“Nurse Sherri” (1978)

Studio: Independent International Pictures
Starring: Jill Jacobson, Geoffrey Land, Marilyn Joi, Mary Kay Pass, Prentiss Moulden
Directed by: Al Adamson
Rated: R
Running Time: 88 min.

Synopsis: A nurse is possessed by an evil spirit of a dead man and he makes her go around killing people he wants revenge on.

REVIEW

Chris Woods

I heard about this film many years ago, back in the late 80’s I read about it in a book, then years after that on a video called Drive-in Madness that had a series of trailers, which one was Nurse Sherri. It looked great and had everything a 70’s grindhouse horror film should have. I finally got to see it on cable recently and it didn’t live up to its expectations.

Al Adamson from Independent International directs Nurse Sherri, who also directed the great film Psycho a Go-Go, Satan’s Sadists, and the not so great Dracula vs. Frankenstein. Adamson directed many horror and exploitation films throughout his career. For me he is a mixed bag as a director. Some of his stuff I enjoy and others are just plain bad. I prefer his earlier works from the 60’s then his later works throughout the 70’s, but there’s still other films I have to see of his to make my final judgement.

The movie starts off in a desert where a man, who worships the devil, is trying to bring back a boy from the dead. No one believes that he can do it, but he insists that he can. After weeks of trying, the man has a heart attack while making a last attempt at bringing the boy back to life. The man is rushed to the hospital and operated on, but does not make it. Once dead, it seems that his sprit jumps into a nurse, Sherri.

Sherri starts to act strange to her doctor boyfriend and her fellow nurses. She even starts to talk in the man’s voice in front of her boyfriend. For some reason her boyfriend can’t believe it and doesn’t really do anything about it until Sherri is caught trying to kill someone. Then her boyfriend and the other nurses get the help of a blind football player who knows how to kill an evil sprit because his grandmother was into voodoo, so ridiculous.

I always had high hopes for this film, but it was a real let down. I seen worse and not all of it is bad. Most of all the stuff from the trailer was the best, which had a 70’s charm and some creepiness to it. One scene that always stuck out was Sherri popping out from behind a shower curtain holding some butcher knives and her face covered in blood. The trailer showed that at the end and freeze-framed it and had some chilling music playing in the background. Another scene is when Sherri stabs a retired doctor with a pitchfork to the back and the edges come out his stomach. I always remember that from the trailer because it starts with a close up of the doctor and you hear the pitchfork go through him as he screams, then cut to the wide shot with the pitchfork in him and Sherri just standing there giving him an evil glare.

There is another version of the film out there that I heard is much better. The one I saw was the theatrical release version, but the other one, which is a bit shorter in the running time and cuts out some of the boring elements I believe and has more nudity and sex scenes. Not sure if the other version is better, but if I ever see it I’ll update my review if I feel the need to.