Enter the Devil (1978)

C'mon Satan, get the finger out. You started off okay with Beyond The Door and The Antichrist, then totally fumbled the ball with Magdalena possessed by the Devil. You're supposed to be trying to take the souls of the human race from that of God, so why are you settling on making teenagers randy foul-mouthed rebels? That's what they are anyway!This one starts quite good, with art student Danila getting involved with restoring a very life-like figure on a cross that her university have purchased. Danila's got some domestic problems. Her father (Chris Avram) is drifting away from her mother (Lucretia Love), who is having an affair with hunky Gabrielle Tinti. Lucretia's a bit kinky too, so it doesn't help that Danila happens upon Gabrielle whipping the crap out of Lucretia with a bunch of roses, and Lucretia screaming for him to do it harder. Danila goes off to concentrate on her work, restoring some art back at college.This is where perhaps the best scene of the film happens, as while Danila is working away on her project, the man on the cross behind her suddenly starts moving, comes to life as a Satanic Ivan Rassimov, and makes sweet sweet love to Danila on the floor of the studio while a weird wind blows about. Then again, shortly afterwards, Danila regains her senses fully clothed, restoring her painting. So what's going on? And what creepy bastard is following her around. Of course Danila starts acting possessed and indulges in some furious self-abuse witnessed by her parents, so soon begins the jibber jabber about real illness versus possession and the whole film descends into boredom, save for a nightmare sequence where Danila enters a demonic ceremony and Ivan Rassimov (who makes a good Satan) nails her to a crosss. Sadly, after this bit, it's off to Exorcist-lite territory as Danila gets shipped off to a convent and priest Luigi Pistilli is brought in to sort her out in a very underwhelming finale. This of course happens a lot in exploitation cinema, but it doesn't do us fans much good to track down a film and find it's a weaker version of the film it's trying to rip off. You could probably watch the first half and just switch it off, because up until then it's a fine film. Umberto Raho has a great moustache in this one, however.

After examining a historical religious icon, pretty young art student Danila (Stella Carnacina) begins to exhibit some of the classic signs of demonic possession: poor complexion, an irrational fear of all things churchy, and a bad case of stigmata. Her doctors believe that her condition is the result of religious torment and emotional stress, but suggest that an exorcism might be her best chance of recovery.I saw this one under the title of The Eerie Midnight Horror Show, but it is probably best known as The Sexorcist, which is certainly more apt since the film is a blatant Italian Exorcist rip-off with extra sexy stuff chucked in to make it seem even more exploitative. Director Mario Gariazzo, who gave us the incredibly seedy giallo Play Motel, quickly introduces some primo sleaze, Danila chancing upon her adulterous mother indulging in some sado-masochistic sex with her lover, and continues to throw in random raciness throughout, including Danila indulging in a spot of masturbation, attempting to seduce her own father, and dreaming of having sex with a wooden figure of Jesus that comes to life.While all of this might sound like a whole lot of exploitative fun, most of the deviancy is presented in a surprisingly reserved fashion (especially when compared to Play Motel, which frequently bordered on the pornographic), and, as a consequence, is frustratingly dull for much of the time. The finale is particularly lacklustre, Danila's exorcism over in a flash, the girl giving priest Father Xeno (Luigi Pistilli) a few whacks with a chain before chucking up some watery soup, after which she is as right as rain.

Another Italian rip-off of an American hit, this time it's THE EXORCIST. A young art student (Stella Carnacina) falls under the spell of a wooden statue found in the ruins of a desecrated church but the figure on the cross isn't Jesus (thank God) and when she's alone with it, the religious icon comes to life and rapes her. Soon she can't stop masturbating and puts the make on her father before becoming a lascivious, low-budget Linda Blair in this super sleazy slice of erotic horror "based on a true story". The second half of the film couldn't possibly live up to the first half but no matter, the shocking segment just described lingers long after the movie's over. Good lord.

With the annuel IMDb Horror board's "October Challenge" coming up in 2 months time I mentioned to a fellow IMDb'er that I was planning to spend a good amount of the challenge taking a look at films from the Roughie and "Adult"-Horror genres.A month later:Opening a parcel that had arrived earlier in the day,I was shocked to discover that a fellow IMDb'er had kindly sent me a selection of Roughie and Adult-Horror titles to help me on my new quest of taking a look at the two genres.Taking a look at the titles which had been sent,I found myself constantly getting drawn to a film which sounded like an extremely sleazy riff on the Horror movie The Exorcist,which led to me excitingly getting ready to witness this erotic exorcism take place.The plot:After completing her final art exam,student Danila decides to go with her boyfriend to a church that they are currently helping to restore.Looking around the church, (which has been left to rot for 100's of years due to "obscene" acts which took place upon its premises)Danila finds herself getting drawn towards two life size statues of Jesus.Being unable to take her eyes off the statues,Danila gets the head of the restoration to give her permission to take one of the statues home with her for extra studying.Later that night:Attending an end of term party being held at her parents house,Danila is greeted by the sight of her mum playing around with a secret lover.Running away from the horrible sight,Danila rushes to her apartment so that she can put the awful sights behind her,and instead focus on the statue.As she begins to take a closer look at the statue,Danila soon discovers that the statue may not be as "solid" as it originally appeared.View on the film:With my original expectations being that the film would solely offer a fresh bit of slzzezy skin and some good dashing's of gore,I was instead pleasantly caught by surprise, thanks to co-writer/ (along with Ted Rusoff and Ambrogio Molteni) director Mario Gariazzo taking the movie in an unexpected,atmospheric direction.Limiting the amount of flesh shown in the movie to about 3 minutes of the total running time,and also backed by an icy Space-Rock score from Marcello Giombini,Gariazzo takes the first half of the film in a wonderful Supernatural Horror direction,with Gariazzo revealing that the objects/statues which Danila (played by a ravishing Stella Carnacina) is enchanted by,are far different than the "innocent" shape that they appear in.Sadly after building up a surprisingly chilly atmosphere for the first half of the movie,Gariazzo and the writer's completely remove the distinctive Supernatural Horror aspects from the film,and replace them with a forced-in exorcism angle which feels disconnected to the previous events that took place in the movie,which leads to the second half of this exorcism sadly not being as tantalisingly compelling as the possive first half.