# The Possessed (1977 film)

The Possessed is a 1977 American supernatural horror television film directed by Jerry Thorpe, written by John Sacret Young, and starring James Farentino, Claudette Nevins, Eugene Roche, Harrison Ford, Ann Dusenberry, Diana Scarwid, Joan Hackett, P. J. Soles, and Dinah Manoff. The film follows a former priest, now an exorcist, who battles Satanic forces that are threatening the students at an Oregon girls' high school.
Produced by Warner Bros. Television, The Possessed was conceived as a television pilot for an exorcism-themed horror series. The film was shot on location in Portland, Oregon in January 1977, mainly on the campus of Reed College. It was first telecast on NBC on May 1, 1977. It received largely negative reviews from critics at the time of its release, though it has attained some retrospective praise from genre critics.

## Plot

Kevin Leahy, an alcoholic Catholic priest who has strayed from his faith, crashes his car and is pronounced dead at the scene. As penance, he is sent back to Earth to fight evil as an exorcist, and returns to life. At the Helen Page School, a Catholic all-girls college in Salem, Oregon, graduation season is near. The school is about to go coed. Ellen Sumner, is a teacher at the school, which her daughter, Weezie, attends. One evening, the paper in Ellen's typewriter inexplicably bursts into flames.
Lane, Alex, Celia, and Marty, play a prank on Weezie by smearing ketchup and other liquids under her bedsheets. Louise Gelson, who is Ellen's sister and headmistress of the college, enters and instructs the girls to leave. Weezie returns to her dorm in time to see the curtains suddenly burst into flames. She tells Ms. Gelson, who insists the girls must have been smoking.
During graduation practice, Lane's gown bursts into flames. Ellen and Paul Winjam, another teacher, put out the flames, but Lane is burned in the ordeal. Sergeant Taplinger investigates, and Ellen tells him of the other random fires, insisting it is supernatural. Ellen seeks out Leahy to investigate the occurrences. Leahy and Ellen visit Lane in the hospital, where she is receiving treatment for burns to her legs.
Weezie confesses to Leahy that the night of the fire in her dorm, she had visited Mr. Winjam late to study for a biology test; he suspects they may be romantically involved. That night in the biology room, Weezie and Mr. Winjam meet, and his jacket bursts into flames; Weezie is locked out of the room, and watches through the window as he burns to death.
The next day Leahy finds Ms. Gelson crying hysterically in Winjam's office, and realizes she and Winjam had also been romantically involved. Ms. Gelson suspends classes, and several students leave the college. That night, Weezie encounters Ms. Gelson wandering erratically through the hallways of the school; Ms. Gelson screams, and slaps her. Weezie tells Leahy of the incident, and then confesses to her mother about the affair with Winjam. Leahy searches the school for Ms. Gelson, and Ellen and Weezie begin to smell smoke.
The remaining girls on campus, who have congregated in one of the dormitories, also begin to smell smoke, and find themselves locked in. Ms. Gelson unlocks the rooms and leads them away. Leahy searches the dormitory, and finds all of the rooms empty. He frees Ellen and Weezie from Ellen's locked office, and they attempt to leave the school.
They encounter the possessed Ms. Gelson at the college's swimming pool, surrounded by the girls. Ellen forces all of the girls to leave the room, and Ms. Gelson grabs Leahy, lighting his jacket on fire, but the fire extinguishes itself. Ms. Gelson, laughing wildly, spits nails at Leahy. He embraces her, and again catches fire; he jumps into the swimming pool, and disappears in a blaze.
The college is reopened for graduation, and Taplinger inquires to Ellen about Leahy's identity and whereabouts. She tells him she does not know who he really was or where he went. Lane is able to return to school for the graduation ceremony, led by a healthy Ms. Gelson.

## Cast

* James Farentino as Kevin Leahy
* Joan Hackett as Louise Gelson
* Harrison Ford as Paul Winjam
* Claudette Nevins as Ellen Sumner
* P. J. Soles as Marty
* Diana Scarwid as Lane
* Eugene Roche as Sergeant Taplinger
* Ann Dusenberry as Louise "Weezie" Summer
* Dinah Manoff as Celia
* Carol Jones as Alex
* Ethelinn Block as Barry
* Susan Walden as student

## Production

The Possessed was conceived as a television pilot episode by NBC for a planned horror series focused around exorcisms.
Principal photography of The Possessed began in early January 1977 in Portland, Oregon, mainly on the campus of Reed College. Additional scenes were filmed at the Holladay Park Hospital. The production reportedly accrued $400,000 in local revenue for the state of Oregon. Filming was completed by February 1977.

## Release

The Possessed was first broadcast on NBC on May 1, 1977. The film aired only three weeks before the release of Star Wars (1977), which significantly elevated actor Harrison Ford's public profile.

### Home media

The Warner Archive Collection released The Possessed on DVD on March 23, 2009.

## Reception

Critical response to The Possessed was largely unfavorable at the time of its release. Bill Mandel of The San Francisco Examiner panned the film, referring to the script as "nearly incomprehensible... the evil most evident in this turkey was in the producers' minds." Francis Murphy of The Oregonian gave the film a middling review, praising the special effects and acting as "first-rate," but ultimately summarizing: "The Possessed was a disappointing television movie, mainly because the plot lacked motivation."
Steve Barton of Dread Central rated it 3.5/5 stars and called it a "token TV movie Exorcist knock-off" that is "actually ridiculously entertaining." Paul Mavis of DVD Talk rated it 4/5 stars and called it an "extremely effective made-for-TV supernatural horror film."
In a retrospective on the film for Bloody Disgusting, Mike Holtz compared the film favorably against The Exorcist (1973), writing: "Movies still rip off The Exorcist to this day, but rarely are they able to match even the atmosphere of the film. The Possessed manages to pull that off. It also asks a very original question: What if the evil of possession is real but the Church actually has no answer for it? No bible passages or Holy Water. No weapons whatsoever."
Writing for Collider, Mike Holtz gave a favorable assessment of the film, noting: "The Possessed is a particularly competent and grounded film, maybe a little stodgy. It's anchored by its up-and-coming cast, which includes not just one future Oscar nominee in Ford, but three."