Movies
Hilarious Movie Possessions That’ll Make Your Head Spin

What’s up with demonic possessions, anyway? Not unlike UFOs, unidentified floating humans have remained a mystery throughout history. As gatekeepers of all things infernal, dark, and twisty, the Catholic Church records very little regarding highly trained exorcists and their services. And let’s not forget that before modern medicine came along, misunderstood and undiagnosed mental illness most likely served as the real culprit behind the supposed work of the devil. Still, in the year of our Lord 2023, there is no legitimate documentation of human possession. We have those suspect YouTube videos of crowds of convulsing churchgoers falling to the ground as they are touched by the spirit via a preacher named Scott, but that’s neither here nor there. Have the Powers that Be abandoned us with the advent of camcorders and iPhones, or is it all an ancient urban legend?
I’m not here to answer any of those questions. This is Horror Press, not Vice! Instead, in celebration of the grandaddy of morbidly funny horror dragging itself out of Hell after a decade-long dirt nap with its latest entry, Evil Dead Rise, I’d like to highlight the joys of demonic possession. From the transcendent Evil Dead II to the farcical Scary Movie 2, filmmakers have been able to put their spin on the “based on true events” phenomenon, challenging traditional horror tropes in wonderfully absurd ways.
Horror is known for its unique examination of the human condition, and the following films perform Last Rites and run an autopsy on the self-serious subgenre. If something as disturbing as Possession (1981) can become a viral TikTok meme, anything’s possible.
Body-ody-ody Horror
Evil Dead II (1987)
The original requel, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II (1987), birthed a new classification of unholy horror. Sure, there were comedic takes on the strange and unusual before its release, but we’d never seen an eyeball-swallowing, furniture-frolicking romp like this – and it’s still scary, too! After briefly retelling the original’s story, in which evil forces possess Ash Williams’ girlfriend and force him to dismember her, the survivor and lovable goon finds himself in that same cabin in the woods battling its possessed patrons – and even himself – without a chance to breathe. While the story beats are familiar, Raimi makes the genius decision to inject his now-iconic sense of outlandish humor into his practical effects-laden masterpiece, and he forever changed cinema.
Bruce Campbell’s Ash is a new-age Buster Keaton as he spends the first quarter of the movie alone, losing his marbles while dodging an invisible evil in fire-rate slapstick fashion. His undead girlfriend twirls in the moonlight as the cabin’s bewitched furnishings push his sanity to the brink, which culminates in a battle for the ages against his newly possessed hand that would make Thing from The Addams Family blush. All this before the remaining victims…er cast, arrive on site to contend against one another’s sassy demonic forms and a bloated cellar witch. Even the movie’s original poster is subtly funny, featuring a side-eyed skeleton that strangely reminds me of the original Scream cast posters. If it weren’t for Evil Dead II, I fear I would be unable to write this piece– and we probably wouldn’t have Bride of Chucky, either.
Idle Hands (1999)
Twelve years and several hella massive bong rips later, Idle Hands (1999) arrived on the scene in presumed homage to Ash’s severed appendage. With a stacked 90s-era cast starring Devon Sawa, Jessica Alba, Seth Green, and Vivica A. Fox, this is the slasher stoner comedy to Evil Dead II’s stop-motion mushroom trip. Filmed in Pasadena, CA (aka Haddonfield), it follows slacker Anton (Sawa) as he and his friends scramble to understand how and why his hand came to have a killer mind of its own. It’s a stupid good time and not to be underestimated, especially considering its practical SFX artist is four-time Oscar winner Greg Cannom and Thing Addams himself, Christopher Hart, performs as the titular Hand. New meaning is brought to the term “hand job” as Anton’s diabolical extremity uses a pencil sharpener like a whetstone for its nails and proceeds to scalp the lead singer of The Offspring, Dexter Holland, at the school dance.
The Roundtable
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
The séance is a paranormal movie staple that drives the plot forward by seeking answers from beyond the veil. Typically, these scenes aim to spook viewers via blackened eyes and unhinged vocal fry. Some movies, like Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell (2009), throw caution to the wind and use a talking goat to call the protagonist a “bitch”, instead. The butt of the joke, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), is a naive millennial loan officer who makes an unfortunate choice during a morally grey dilemma at work to get ahead of her peers. Consequently, she is cursed by the wronged Mrs. Ganush and, in a page ripped straight from The Ring, is doomed to be quite literally dragged to Hell in three days. Desperate and frazzled, Christine is put through the wringer by Raimi, screaming her way through a series of gross-out set pieces and gags reminiscent of an R-rated Looney Toons.
