This article originally appeared in MONSTER! INTERNATIONAL #3 published by Kronos Productions, MPO Box 67, Oberlin, OH 44074-0067 USA
The belief that one's self or another's personality can be possessed,
whether by supernatural entities (gods, demons, ghosts, etc.) or by corporeal
means (hypnosis, brainwash, etc.), is a deep,hysterical and illogical fear.
This idea that a human may be possessed by a supernatural personality, other
than its own, happens in all religions. Throughout the centuries people
have been slaughtered, tortured, and imprisoned because they were believed
possessed by devils; their grotesque demeanor blamed on something society
could neither understand or control. In our modern times 'civilized' communities
worldwide have dealt with possession in a number of ways. The popular scientific
approach of psychoanalysis easily explains cases of possession as mere hysteria,
"diabolical possession is caused by belief in diabolical possession."1
The metaphysical answer endorsed by the religiously inclined is an exorcism.
"The time-honored custom of ordering demons away, by verbal charms
and magical gestures, is still practiced by (1) primitive witch doctors
and (2) the Catholic church. Protestant churches don't exorcise."2
What constitutes a possession? Are the possessed monsters in the strictest
definition? What of the exorcists and their roles in such a paranormal situation?
These questions would be better answered if I were writing a dissertation
on the socio-political/religious analysis of possession. But.... Monster!
International is a movie magazine, so we had better stick to the cinematic
treatment of the subject.
Cinematically, possession films have been a recent sub-category of the horror
genre, their popularity building to a manic zenith within a four-year period
after the release of William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST (1973). In these films
the possessed take on the characteristics of monsters. Their physical appearance
is unhealthy, and they have unusual powers not associated with their human
counterparts. In almost every instance a human (most always a priest, but
nuns and doctors qualify) faces the possessed creature and must oust the
devil within him or her. While many of post-EXORCIST films betray their
origin with the now popular motifs established in Friedkin's movie, there
were productions prior to that landmark production. For the most part, these
films were unique and, at times, misunderstood and/or disdained by the general
film critic. Prior to Friedkin's feature, neither the Devil nor his minions
were a popular element of this unusual sub-genre.
The characters in pre-EXORCIST productions were normally possessed by something
other than a devil. Could this have been due to a taboo-induced nervousness
Hollywood had placed on portraying the devil as real? Universal Studio's
cold feet snipped Colin Clives' infamous line "Now I know what it feels
like to be God!" from the James Wales 1931 classic FRANKENSTEIN. It
wasn't until MCA re-released a "complete and uncut" edition of
their videotape of the film that the controversial (but barely audible)
utterance was restored. How would the early cinematic censors have reacted
to the Devil's physical manifestation during possession scenes in many of
the 70's EXORCIST clones? Satan's presentment would have broken the moral
code of the time, and thus any appearance was forbidden or glossed over.
(Few films from the 20's, 30's or 40's dared to be explicit in depicting
the Devil or portraying his handiwork on the Earth. Edgar Ulmer's THE BLACK
CAT [1934] approached Satanism with a rare zeal wherein Boris Karloff essays
evil as Hjalmar Poelzig, the suave leader of a devil cult.) So, in that
context, the Devil dabbled little with humankind. (Of course, Benjamin Christensen's
HÄXAN/WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES [1922] is something altogether different,
being a "documentary" on the subject of witches and the Devil.)
For those directors who wished to circumvent this sticky topic, and were
interested in the idea of a man possessed by "something" (other
than women and fame), alternate means taken - with some unique results.
During the lean decades to follow, the Fiend rarely made a serious appearance
in any film (outside of an odd "Passion Play" or Sunday School
programmer commited to film) to challenge the will of God (that admission
of moral and spiritual decay had to wait forty years). Devils were replaced
by ghosts; and the reluctant recipient of their transcendental whims were
usually abducted during seances or other means of spiritual contact. But,
of course, any such occurrence would be explained later on in the picture
as an act of charlatanism on behalf of the psychic. Despite the admission
that "there are no such things as ghosts," there were few films
which managed to wriggle around the inoffensive "it's just a farce"
attitude. An uncustomary twist to the standard fake spiritualist motif is
Victor Halperin's SUPERNATURAL. Made in 1933 by the man who directed the
excellent WHITE ZOMBIE (1932), this is a tale of a malicious woman who,
betrayed by her partner, a cheap clairvoyant, is sent to the electric chair
for murder. Her restless spirit returns and possesses the body of the film's
heroine (Carol Lombard) and kills the man who framed her. The pacified ghost
then leaves Lombard's body to return to the afterlife. SUPERNATURAL is a
film which whets a person's appetite for more, a potential dish which was
never adequately realized and rightfully exploited.
