If The Exorcist was a fine steak dinner paired with an expensive wine, The Possessed is the cold plate of leftover mystery meat your aunt reheats in a microwave that hasn’t been cleaned since Nixon was in office. Billed as a supernatural horror TV event, this 74-minute NBC “pilot” limps along like it’s auditioning for the role of Diet Exorcist Lite and never gets the callback.
Holy Watered-Down Premise
James Farentino plays Kevin Leahy, a dead alcoholic priest sent back to Earth to fight Satan. It’s a decent elevator pitch—if your elevator breaks down halfway and you have to finish the story over lukewarm coffee in the lobby. Instead of bringing terror, Leahy spends most of the movie poking around an Oregon girls’ school like a moody handyman who misplaced his crucifix.
The Budget Fires Burn Brighter Than the Story
The supernatural menace here isn’t an ancient demon or even the Devil himself—it’s random, poorly staged bursts of flame. Curtains, typewriter paper, graduation gowns… if it can burn, it will, and always in the most awkwardly choreographed way possible. It’s less “spiritual warfare” and more “stop, drop, and roll—live on NBC.”
Harrison Ford Before He Was Harrison Ford
Yes, Harrison Ford is in this, but don’t get excited—this isn’t Han Solo with a Bible. He plays a biology teacher who gets romantically entangled with the wrong student and ends up flambéed like a sad side dish. He’s in and out so fast you’ll think you hallucinated him, which, given the quality of the script, is understandable.
Joan Hackett Deserves Combat Pay
Joan Hackett’s Headmistress Gelson gets the plum role of “possessed authority figure,” and by the time she’s spitting nails (literally) and laughing like she’s auditioning for a Halloween hayride, you can tell she’s the only one having fun. Her final showdown with Leahy at the swimming pool is supposed to be climactic, but it feels more like an awkward office party where someone spiked the punch with lighter fluid.
Special Effects by the Department of Low Expectations
The fire effects look like someone lit a cigarette and hoped for the best. The “possession” moments are just people yelling slightly louder than usual. And when the finale arrives, it’s not a battle for souls—it’s an NBC-mandated splash fight in chlorinated water, with a priest who bursts into flames and vanishes in what can only be described as the most polite self-immolation in TV history.
Final Verdict: The Devil Can Keep This One
The Possessed was meant to launch a series, but thank God (literally) it didn’t. It’s a limp, undercooked TV-movie that mistakes random pyrotechnics for terror and forgets that exorcism stories need, well, stakes. If you’re watching it today, it’s probably out of morbid curiosity or because you spotted Harrison Ford’s name on the cast list. Just know that this isn’t The Exorcist. It’s not even The Exorcist II: The Heretic. It’s The Exorcist as told by someone who read the Cliff’s Notes during a fire drill.