Eventually, Christine finds herself at a séance to contact the Lamia demon stalking her soul, and the scene plays out like a Scary Movie moment. The medium, acting as a vessel for the Lamia, inadvertently transfers its presence to a goat and, ultimately, her nervous assistant. Where else but a Sam Raimi flick would you watch as the assistant dances above the table like a cracked-out marionette before he vomits up the cat Christine had previously killed in a futile attempt at a ritual sacrifice? It’s equal parts mean-spirited and campy, and we’re rooting for Christine just as much as we’re waiting with bated breath to see what awful sludge she must trudge through next. Only horror could play with our emotions so devilishly.
Beetlejuice (1988)
And speaking of GOATs, Catherine O’Hara did the thing (Winona Ryder, my Gothic Queen) as she slays a spirit channeling of her own in Tim Burton’s goth chic haunted house movie Beetlejuice (1988). Detached from reality and grounded in materialistic desires, sculptor Delia Deetz and her vapid brethren are suddenly overcome with the spirit of dance around the dinner table. Vacillating between utter confusion and good vibes only, the cast’s facial expressions as their hips sway and asses bounce to Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” is pure cinema. With no control over their bodies, they are our possessed puppets, existing only to entertain as we likewise lose control of our bladders amid the laughter.
Ectoplasmic!
Ghostbusters (1984)
In Ghostbusters (1984), Sigourney Weaver is another icon overtaken by a sinister presence as the cellist turned Gatekeeper, Dana Barrett. Unfortunately, her high-rise apartment building was designed as a beacon of energy to channel the shapeshifting demon Gozer the Destructor, and chaos naturally ensues. Once the demigod servant of Gozer possesses her, “there is no Dana, only Zuul,” and Sigourney, in her prime, shines through. Her performance, as she attempts to seduce “sub-creature” Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), is all big 80s hair and uncanny sexpot wrapped in a fog machine. In short, perfection. The cherry on top? The eventual manifestation of Gozer resembles David Bowie posing like Shakira in front of the Illuminati symbol.
Extra Ordinary (2019)
Under-the-radar Irish film Extra Ordinary (2019) follows in Ghostbusters’ gooey footsteps as a comedy that’s light on horror and heavy on quaint. Driving instructor Rose Dooley (Maeve Higgins) has a knack for the paranormal and exorcising inanimate objects. However, following an accident wherein a possessed pothole does her father in, she keeps her talents to herself. Failed musician Christian Winter (Will Forte) enacts a plot to regain fame and fortune by sacrificing a teenage virgin, and Rose begrudgingly falls in with the plan to save her. This includes using human hosts to channel the spirits of haunted objects to cause a gag reflex, which allows Rose to collect the expelled ectoplasm for use in an incantation. It’s just gross enough while also being more lighthearted fare than anything on this list, and Higgins nails her comedic timing like it’s second nature. If a horror-themed episode of Parks and Recreation sounds like your jam, then Extra Ordinary has the ooze you seek.
Sex Paranoia
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
It wouldn’t be a list of possession movies and moments that upend the genre without mention of Diablo Cody’s criminally mismarketed cult classic Jennifer’s Body (2009). It’s had a cultural reappraisal as of late, so I’m not going to bore you with the details, but much like Scream 4, this movie was ahead of its time. Codependency and female friendship are the real demons here, and Cody writes her dialogue in a way that perfectly encapsulates how horror can be used as a dissection of cultural norms. Possessed by an evil force after a tragic indie rock band mistakes Jennifer for a virgin to use in a Satanic ritual, a battle of good versus evil ensues as the demonic and iconic Jennifer and her homely BFF Needy (Amanda Seyfried) butt heads. The script is a banger, and an underrated Megan Fox delivers uproarious lines with a sharp-tongued sardonic wit. After endless dick and ball jokes have become par for the course, it only makes sense for a female antihero to dryly remark, “my tit,” after being stabbed in the chest.
Eternal Damnation
Scary Movie 2 (2001)
As these films can attest, you don’t need to be a full-on spoof movie to make light of serious subject matter or genre fare – although it’s always wise to check out Scary Movie 2 (2001) and its take on The Exorcist featuring a young Natasha Lyonnne after you’ve had a few. And how serious are the historically undocumented possessions and exorcisms, anyway? Horror is a chameleon when it needs to be, and after watching a never-ending stream of meek women, comely fathers, and innocent children bare the brunt of the devil’s tricks, it’s fun to watch someone else take a comedic crack at it. The possibilities of who or what might fall under demonic influence are endless, so let’s get groovy.
Movies
The Best Horror You Can Stream on Shudder in February 2025
The Shudder February lineup is after my heart. Obviously, the app is adding more 2024 titles like The Dead Thing and Little Bites. However, they are also adding so many cool movies I have been dying to make my friends watch these last few years. There are some films guaranteed to make some heads roll alongside some cute vampire rom-coms hitting the horror streamer this month, and I cannot wait to revisit each title. Check out the five movies I’m highlighting this year, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! So here are the best movies to stream on Shudder this February!