With Hollywood awash in perpetual social censorship, afraid to give the
paying customer more fright for their money, it was a Polish film which
pioneered the exorcism movies. According to Gershom Scholem in his book
Kabbalah, stories of these dibbukim (literally, abbreviated from "dibbuk
me-ru'a" ra'ah"; translated: "a cleavage of an evil spirit"
and "dibbuk min ha-"°iz°onim"; translated: "dibbuk
from the demonic side"3
) were/are prevalent throughout Hasidic culture. A dibbuk is the troubled
soul of a dead person which has not been laid to rest. This spirit becomes
a demon and attaches -or cleaves- itself onto the healthy soul of a mortal
and "it is thus the equivalent of possession." It is important
to note that the film in which this demon/ghost-possession occurred was
Michal Waszynski's THE DYBUK/THE DYBBUK, a rarely seen Yiddish-language
production from 1937 based on a play by the famous Yiddish author S. Ansky.
Waszynski's film had only been available, until recently, solely through
Jewish film rental outlets and various specialty video stores. Though believed
lost by many film scholars, several prints eventually turned up, although
they were severely cut. Restored in 1989 by the noted National Center for
Jewish Film Library, THE DYBUK now clocks in at a hefty 123 minutes; a good
half an hour or more material was recovered. The film is intact and includes
the crucial exorcism scene within the Temple which was, for reasons unknown,
deleted from earlier prints.
The ancient Jewish idea of "cleaving" the soul was successfully
incorporated in the 15th Century with a similar, more modern Catholic belief,
closer to home and dutifully exploited by Friedkin. Dibbukim occur when
the possessed commits "a secret sin" which opens "a door
for the dibbuk."4
There is only one way to get rid of a pesky dibbuk or demon, and that is
to exorcise the creature. In THE DYBUK a rabbi must follow the proper protocols,
which is true as well for the Catholic priests, who are duty-bound by a
"solemn method of exorcising [which] is given in the Roman Ritual."5
The film takes place within a strict Jewish Hasidic community known as a
shtetlekh, where two star-crossed lovers, Khonnon and Leah, are kept apart.
When all fails and the impoverished young yeshiva student, Khonnon, turns
to dark forces and appeals to Satan for aid in winning the hand of his betrothed,
Leah. "If not through God, then how?" he cries desperately in
the holy Temple, "Through Satan! Satan, I implore you! Help Me!"
His plea is heard and a dark cloud envelopes the student, who then falls
dead. The corpse of Khonnon is buried and the wedding of Leah to another
man is set. Before she is to be wed, Leah's father asks her to visit her
mother's grave and, as tradition requests, invite her mother's soul to the
festivities. However, the distraught and heartbroken Leah breaks down next
to Khonnon's grave and requests his spirit to attend. During the festivities
Khonnon's wandering spirit "cleaves" to Leah's soul and possesses
her in an unholy supernatural bond. "The bride has been possessed by
a dybbuk," announced the mysterious Messenger, a solemn figure that
walks throughout the picture intoning eternal Jewish wisdom spiced with
doom and gloom (which usually goes unheeded and, by law in these sort of
productions, there is a price to be paid).
The Reb Sender, the town leader and father of the bride, approaches Rabbe
[Rabbi] Azriel, the Tsaddik of Miropole, and asks the learned and elderly
man for help in exorcising the dybbuk from Leah. The first attempt to do
so is met with contempt from Khonnon's spirit. The possessed Leah scoffs
at the Rebbe's initial attempt, "Do not torment me, do not harass me,"
Khonnon's ghost warns, "I do not fear your oaths and excommunications.
There is no more exalted height higher than my present refuge." Not
to be undone, the Rebbe gathers together his students, and at the foot of
the alter within the Temple and faces the possessed. Rabbe Azriel first
warns the rebellious Khonnon that he will be excommunicated unless the spirit
vacates Leah's body. Khonnon's ghost is spiteful and the old man blasts
the spirit with holy knowledge. The ghost wails in ethereal agony and departs
from Leah's body. However, the lovers are united in the end as Leah reaches
out to Khonnon's departing soul, and upon touching it drops dead.
There were no instances of spitting, no foul mouthing, not even an attempt
by the possessed to levitate objects or to strike the holy man. This was
a civil exorcism, and the first depicted within cinema. This is not to say
that the excommunication of Khonnon's spirit wasn't chilling. No doubt,
to the devout Jews that watched the film in 1937 and thereafter, the scene
where a possessed Leah talks back to the Tsaddik (a man who provides spiritual
illumination to his community which he attains through a mystical union
with God) is one impassioned with shock and emotion. What may seem tame
by today's standards of horror was without a doubt as frightening to the
religious who witnessed THE DYBUK in the 30's and 40's as where those shocked
Catholics who shivered through THE EXORCIST.
