Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Humaira Grant
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW)
Erotica can reach to a level that is intensifying and scary at the same time. In "Possessed by the Night", it says it all. Here you have a horror script writer(Ted Prior) who goes to Chinatown and buys a strange pickled one-eyed creature. The thing in the jar does something to him both good and bad. He works on his scripts better, and he's an animal in bed. However, his wife began to get scared by his actions. It gets worse when the live-in secretary, Carol (Shannon Tweed-Simmons) enters the picture. When the supernatural aura gets to Carol, the sex games become very intense. Brought in by his boss Murray (Frank Sivero), Carol was not only sent to live with the couple, but to steal the scripts as well. Murray may be a sleaze, but he was about to get something in return he'll never forget: Double-crossed! Along with Tweed, and Sandhal Bergman, Chad McQueen plays a collector who want to go out on his own, and not take any guff from his boss. Other than sex, firepower has its part of the movie. Everyone decided to take out one another. This movie is indefinitely a class of its own. No one will ever see an erotic thriller like this one! 3 out of 5 stars.
gridoon
"Possessed by a brain-like one-eyed thing in a jar" would be a more accurate title for this one, but I guess "the night" is shorter. Anyway, besides this "creature", the movie offers: a sweaty Shannon Tweed giving us fitness tips, a (then) 42-year-old Sandahl Bergman still sporting a PHENOMENAL athletic body, irrelevant martial arts fights with Chad McQueen, and timeless movie villain Henry Silva mostly sitting behind a desk and saying things like "I love bimbos!" and "Greed makes the world go round". So fans of B-movies should enjoy it, despite its pointless story and redundant subplots. Fred Olen Ray makes the most out of a probably tiny budget, and smartly keeps the running time short too. (**1/2)
Paul Andrews
Possessed by the Night starts with Los Angeles Chinatown shop owner Mr. Wong (Joe Kuroda) returning from buying what looks like a load of junk but which contains a jar with what looks like some sort of deformed one-eyed creature inside. Author Howard Hansen (Ted Prior) is working on his latest book & things aren't going that well, he decides to get out for a while & comes across Mr. Wongs shop, inside Howard buys the mutant one-eyed thing. Back home & Howards missus Peggy (Sandahl Bergman) isn't happy about sharing a house with it but since she's only a woman & since Howard pays the bills she has to shut up & stop moaning, however her misgivings over it may be well founded as the one-eyed thing in the jar seems to be alive & has telepathic powers... Meanwhile Howards publisher Murray Dunlap (Frank Sivero) has run up a gambling debt of $25,000 which he owes to local loan shark Scott Lindsey (Henry Silva), one of Scott's debt collectors Gus (Chad McQueen) tries to 'persudae' Murray to pay his debts. Murray decides he needs to rip off Howard so sends Carol McKay (Shannon Tweed) in a as secretary but to also steal a manuscript for an unpublished book. Howards life quickly starts to fall apart as he falls further under the control of the one-eyed thing in the jar...Directed by Fred Olen Ray, who also has a small role in the film as a waiter, I thought Possessed by the Night was total & utter crap of the highest order. The script by Mark Thomas McGee is all over the place, I tried my best with the plot synopsis but Possessed by the Night is an absolute mess of a 'film' & I use the term film loosely. The narrative is non-existent, this film has no story quite literally. Well none that makes any sense anyway. There are various loose plot threads like the one-eyed thing in the jar, the debt collector & his problems, the marriage problems between Howard & Peggy & the various impromptu & out-of-place sex scenes & they all sort of come together at the end but it'a all rather tenuous & flimsy. Most of Possessed by the Night is just padding & to make it worse it's padding of the most boring & uninspired kind that you can imagine. As a whole there is no entertainment value in Possessed by the Night whatsoever & who exactly is it meant to appeal to anyway? Is it a horror? I wouldn't have said so. A thriller? Not a chance. Maybe it's an erotic film? Well, in my opinion it's as erotic as a slap around the face with a wet fish. Perhaps it's a mixture of all three? Nope, it has no enjoyable aspect to it's overlong 90 odd minutes.Director Ray does his usual point & shoot job, the film has no style or visual flair. This is bland, flat & forgettable stuff all the way. There's virtually no gore apart from a few gunshot wounds at the very end, the one-eyed thing looks rubbery (& it just sits in a jar throughout the entire film & does NOTHING else) & the sex scenes are very, very, very, very, very, very unerotic. The only nudity is of the topless variety, there is no genital nudity & the sex scenes are really tame as well. I just don't see who Possessed by the Night is supposed to please.Technically Possessed by the Night is cheap, nasty & throughly routine. There is not one memorable aspect to it. The acting sucks, there's nothing else I can say & what on Earth is Henry Silva doing in this?Possessed by the Night is total crap, it's as simple & straight forward as that. Definitely one to avoid.
insomniac_rod
Pure gold for hard core fans of B-movies. What else can you ask for? You got Shannon Tweed in all of her sexy glory. Her looks are extremely hot. You got a supernatural plot that involves a cheesy but gross "thing" (a brain with an eye or something) that awakens people's sexual instincts. Weird but effective. And last but not least you got hot sex scenes including of one Shannon's most famous moments where she is forced at first to have sex and then enjoys it in a savage manner.Well this is not the best erotic B-movie but it's a damn entertaining erotic flick to have. Buy, rent, or watch it on cable, it's worth the watch.
