Rating: 3/5
Arkham, Massachusetts
Dr. Daniella Upton (Barbara Crampton) looks at a barely recognizable corpse with a weirdo coroner. She then goes to the psych ward to visit Dr. Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham), who is mumbling to herself about cutting off the head and destroying the body.
When Beth sees Dani, she begs Dani to finish destroying the body. Dani assures her that the person is dead. But Beth isn’t convinced. Beth tells Dani the story of how the thing came into her life.
Beth is a practicing psychiatrist. A young man named Asa Waite enters her practice, asking for her help. Asa had an out-of-body experience, and Beth wrote a book about it. Asa claims his father is doing it to him.
Asa’s phone rings. He answers and collapses on the floor into a seizure. When he gets up, his whole demeanor has changed. He is callous, flippant, and doesn’t want help.
Beth’s hot, shitty husband ignores her pleas and tries to fuck her, but he turns into Asa and that gets her motor running.
The film follows Beth as Asa takes over her life.
Heather Graham should do more Barbara Crampton-like roles! She commits to the bit and does some wacky scenes.
Bruce Davidson is so outrageous — like Graham, he knows exactly what movie he’s in.
This has the best use of a backup camera I’ve seen in a movie.
The score reminds me of Charles Band — goofy and over-the-top in the best way.
The setup is solid! I wanted this to go as cuckoo bananas as the films it’s paying homage to, but for whatever reason the film plays it safe. At least we get a coroner eating a pastrami sandwich during an autopsy.
Still, this is (intentionally) silly and entertaining.