Boy oh boy. It has been a long time since we’ve had an installment of Wicked Wisconsin Wednesday! To be precise: since January of 2018. And before that, there had been a dry spell between The Monster of Phantom Lake and the last WWW in 2016. To my surprise, there is still plenty to cover here.

Wicked Wisconsin Wednesday was a project I loved working on. I aimed to watch every horror movie either filmed in or set in Wisconsin (plus the occasional rule-bender). There are a number of newer movies that have come to my attention in the last couple years. But this gem… I’m annoyed that it somehow escaped my notice back in the day.

Demon Possessed (probably better known by it’s original title The Chill Factor) is an early 90s slasher film made in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Like many movies made in Wisconsin, there’s a lot of snow here – plenty for SNOWMOBILE RACES!

A group of friends all head up north to have a snowmobiling vacation. Cannot confirm whether or not this is something anyone would actually want to do.

While out having a race during the day, one of the friends, Tom, crashes into a tree and is badly injured. The remaining friends all get him to the ruins of a nearby camp, hoping that they can help him survive the night.

The friends soon gather that the camp used to be a religious camp of sorts. Lots of crucifixes and, of course, a Ouija board of sorts. Tom’s girlfriend, Jeannie, claims to have some experience with the mystics, so she’s hesitant to try the board. But of course they play around anyway, resulting in Tom being possessed – unbeknownst to the rest of the gang.

Throughout the night, the friends are all lured to their deaths. It isn’t until the morning that Jeannie realises that everyone is dead but her. Will she be able to escape the demon on the back of her snowmobile?

This movie is so 80s. Sure, I know it says 1993, but you can’t convince me that this wasn’t filmed years earlier. It’s pretty ridiculous in a way that many slashers were in the late part of the boom. The premise is certainly memorable, and some of the death scenes are pretty fun. But this probably won’t be a slasher to go down in history as one of the greats.

It’s trash, but if you know what you’re getting yourself into, you’ll probably find something fun in this short running time.

And also -“Stay cool, Karen!”

Arrow recently released a Blu-Ray of The Chill Factor. This plus the box set of Bill Rebane films has me suspicious that either someone at Arrow is from WI, or they just really love regional horror. And really, I hope it’s the latter (or both!). Regional US horror is pretty dead these days. But next week’s film is hopefully a sign that it’s not completely gone.