Science fiction in the 40's had one way to skirt the issue in 1944 when
Eric Von Stroheim played mad scientist to a couple of pounds of flesh in
THE LADY AND THE MONSTER. The movie was the first version of the oft-filmed
Donovan's Brain novel by noted SF author Curt Siodmak, and directed by George
Sherman. In both the fiction work and film, millionaire tycoon Donovan is
injured in an airplane accident and rushed to the abode of a slightly unorthodox
scientist-doctor (Stroheim). There his brain is removed from his ruined
body and kept alive in a jar bathed in nutrient-enriched fluids. The brain
gains enormous telepathic powers once freed from the constraints of a body.
Donovan's sinister gray matter uses these newly acquired energies to capture
the will of a man. This psychic possession by a monstrous brain is without
a doubt one of the most intriguing (and frequently copied) science fiction
inventions. Science fiction would offer supplemental possessions by other
means. Aliens enjoyed a brief period of ego-snatching in the 50's with THE
BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES (1955, D: David Kramarsky), QUATERMASS II/ENEMY
FROM SPACE (1957, D: Val Guest), KRONOS (1957, D: Kurt Neuman), WAR OF THE
SATELLITES (1957, D: Roger Corman), THE BRAIN EATERS (1958, D: Bruno Ve
Sota), THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1958, D: Nathan Hertz), and THE INVISIBLE
INVADERS (1959, D: Sam Newfield) and others, but none dealt with demonic
possession and exorcism.
Devils and demons still lurked within the minds of screenwriters. Nevertheless,
the ideas of demonic possession had to wait until the time came when our
society (Hollywood, manager of America's collective consciousness) was unashamed
to deal openly (i.e. cinematically, thus socially en masse) with such "sins"
and their deadly, prophetic payback. The 60's opened with dead witches possessing
the living as in Mario Bava's ground-breaking LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO/BLACK
SUNDAY (1960), and two English ghosts were out to steal the souls of a little
boy and girl in THE INNOCENTS (1960, D: Jack Clayton)6.
Then the Devil began spreading his seed in Roman Polanski's oft-copied ROSEMARY'S
BABY (1968), and a Satanist's powerful post-death ego enveloping a man in
the cheap-shot THE MEPHISTO WALTZ (1971, D: Paul Wendkos). The occasional
science fiction/horror production such as Eugene Martin's wonderful PANICO
EN EL TRANSIBERIANO/HORROR EXPRESS (1972) was a relief as was Tom Moore's
rarely seen MARK OF THE WITCH (1970, see page 60). Hardcore made a token
stab at the horror genre when Gerard Damiano put THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES
(1972).7
But that wasn't going far enough. Documented cases of the Devil possessing
men, women, children, and even animals were available, but not much was
done to make them into true horror films. Since THE DYBUK there had yet
to be an exorcist chasing these possessed souls and driving the devil from
them.
Therefore, before this article fragments any further (as possession films
are many, depending on your definition), I will now concentrate solely on
the post-EXORCIST productions that plagued theatres worldwide primarily
in the mid-70's emphasizing the marvelous mimicry of the Italian and Spanish
movie industry, before the influence of THE OMEN, HALLOWEEN, and CARRIE
took their toll. For the sake of space I will examine their handiwork, along
with some American, Brazilian, British, German, Mexican, and Turkish productions.
The super-kinetic hijinks of the powerful Hong Kong possession genre will
have to wait until another installment is readied.
For those of you who haven't seen THE EXORCIST, I suggest seeing it for
historic reasons, although the terror in it is subdued and at times lacking
(especially when compared to later European productions). For additonal
information on this film, read just about any good book on horror movies-
there should be entire chapters dedicated to this influential film and its
impact on modern day fright flicks.8
It's odd, though, while THE EXORCIST changed the face of horror films
for years to come (as did the before mentioned LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO),
it seems tame when compared to the many imitations which followed in its
wake. What Friedkin did with William Peter Blatty's book was to take the
initial horror (leaving out all the parts dealing with temptation for some
reason) and put substance to it. Subsequently, in productions like Alberto
De Martino's notable L'ANTICRISTO/THE TEMPTER (1974) and Amando de Ossorio's
morbid EL PODER DE LAS TINIEBLAS/DEMON WITCH CHILD/THE POSSESSED (1974)
that quality was beefed up and served as a full course meal. Few were novel
in their conception, borrowing heavily from the original. Nevertheless,
the films were entertaining in their execution, and some of them are excellent
examples of horror. For some reason, no doubt an obsession with Catholic
guilt and pent-up sexuality, the Italians produced more possession/exorcism-oriented
monster productions than any other European country on the map (Hong Kong
being the relative counterpart for the Asian end of the spectrum for different
reasons).
If we are going to approach this chronologically rather than alphabetically
by title beginning in 1974, then one should start with De Martino's L'ANTICRISTO.
