Exorcismo (1975)

Absolutely brilliant

The first must-see film of the year.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

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!).

Something is wrong with Leila (Grace Mills) and Father Adrian Dunning (Paul Naschy) is called in to evaluate the situation.Some may call this a ripoff of The Exorcist with Linda Blair, but I'd rather see the flesh displayed here than some special effects. The fact is that The Exorcist was not seen in Spain before this film came out.Anyway, it's a Paul Naschy film, and I am a completest.You won't see amazing special effects, because they didn't exist. So it looks fake at times, but it was a good story and an interesting film.Paul Naschy stole the show. I wasn't his finest hour, but he was head and shoulders above the rest. The makeup was good, and one could ignore how the film seemed to go all over the place just to see Naschy.

Nahhh! Leila (Grace Mills) is a teenager turned on to Satan (and LSD) by her archaeologist fiancé Richard. There's a neighborhood hippie demon cult hanging out at the local decrepit ancient castle, where Leila and Richard drink blood, drop drugs, join in sex orgies, dance to lame psychedelic rock and participate in black mass ceremonies where the guys wear pants, masks and capes and the women don't wear anything at all. Unfortunately, these kind of extracurricular activities have left Leila open to demonic possession from the dreaded "spirit of evil." Leila also comes from a screwed up family, which doesn't help either. Her older brother John is a recluse who seems to be in love with her. Her mother Patricia (Maria Perschy) is depressed because she thinks she was responsible for the father's death. To top it off, her sister (Maria Kosti) is a slutty semi pro golfer named (gasp!) Debbie Gibson. There's plenty of hired help around also to waste more time. Two maids (a young one who takes her clothes off a lot and an old one who spies on everyone), plus Udo (Luis Induni), a bald voyeuristic handyman who spies on Leila changing clothes, takes nude pictures of her and sneaks into the pool house to take a sniff of her freshly used bathing suit. Oh yeah and Borg, the pet German Shepherd.Paul Naschy is Father Adrian Dunning, the doubting priest (zzzzz) who starts snooping around after John and Richard both have their heads twisted around backwards. Leila tells him "They say I am perverse and I'm going to prove it is true!" During her birthday party, she tells her guests "You make me sick! I hate you all!" and when mom suggests having a doctor come over she she screeches "I don't want to see that fat ass!" Debbie suggests they commit Leila to a "sanitory," but Leila runs off and joins the cult again. She is rescued (again) and brought back home (for the third time).By this point in the movie, there's only about ten minutes left to go and all we've basically seen is some very boring scenes of characters talking and whining about how terrible and f-ed up their lives are and how Leila is acting weird. It's almost as agonizing to sit through as an Andy Milligan movie, minus the gore and laughs. But finally during the last few minutes we get the movie the title implies - an EXORCIST-like possession flick. Unfortunately, the best part of it are the contact lenses Leila gets to wear. Some cheap time-lapse slashes appear on her arms, legs and face, she gets scabby lips and her eyes take on the appearance of blue and white marbles. She begins reeking of rotted flesh, spits up some clear gunk, starts speaking in her dead dad's voice, sneaks into her mom's bedroom, slaps her around a bit and calls her a "filthy bitch of a whore." In comes Father Adrian, who now finally believes she is indeed possessed, fends off her attempts at seduction, hallucinates frogs and eels are in the kitchen and douses Leila with holy water. Doors open and close, a mirror breaks, there's sudden thunder and her bed rises up off the floor. After she tackles Dunning and the two roll down the stairs, the spirit is out of her and into - guess who? Why, Borg the family pooch! The demon dog then turns on Adrian and chews him up a little before he impales it on a fire poker. Then we get one of the most irritating final shots ever committed to film. It's Leila on the floor going from her hideous appearance back to her normal sexy self. But then there's ANOTHER time-lapse effect that sort of seems to suggest that the demon has possibly reentered her body. It's so badly done, you really have no clue what to make of it, which is the final slap in the face to anyone who has just realized they've wasted an hour and a half on this worthless POS.Screw the contacts, 1 out of 10 it is.

A cheap, bad Exorcist-rip off, and absolutely one of Paul Naschy's (alias Jacinto Molina) worst movies. The script is very...very...um, bad, and the plot is really bad. Naschy of course denied that the movie is an Exorcist-rip off, but we all know the truth. Watch out for the final exorcism-scene, which is so ridiculous as possible (the evil spirit goes to a DOG!). Naschy as a priest is of course ok, but the other actors are something from a summer theatre school...