for a bit too long.   Hot and waaaaay too cold between cycles.   The violence is a bit over the top but then so is a lot of the film.   Oddly enough most of the violence is aimed as the vengeance of the coven sticking it to the man but you feel as though you could easily take a nap do to the padding of the film to get to that 90 minute marker.

The table is less wooden than the dubbing.

And with that we end our Ossorio week on a bit of a down note.   Stay tuned for next week’s installment of: well I haven’t actually thought of what to do next week.  Keep them eyes peeled for next week though.