The HOUSE OF EXORCISM (available under the video title DEVIL IN THE HOUSE
OF EXORCISM), originally known as LISA E IL DIAVOLO/LISA AND THE DEVIL,
is Mario Bava's excessive tribute to Evil incarnate, and the film, originally
made in 1972, has nothing whatsoever to do with bodily demonic possession.
In it Elke Sommer is trapped in a spooky mansion in which the Devil plays
with the souls he has captured. LISA E IL DIAVOLO is a beautiful mood piece
and Bava's convoluted, nonsensical, but delightfully giddy masterpiece.
What was done to it in 1975 to make it profitable for the US market is a
true nightmare. The transformation of Bava's work into a possession vehicle
took little or no effort on the part of director/producer Alfredo Leone,
who acquired Robert Alda to act as a priest who must exorcise the devil
from a possessed Sommer. In this revised edition, Sommer's soul was yanked
by the Devil (Telly Savalas) during her stay at an angst-filled mansion.
There are supplemental post-1972 sequences in which Sommer with chapped
lips and red eyes vomits and screams curses at the ineffectual exorcist.
It's a mess. Luckily, for those of you who have the money, Redemption Video,
a British company, has recently released the uncut Italian version on VHS.
God bless them!
Crippled when young, a wheelchair-bound Carla (Carla Gravina) is bitter
and resentful at not having a fulfilled sex life. One night alone in her
villa, she discovers an old playing card with the picture of the devil on
it. An odd sensation surges through her lethargic loins and they burn as
if on fire. That night at dinner she insults her family as she hurls obscenities
at her recently re-married father (the late Mel Ferrer, an arch-duke in
the kingdom of Italian Sleaze and star of multitude of gialo movies) and
his new wife (Anita Strindberg, passive sleazette of Euro-cinema) as windows
slam shut, pictures on the wall dance in mid air, and candles flair. The
possession has begun.
However, at the point when you assume that the film is becoming nothing
short of a brazen EXORCIST rip-off, De Martino pulls his trump card and
delivers the sickest moment in this sub-genre's short history. When Carla
retires to her bed she is metaphysically transported back to the middle
ages and becomes involved in a Black Mass. She is initiated with her ancestor,
a witch who was executed for deviltry. During the unholy mass the startled
woman is fed the head of a toad and introduced to the Goat God. In a scene
which may leave many viewers choking, Carla is made to tongue the puckering
anus of a live goat (this sequence was snipped for US release). She licks
her chops and the Devil enters her by the way of spiritual rape. Her body
trembles with each demonic thrust and her soul is soon secured by Satan.
This dreamy though disgusting performance is punctuated by luscious cinematography
by none other than Aristide Massaccesi aka Joe D'Amato, one of Italy's most
prolific genre/sleazy directors to date.
The experience leaves Carla with new energies and she is able to walk, where
upon she ambles into the countryside and spies a busload of Euro tourists.
She lures away a young German and immediately fucks the lad and twists his
head off. She becomes increasing rude to her family and they call the local
herbalist, who tries to exorcise Carla. After the herbalist's humiliating
defeat her family gets wise to the fact that Carla is "unwell"
and her father sends for the provincial exorcist. The priest arrives and
the fun begins. After a lengthy exorcism which fails miserably, Carla escapes
from her house and runs into a rain-filled night. The determined cleric
and Carla's step-father follow the woman and a fierce battle for her soul
occurs in and around the Coliseum. Cornered by her parent, Carla is at last
released from the grasp of the Devil by means of a large wooden crucifix
thrust between her legs.
Few films from this year could measure up to L'ANTICRISTO's intensity, although
CHI SEI?/BEYOND THE DOOR has enough spookiness and plot twists to keep any
die-hard monster fan entertained. What initially begins as dull and dry
plot lumping ROSEMARY'S BABY with THE EXORCIST, directors Sonia Assonitis
and Robert d'Ettore Piazzoli slowly - and painfully - take a potentially
do-nothing possession film and suprise their audience. It takes almost an
hour, but CHI SEI? evolves into a sick and cruel (and pretty damn clever)
joke.
CHI SEI? stars the late, former Shakespearean stage actor-cum-exploitation
king Richard Johnson, star of the 1961 Robert Wise classic ghost/possession
flick THE HAUNTING and numerous odious Italian productions such as Lucio
Fulci's dual shockers ZOMBI 2/ZOMBIE (1979) and PAURA NELLA CITTÀ
DEI MORTI VIVENTI/GATES OF HELL (1980), Sergio Martino's L'ISOLA DEGLI UOMINI
PESCE/SCREAMERS (1979), and Massimo Dallamano's possession film IL MEDAGLIONE
INSANGUINATO/THE NIGHT CHILD (1974). Johnson is a mysterious stranger who
complicates the life of a woman and her family. This is no ordinary family
unit, though, as the pregnant mother is carrying a possessed child. The
unborn creature's influence has its mother floating through the air, puking
up blue glop, and cursing all who dare approach her. All of these horrors
justifiably confuse her husband and their two children. Toss in the arrival
of the ghost of her former lover Dimetri, who died in a car crash ten years
earlier and recently resurrected by Satan, and you have another fine entry
into this category of film.