The Shudder February lineup is after my heart. Obviously, the app is adding more 2024 titles like The Dead Thing and Little Bites. However, they are also adding so many cool movies I have been dying to make my friends watch these last few years. There are some films guaranteed to make some heads roll alongside some cute vampire rom-coms hitting the horror streamer this month, and I cannot wait to revisit each title. Check out the five movies I’m highlighting this year, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
The Best Movies to Stream on Shudder This Month
The Coffee Table (2022)
A couple of new parents experiencing a rough patch decide to buy a coffee table, not knowing that the decision will alter their lives forever. The Coffee Table was one of my favorite movies of last year, and it is one of those titles you want to know as little as possible when you hit play. It is the bleakest and most stressful comedy I have seen in years, and I love it. This one goes out to my fellow sickos (complimentary). Please watch it the day it hits Shudder before the internet can ruin it for you.
You can watch The Coffee Table on February 24th.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2024)
A young vampire who is too sensitive to kill for her supper meets a young loner with suicidal tendencies. What starts as a transactional relationship soon blossoms into an unexpected friendship. This movie is much cuter than I like my vampire movies. However, it is still a nice time for those looking to fill the void left by What We Do in the Shadows ending. It’s also not the worst romantic horror movie we have ever seen. I had very few notes for it in my review, and I know it made it onto quite a few top 10 lists of last year.
You can watch Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person on February 10th.
My Animal (2023)
An outcast falls for a new girl in her small town, which makes it difficult to keep her darkest secret hidden. My Animal is a severely overlooked lesbian werewolf tale. It has been stuck in streamer purgatory for years, so finally finding a streaming home is a big deal. This moody story stars Bobbi Salvör Menuez and Amandla Stenberg and deserves your attention. It belongs somewhere between Ginger Snaps and Good Manners in the women werewolves we must celebrate. Make this feral love story a date night this winter, preferably during a full moon.
You can watch My Animal on February 1st.
Nightsiren (2022)
A woman returns to her birthplace, searching for answers to questions about her childhood. However, she is met with ancient superstitions and a community accusing her of witchcraft and murder. Nightsiren has been on my radar for a couple of years and is the only movie I have not seen. I love that Shudder is letting me find out if it’s as good as it looks this February. Worst-case scenario, I can say that I watched a Slovak-Czech feminist psychological horror this month, and that feels like a win.
You can watch Nightsiren on February 10th.
Tiger Stripes (2024)
An 11-year-old discovers the body horror of puberty as her body begins to change. Gothic horror is out, and menstruation is in because Tiger Stripes is the kind of period horror we need more of in the world. I fell for this cute little movie during a festival a couple of years ago and am so glad it has finally made its way to Shudder. It’s funny and very relatable. It is also a new genre entry destigmatizing the menses, and we need more movies in this subgenre. So, while you should watch it with as many people as possible, it’s also a delightful brunch body horror moment.
You can watch Tiger Stripes on February 24th.
It seems like Shudder has read my diary and added titles that I need the rest of you to see. I hope you check out these tales of lesbian werewolves, fun period horror, and everything between this February. You truly deserve cool new stories by cool new filmmakers, and that is exactly what the streamer is giving us almost weekly this month. What a time to be a subscriber!
Movies
Revisiting The Stepfather Films (And The Insane Real Crime Spree That Inspired Them)

We all have one person in our lives who carries everything on their backs. It could be a family member whose work ethic shocks everyone around them or a friend juggling dozens of projects at once and still managing to get everything done just right. Thankless individuals who go unrecognized, but sometimes, that person ends up getting the spotlight they deserve.
To me, the Stepfather series is the perfect example of that in cinematic terms.
The Stepfather, directed by Joseph Ruben in 1987, is the first in a small franchise of horror films that feels pretty forgotten in the grand scheme of 80s slashers and thrillers. But the film is a really interesting study of how one actor can take a role and make it their own, in a way that’s so compelling it makes you want to see more of that character even when the movies he’s in are kind of mediocre.
ODDLY MEMORABLE FOR A FORGOTTEN FRANCHISE
As the cultural conversation of the era has turned into a lot of circular discourse about how much better effects were back then and how unproven concepts made it to the screen more often, it should be easy to forget a psychological horror film with such a simple premise: what if your stepfather you hated was actually a freaky serial killer who was going to take your family out? From that premise sprung an unexpectedly great film, carried entirely by its lead actor.
I have a weird connection to The Stepfather because it was written by Richard Stark, who wrote one of my favorite crime stories of all time: The Hunter. I didn’t even know Richard Stark was only a pseudonym until I watched The Stepfatherand discovered it was writer Donald E. Westlake’s pen name. And Westlake’s proficiency with crime fiction translates here smoothly, because he took a horrifying real-life story of absolute evil (straight out of Westfield, New Jersey) and brought it to the screen with a true-to-life character.
