Exorcismo (1975)

A young woman participates (unknowingly) in a satanic ceremony and gets possessed by the spirit of her late father.The big issue with this film is whether or not it ripped off "The Exorcist". Some say it did, and can point to such scenes as the "reverse head" murder as evidence. Writer (and star) Paul Naschy claimed he had written the script earlier and it just was not filmed at the time.Troy Howarth sees something of a middle ground, and suspects that Naschy had read the book but not seen the movie. As such, certain elements would have been lifted. Now, not having read the novel, I do not know hoe much it differs from the film, but assuming there is a great deal of overlap, it does make sense that uncredited source material might result in a similar movie.The truth of the matter, though, is that it makes no difference. Whether it is a ripoff or just a similar theme, the movie is a lot of fun. A priest acting as a detective, a 1970s possession, and lots of good, clean European cinematography.Sure, this is not the classic "The Exorcist" is, but it might just be more fun. We never get anything nearly as scary, and the Satanic elements make it in many ways more interesting than a simple possession.

The nth EXORCIST rip-off I have watched (and I still have a few more to go through!), though co-writer/star Paul Naschy reportedly claims it was written before that 1973 milestone. Few, if any, left much of a lasting impression and this one was certainly no exception, the reason mainly being that the victims always turn to be possessed by some dead relative rather than Evil Incarnate!Despite the title (which, incidentally, it shares with a surprisingly superior effort from the previous year by another Spaniard – Jess Franco – though the plot of that one has nothing to do with demonic possession), the expected rite at the center of the good-vs.-evil battle over a girl's soul only occurs in one brief flash during the last 15 minutes of the film (where the less-than-special effects takes center-stage)! The rest consists of general unruliness and mild swearing (though she intermittently takes to speaking in German and make baffling references to someone called Leonard)! Naschy is the exorcist, but he is also a friend (and former teacher) of the girl involved: though this ought to have allowed greater intimacy and poignancy to the confrontation scenes, as I said, these almost feel like an afterthought here! The only point of interest, in fact, are the satanic orgies (one of which is disrupted first by Naschy and eventually the Police) – especially since most people in the heroine's household, including a hulking bald chauffeur with a penchant for pornography(!), seem to be involved – and ensuing ritualistic murders. By the way, watching this, it has dawned on me just how many Euro-Horrors are set in Britain (Bristol in this case, albeit the print I watched is, thankfully, in the original Spanish language!).

The Gibson family are rich, decadent and dysfunctional. Youngest daughter Leila (a convincing performance by foxy brunette Grace Mills) is especially wild: her fiancé Richard practices the black arts and takes Leila to a debauched satanic ceremony. Pretty soon Leila starts acting strange: she says mean and spiteful things in a vulgar tongue, throws temper tantrums, and has severe seizures. Her mother Patricia (ravishing Maria Perschy) and sister Deborah (hot blonde Maria Kosti) are understandably worried. They call upon longtime friend Father Adrian Dunning (excellently played by Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy in a rare good guy role) to save Leila's soul before it's too late. Director Juan Bosch grounds the fantastic premise in a believable everyday world setting, which in turn gives the story a substantial additional credibility. Bosch earns bonus credit for handling the potentially lurid subject matter with admirable taste and restraint. Moreover, this film makes a strong and provocative point that mankind's flawed nature and immorality perpetuate the existence of evil (Leila becomes possessed by the spirit of her deceased father who hand incestuous longings for her). The gradual build-up leads to an especially chilling and unnerving third act; the climactic exorcism is quite tense and rousing. Francisco Sanchez's slick cinematography and Alberto Arguda's spooky funky-ripping score are both up to par. Nice ambiguous ending, too.

If this were not a very blatant rip-off of "The Exorcist" (which it very obviously is) it might be a halfway decent movie. Not a GREAT movie, but not too bad. Butinstead, we get some scenes that we've seen before and were better the firsttime around. A young, rich beauty (is there any other kind?) unknowinglyparticipates in a Satanic ritual and becomes possessed by the spirit of her late father, who died in an insane asylum. Things get moving with a head-turned- around-backwards murder (sound familiar?) and proceed onto the inevitabledemonic fried-egg eyeballs and scabby, vomit encrusted special effects make- up. There's nothing very new or original here. That said, it's still not the worst movie I've ever seen. It suffers from bad dubbing and a lame ending, but there's a few genuine scares, some groovy hippie coolness and lots of naked girlsdancing around, if you're into that sort of thing. Fans of the demonic possession genre may enjoy it, but die-hard fans of The Exorcist may be somewhatdisgusted. Four stars out of ten.