The surprising climax comes from the ghost (Johnson) who is haunting his
ex. Keeping the baby alive is the spirit's goal. If the child is born this
side of the grave, the Devil promised Dimetri that his soul will be reincarnated
into the newborn. However, just before the tot is to be brought into the
world Satan gleefully informs the ghost that everything is all a farce.
That is, our ever-vigilant shade will not be able to possess the child,
even though the Prince of Lies pledged that he could. In fact, the child
will not be possessed by anybody. The Devil was doing all of this just to
be nasty! In a fit of rage Dimetri pounds away at the swollen belly of the
woman, crying in defiance until he collapses to the floor in a pile of clothing.
The husband rushes into the room to discover his wife has given birth and
a dead, deformed child (albino and without a mouth) in a sea water-soaked
pile of rags on the floor. Cut away to the happy family on a boat. There
they are celebrating the birthday of their youngest child, a boy who is
in turn possessed by the devil.
CHI SEI? has its moments, in spite of the irritatingly dull segments. There
is an unnerving scene in which an army of dolls come alive and terrorize
the two kids, a creepy sequence where our expected mother eats a rotten
banana peel off the sidewalk, and the crazed fury in which Dimetri pummels
the pregnant woman. By the end of the film, when the deformed child is uncovered,
there is a real sense of pity, for both the child and the ghost.
Whereas Assonitis and Piazzoli's film was a slow-starter which developed
into an original brain-twister, the inverse can be said of director Mario
Gariazzo's L'OSSESSA/THE SEXORCIST/THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW. L'OSSESSA
begins as an original film which after a half an hour degenerates into another
mindlessly entertaining clone. The first half of the film is filled with
respectably original ideas, while the last half, sadly, apes THE EXORCIST.
Gariazzo introduces the evil force in the shape of a wooden Medieval statue,
that alone sets it apart as being at least partially innovative. The artifact
is of one of the two thieves who was tied to a cross and accompanied Jesus
Christ on Calvary. In undoubtedly the film's best series of events leading
up to the initial possession, a young woman painter (Stella Carnacina) accompanies
some art restorationists to collect the large statue. It was uncovered in
an old abandoned church where orgies had been going on for hundreds of years.
They dislodge the life-sized statue and cart it back to their studio on
a flatbed truck - with Stella practically drooling at its masculine beauty
all the way there. Back at the studio they place the sculpture on a slab
(unbound from the cross so they can work on restoring it). Alone, Stella
is gripped by the thing's sheer demonic presence and when it creaks to life
and rapes her she becomes possessed.
Enter the brief though destructive encounter with "Evil" and things
start looking familiar: vomiting (here it looks as if she's regurgitating
melted pistachio ice cream and candle wax), levitation, and so forth. In
the final conflict between girl and super-priest, Stella attempts to seduce
the man instead of grossing him out. It almost works. With renewed strength
the exhausted priest faces his possessed adversary again, and the confrontation
moves to an old church. There he is struck and killed the very instant that
Stella is freed from her "sexual" possession.
Better known for his violent Westerns (DIO PERDONA LA MIA PISTOLA/GOD WILL
FORGIVE MY PISTOL, 1969; and ACQUASANTA JOE/HOLY WATER JOE, 1971) director
Mario Gariazzo almost had something going right in the first twenty minutes
of the film. The motif about the "living" statue could have been
interesting to develop. Gariazzo would have had a bizarre Possession film
crossed with CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN (1958, D: Edward L. Cahn) if he played
his cards right. However, the bets were weighted heavily in favor of THE
EXORCIST and Gariazzo had to accommodate his paying audience. The folks
who crammed into smoky Euro-theatres demanded the best imitations of US
products their home-grown directors could supply. When the demand dictates
the product, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Children fare pretty well in most horror films despite the fact that
they are often the receptacles of evil. Their innocence and pre-pubescent
acceptance of the world as Good makes them without a doubt easy prey for
scriptwriters looking for chills. What is spookier than an ebullient young
lass that suddenly switches gears and spits insults, levitates, and practices
projectile vomiting? Most of these possessed children endure their ordeals
and lead a blissful existence in an ideal cinematic afterlife. However,
there are those few dark productions in which the youngster doesn't survive.