THE CRIMINAL BEHIND THE STEPFATHER SERIES
The real-life killer behind The Stepfather films was John List. To most people, he was a family man, living the dream with his wife and three children. He was a banker, hard-working and clean living, on the outside at least. He had a close relationship with many of the people in the Lutheran church he attended every Sunday, and was well-liked. But in reality, List was about to become one of the most infamous mass murderers in American history.
Behind the scenes, List was struck with financial trouble after financial trouble that exacerbated his already worsening mental health problems. A number of layoffs and setbacks left him and his family teetering on the brink of poverty despite the fact they lived in a 19-room mansion (I couldn’t even begin to explain how that works, don’t ask). List’s relationship with his wife was damaged by her spending habits, alcoholism, and deteriorating mental state due to untreated syphilis.
He was left to “raise” three children, whom he was verbally and physically abusive to; his daughter Patricia even warned her drama coach that she was certain her father was going to kill her. Then her father actually sat all the kids down and told them they should prepare to die. And eventually, Patricia, her mother and grandmother, and both of her brothers became List’s victims in 1971.
List left his car in long-term parking at JFK International and disappeared with almost nothing in his name. Leaving a confession for his pastor behind in the form of a letter, it took weeks for neighbors to report the family’s disappearance, thanks to List’s meticulous planning. He had already slipped through the hands of the police by running from state to state, before eventually settling down into a new persona: Robert Clark. He eventually “fell in love” with a woman named Delores Miller, and the two moved to Virginia together soon after that.
Their relationship ended abruptly after an episode of America’s Most Wanted aired, in which famous forensic artist Frank Bender made an incredibly accurate sculpt of what List looked like at the time. After years of close calls and narrow captures, List was discovered. It took 17 and a half years for List to be caught. He was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences and died in jail in 2008.
THE ACTOR WHO GAVE LIFE TO THE STEPFATHER SERIES
Now, I mention all of this above to punctuate one thing: The Stepfather isn’t the only fictionalized retelling of List’s story, but it is the most effective. Its opening scene is a gruesome recounting of List’s disaffected disappearance, how he slipped off to freedom, to an alternate life of his own design for nearly two decades, with little emotion at all. It opens on a mystery—what kind of man is he, if he is human at all? How does one simply walk away from a crime scene so calm and collected?
Because at the heart of the List case is the intensely intriguing and horrifying persona that is John List. To adapt that kind of personality, that deeply unhinged and deceptive person, is the kind of acting challenge many actors would pounce on immediately. And for horror fans, an unlikely hero stepped up to the plate: Terry O’Quinn. He’s best known for playing John Locke on the show Lost, but he’s also a quintessential “that one guy” character actor; he’s been in so many films and television shows you can probably throw a dart in any direction and hit his filmography.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call the first two Stepfather movies iconic (entertaining, definitely). Still, our main man Terry O’Quinn is incredibly iconic in his performance of Jerry Blake. O’Quinn really does enthrall you, and he’s an actor to beat when it comes to depicting someone slowly unraveling and releasing bursts of madness along the way like solar flares on a star’s surface. And I don’t just say that because he bears a bizarre resemblance to an older Anthony Starr.
He even almost tricks you into thinking Jerry’s moments of manufactured sweetness and maudlin family-man aesthetic are genuine, but then you remember what you’re watching and go right back to hating him with a passion. He is a quintessential horror movie villain because you despise him, but you’re transfixed by him.
He’s an emotionally disturbed con man, a parasite who can worm his way into a new skin with sociopathic ease. And when it all comes crashing down, to the point where even he isn’t sure what role he’s supposed to play for his fake family, its fantastic. With a line as simple as, “Wait a minute, who am I here?”, O’Quinn cemented himself as the definitive depiction of the character.
WHY EACH OF THE STEPFATHER FILMS IS WORTH WATCHING
As I said, these films are far from perfect, but each one brings something a little new and different to the table. It’s fun to see O’Quinn return to the role in Stepfather 2, playing opposite of the legendary Caroline Williams and Meg Foster; a psycho-slasher finale at a wedding is just hard to beat. Stepfather 3 brings a surprisingly good changing of hands to the title role, though, since despite O’Quinn being replaced by Robert Wightman, Wightman brings just the right kind of energy to the role; he’s the perfect fit for the much campier and goofier tone of the 3rd film, and I was honestly very impressed with how he brought the role to life. But be warned: don’t bother with the remake. It is borderline bloodless, and incredibly boring. You can put a million Penn Badgley’s in that film, I’m not watching it again.
The Stepfather films aren’t anyone’s favorite of the many horror fans I’ve met and spoken with. But they are a capsule of how one artist can have enough staying power to keep them in your mind. So, for all my people out there who are going to check the trilogy out now thanks to this article: happy watching horror fans, and have fun!