An attempt at updating The Devil’s Playground in order to break out of the underground, Possessed by Evil represents a transitional phase for Nightmare Productions/Gore-Met Films. Existing in between the grungier early era that delivered the unparalleled Deadbangers and the Video Outlaw/Alternative Cinema phase of commercial viability, there’s still plenty of the rough video quality and slice of life mise-en-scene you’d expect (walls lined with VHS bootlegs and death metal CDs). This outing gives Johnson and Smith another chance to indulge their degenerate metalhead fantasies and offer unapologetic horror on a larger scale while still keeping things plenty nasty. Far more extreme than The Devil’s Playground, Possessed by Evil stretches the plot out a bit and adds vampire mythos to the more familiar satanic narrative. As a result, it’s far too long, but I’m also very much attuned to this brand of trash.As absurd and over the top as their ideas can seem, Johnson and Smith have a knack for capturing the mean-spirited root of underground horror. Something as purely vile as a child’s bloodied body cast out with the week’s trash stands as the perfect representation of their uncompromising approach. Taste is irrelevant, it’s what gets a reaction that matters at the end of the day. Just as you would expect, this proceeds from an entirely skewed moral basis, which is even more fascinating as they try to build the film around a serious love-and-loss story. Strobe light and candle atmospherics, blood streaking effects straight out of a Traces of Death tape, and ramen noodle intestines mingle with a genuinely striking nighttime conclusion with a demonic figure, ending an otherwise extreme outing on a nice enigmatic note. Other scenes are as simple as the guys hanging out in caves and ravines wearing leather and sunglasses just because it looks cool and fits the story.Even as they worked in obscurity for the bulk of their creative period, Nightmare was essential to the fabric of 90s horror, proving that innovation doesn’t need to equal influence as they pioneered a wave of extreme horror that would rule the 2000s underground scene. What more would you expect from a feature that thanks Spencer’s Gifts in the credits?