The few bits of EXORCIST-familiarity which creep into IL MEDAGLIONE INSANGUINATO
are more than compensated for by other eerie elements the late director
Massimo Dallamano (who died in a car crash in 1976) was able to conjure
up. The possession stems from the ownership of an arcane artifact which
emanates evil. Dallamano handles the film with a subtle flare, and despite
the fact that he's working with a bad script manages to pull IL MEDAGLIONE
INSANGUINATO through all the rough spots. Maybe it's due to his working
under the creative wing of Sergio Leone on the Western epics PER UN PUGNO
DI DOLLARI/A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) and PER QUALCHE DOLLARO IN PIÙ/A
FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965) that saves this little picture from being something
other than another exploitative blunder. Of course, it doesn't hurt that
he also directed his own well-received Western CREPA TU ... CHE VIVO IO/BANDIDOS
(1967), the superior Giallo-thriller COSA AVETE FATTO A SOLANGE?/WHAT HAVE
YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? (1971) as well as the sleazy IL DIO CHIAMATO DORIAN/SECRET
OF DORIAN GRAY (1972).
Richard Johnson (again) stars as a British TV documentary producer who is
researching a program on Satanic paintings. In his pursuit of oddball material
he comes across an Italian painting depicting Hell. What's unusual about
this work is that it features a flaming woman in the upper left hand of
the hellish scene. Upon closer inspection, he is shocked to see the figure
resembles his recently deceased wife (who died mysteriously in a fire).
The image is also wearing an amulet very similar to one he bought for his
wife shortly before her death. His probing for the origins of the painting
leads him, his daughter (to whom he gave the amulet), and his new secretary/lover
to a mysterious castle in Italy. There the child becomes possessed by an
evil spirit and panic erupts.
By the end of IL MEDAGLIONE INSANGUINATO it is uncovered that the child
was even possessed when she burned her mother to death and tries to do the
same to her father's new mistress! The terror builds and the little girl
confronts the demonic painting in an abandoned chapel. In that sacred place
she wields an uniquely double-bladed sword and sets to work destroying the
piece of satanic art. We are unexpectedly jolted from our seats as Johnson
rushes into the chapel and attempts to stop his daughter from her task.
She turns to him as he gathers her in his arms for a loving hug. To our
surprise both parent and child die, blood spraying everywhere, as the razor
sharp blades pierce their bodies.
Another Possession Flick which sacrifices a young child in the triumph of
Good over Evil is Amando De Ossorio's creepy EL PODER DE LAS TINIEBLAS.
In the late 60's throughout the 70's, and even into the early 80's, Spain's
chief producer of frightmare flicks was without a doubt Amando De Ossorio.
While other Spaniards may have produced more films (Paul Naschy and Jesús
Franco, for example), few were able to match De Ossorio when it came to
atmosphere and chills (of course, that may not be saying much considering
the rarity of Spanish horror films in total). His Blind Dead trilogy is
still considered the pinnacle of Spanish horror, although other directors
like Franco, Jorge Grau, Carlos Aured, and Leon Klimovsky each have produced
their own masterpieces.
The film opens and we are introduced to the evil which will soon plunge
everyone involved into a bloodbath. An old gnarled woman, caught kidnapping
an infant for Satanic sacrifice, is taken to Madrid's main police station
for questioning. Instead of telling the officials about the whereabouts
of the child, the witch opts to kill herself by jumping out of the fourth
floor window of the building. Her soul enters the body of the police inspector's
ten-year-old daughter, Susan, who then becomes a foul-mouthed devil-kid.
The little monster floats in the air and has bad breath. She also hurls
insults at her mother ("Aw, why don't you just fuck your boyfriend!"),
kicks people, taunts a priest ("Does a priest have the same thing as
a man? Are you queer or just impotent?"), gives her mid-section a spine-snapping
360 whirl, and all the remarkable insubordination associated with demon-possessed
little girls. When Susan's maid cleans the little girl's room she is blitzed
by plush animals, and her mother uncovers a phallic-shaped demonic icon
in the toy box. The horror continues: a child is found sacrificed, the lover
of Susan's mother has his penis cut off (and you-know-who gives it to her
mother in a pretty little gift box), and a man is strangled. The monstrous
child (now looking like the old witch, complete with balding head, wrinkles,
white hair, and bad teeth) abducts another toddler and prepares the babe
for sacrifice. A priest leads a joint investigation with the police and
disrupts the Black Mass before the child is to be cut open for the Devil.
The horribly disfigured Susan flees to the grave of the old witch with the
cleric in hot pursuit. In a surprising conclusion the girl dies when she
is impaled by a large metal cross in a churchyard.
De Ossario treads the unpleasant territory of pedicide when he sacrificed
the child at the end of this grisly picture. Typically, a young girl would
escape the clutches of the devil and live to tell the tale. In this film,
and others like IL MEDAGLIONE INSANGUINATO and THE CHILD (available on video
as KILL AND GO HIDE, 1977, D: Robert Voskanian), it would seem that the
evil cannot be successfully abolished unless the poor child is herself exterminated.
