Michael Ledo
Nadine (Erin Russ) has a fairly easy life, laying around nude while guys take Polaroids of her. She gets her drugs and all is well until she goes beyond the norm and now she is back at home with an overly religious mother who believes her daughter is possessed. She spends her last dime on a donation to eliminate a demon or two in Nadine who is faking it.The film was low budget with background noise in the film. David Yow as the preacher was not convincing and had scenes that lasted way to long with boring religious talk. Erin Russ had a grown Wednesday Addams (Lisa Loring) look to her. The opening starts off with a bang, with erotic scenes and then dies.2 stars for the nudity Guide: F-word, sex, nudity (Erin Rus
Woodyanders
Weary and strung-out drug addict prostitute Nadine (a strong and fearless performance by Erin Russ) goes home to her gullible and delusional religious kook mother Delilah (well played by Colleen Cohan) seeking a place to crash so she can kick her habit. However, Delilah believes that Nadine has the devil within her, so she hires a shady, yet zealous rogue priest (a marvelously intense and unnerving portrayal by David Yow) to exorcise the evil spirits from Nadine's body and thereby save her soul.Director William Hellfire, who also co-wrote the hard-hitting script with Mike Hunchback, artfully uses a simple and claustrophobic style that puts a potent emphasis on mood and characters over cheap scares and crass exploitative thrills, does an expert job of maintaining an extremely dark, bleak, and despairing tone, grounds the gripping premise in a plausibly sordid workaday reality, and offers a bold and provocative exploration of religious fanaticism and hypocrisy (the priest only provides his holy services after Delilah gives him a generous donation first). The stark presentation of the priest as a dangerous and duplicitous charlatan rates as its greatest and most impressive coup: This is the type of cunning and dastardly fellow who cruelly twists and distorts religion for his own vile selfish ends and, alas, exists all around us in everyday life. Moreover, the fact that Nadine isn't completely sympathetic adds an additional admirable element of challenging complexity to the whole sticky situation. A very difficult and disturbing picture for sure, but still quite powerful and praiseworthy just the same.