Not far behind his fellow Spaniard, actor-screenwriter Jacinto Molina (aka
Paul Naschy) struck on the idea of making a possession film. Now, his producing,
directing, writing, and starring in monster films based on other popular
critters is not new. Any monster fan worth his or her weight in salt should
know this for a fact. Next to Lon Chaney, Jr., Paul Naschy is werewolf personified
(he made numerous films featuring his hirsute alter-ego Waldimar Daninsky).
Being a monster is his love in life. However, what makes his casting in
Juan Bosch's EXORCISMO/EXORCISM so unique is that, like a few of Naschy's
crime films, he doesn't play the part of a monster. In fact, in this Spanish
production Naschy is a good guy -- he's the exorcist.
After a night of erotic, dope-smoking, Satanic group-coupling, Richard Harrington
and his lover, Lela Gibson, drive home in their Morris Minor. On their way
to the girl's family chateau in Bristol (this Spanish-made film takes place
in England), the drugged-fogged Lela, loses control of the car and sends
it careening down a hillside, where in an unconscious state she becomes
possessed. Her mother frets as Lela acts more and more demonic, and calls
upon the local priest. Enter Naschy as Father Adrian Dunning, putting in
an unobtrusive acting job and never showing much more emotion than a man
on vallium. However, this soon changes and our burly priest manages to glare
menacingly and bare his teeth when it becomes obvious that after Lela's
near-fatal accident she has become possessed by her late father's jealous
spirit. It seems that he went mad shortly before his death and was institutionalized.
While dying at the asylum his wife had an affair with his doctor. Upon expiring
he gained that knowledge, and when he has the chance entered into his daughter's
body and "cleaves" to her soul. Now spewing rude comments, vomiting
gobs of goo, attacking everyone in sight, and levitating in bed, Lela wreaks
havoc with her mother. It's up to a heroic Dunning to save the day.
As EXORCISMO comes to the long anticipated showdown, the once physically
delightful Lela is now a scarred, marbled-eyed, puke-spitting, boil and
seeping wound-encrusted mess. In a last ditch effort to save the girl's
soul Dunning forces the demon to transfer itself into the body of the family
dog, Borg. The hound then viciously attacks Dunning, mauling the priest's
arm while receiving a fatal blow from a fireplace poker. As the animal expires,
the devil is exorcised and Lela returns to normal.
Probably more a blatant rip-off of THE EXORCIST than any other film to
date, EXORCISMO does have its moments. The make-up job on Lela is impressive,
especially considering the contacts the poor actress had to endure which
made her eyes bulge out of their sockets with a pupilless, cataract look.
Unlike other men Naschy worked with before striking out on his own directorial
efforts (most notably Javier Aguirre and José Luis Merino), director
Bosh lacks any whimsy when it comes to innovative camera work or character
development (Naschy sleepwalks through his role as the priest), and not
much has been heard of him since this film was made.
Taking a viewpoint that is more in line with his own cinematic sensibilities,
another Spaniard, Jesús Franco, joined the fray and produced a unique
deviation on the theme. The sexual possession of a woman by another female
is not new in the cinema, although Franco's approach is, without a doubt,
one of the illest. Bordering on his obsession with pornography, it's small
wonder the film opens up and continues to have frequent semi-hardcore lesbian
sex scenes (the majority of which star his actress-wife, Lina Romay). As
is usual for a film of this breed, LES POSSEDÉES DU DIABLE (LORNA
L'EXORCISTE)/"Women Possessed By The Devil (Lorna- The Exorcist)"
is a sex film with high horror overtones. Anyone familiar with the director's
work would be interested in taking a look at this production, while it is
not as brilliantly bizarre as his Horror Trilogy from 1972 (see the article
Monster! International #2), LES POSSEDÉES DU DIABLE is blue enough
to rank with most of his other films from the 70's, albeit as a possession
movie it just barely makes it. There are relatively few references to THE
EXORCIST, other than an exploitative title. However, since this is the closest
one can come to a strictly sleazy Euro-approach to the theme (mixing sex
and the devil) outside of the "lost" film LOS RITOS SEXUALES DEL
DIABLO/"Sex Rituals Of The Devil" (1981, D: José Ramón
Larraz), it is included in the overall article. The delicious perversion
which arises with mixing these two volatile subjects simmers and comes to
a laconic boil when small fiddler crabs emerge from the genitalia of the
possessed female lead. The ordeal continues even after her boyfriend confronts
the person responsible (a high-class blonde witch-bitch) and shoots her.
Regardless, his girlfriend continues to spit out the crustaceans and eventually
expires in his arms. Anyone else's exploitive direction would have hampered
the precise build up of horror in this film, so when Franco's exceptional
camera work and dilatory direction takes over, the instances with the crabs
is eerie enough to spook (if not confound) anyone.
German horror films aren't usually rated very well, although there have
been exceptions (Michael Armstrong's HEXEN BIS AUFS BLUT GEQUAELT/MARK OF
THE DEVIL, 1969, for instance) even though it did manage to produce a minor
EXORCIST clone when director Michael Walter made MAGDALENA p; VOM TEUFEL
BESESSEN/BEYOND THE DARKNESS. This morbid tale of a demon-possessed cocktease
wasn't released in the States until 1976, and despite the title, there is
little to recommend other than various choice bits of dialogue and deviantly
provocative situations. A grisly opening sequence where a streetwalker discovers
an old man crucified to a door is well worth the fright, although little
else reaches that heightened sense of the ghastly.
Magdalena Winter is the beautiful "cloistered nun" of a teenager
in an otherwise sexually over wrought boarding school for girls. While she
is attending school, her doting grandfather is found nailed to a door on
the night of Ash Wednesday. On his forehead is burned a strange icon, that
of a raven's claw. Baffled, the police question various people and they
come up empty - except that Magdalena is involved in some odd way. A gala
is held at the school and Magdalena, unaware that her grandfather is dead
and his corpse is stretched out in the morgue, sips at some wine and parties
with her chums. Suddenly at the morgue the loud buzz-buzz of a fly appears
and the mutilated corpse of Grandpa Winter bolts upright the very same instant
that Magdalena is stuck down with what looks like an epileptic fit. As her
peers shun her twitching body the careening buzz of a bothersome insect
is heard, and it seems to settle on the girl. The possession of Magdalena
has begun! After a few instances of manic violence where Magdalena threatens
the lives of her loved ones, she is again taken by the demonic spirit of
her lecherous grandfather. The demon attacks her again and violently rapes
her in her bed, not unlike similar occurrences which happen in L'ANTICRISTO,
NURSE SHERRI (1976, D: Al Adamson) and Sidney J. Furie's 1982 sex-possession
production THE ENTITY where, of all people, Barbara Hershey is the focus
of a fornication-famished phantasm. This time around, the monstrous possession
takes a firm hold on the teenager's tender soul and turns her into a cock-crazed
sex kitten.
Despite the first intriging twenty minutes, the remainder of the film fails
to hold up under any sort of critical scrutiny. Director Walter never explores
any interesting avenues, rather he focuses on Magdalena's apparent bout
with Turret's Syndrome and her rampant sexuality. A few chuckles are chalked
up whenever the spirit within the woman verbally attacks nearby individuals.
Magdalena is brought to church the day after her ghost-rape where she is
introduced to the parish's priest. She marches up to the man of the cloth
and announces, "I want to take communion. But not in my mouth, but
down here - in my pussy!" The startled priest is sprayed with additional
insults: "You dirty nun-fucker! So, when are you going to screw your
housekeeper again? Answer me, you motherfucker!" The Father reads from
the New Testament and attempts to calm her heated and possessed soul. It
does no good because Magdalena tears the bible in half and storms out of
the chapel to find more poor horny men to tease! Before the inevitable exorcism
she manages to taunt two drunken slobs into a brawl ("I want you inside
me... Fuck me! ... The winner gets me. I'm worth it too. I need it badly!
Ha Ha Ha!") and one of the men stabs the other to death. The possessed
girl then sets fire to a doctor's country abode, axes the man who loves
her, and then is forced to recite the Lord's Prayer. She manages to gurgle
a few lines before coughing up a snake (the devil tormenting her) which
is stomped on by her boyfriend. The pretty Magdalena is saved during the
quickest exorcism ever - and it's not even performed by a priest!
Brazil's José Mojica Marins explored the dynamics of a dualistic
existences when he portrays himself in EXORCISMO NEGRO/"Black Exorcism"
and comes face to face with his evil alter-ego Zé do Caixão.
Marins is haunted by his own creation in this exorcist tale spiced with
Catholic imagery and Macumba spells. Seeking a vacation from the hectic
routine of filmmaking, Marins arrives home for the Christmas holiday to
spend time with family and friends. He parties a little, then retires one
evening to begin working on his next horror film. While puzzling over the
new plot an evil force invades his home and possesses various loved ones.
Each person possessed snarls and attacks Mojica, and he soon suspects witchcraft
is afoot. It isn't until his friend's daughter is kidnapped by his cinematic
alter-ego Zé that he must face the facts: his fictional demon has
become a reality through the Black Arts. In a decent battle for the soul
of his daughter, Marins comes face to with Zé and brandishes a hurriedly
constructed cross. The symbol of good wards off the evil and saves the day.
EXORCISMO NEGRO isn't as powerful a film as you would imagine, coming
from the man who made the creepy and sadistically violent Zé do Caixão
trilogy À MEIA-NOITE LEVAREI SU ALMA/"At Midnight I'll Take
Away Your Soul" (1965), ESTA NOITE ENCARNAREI NO TEU CADÁVER/"Tonight
I'll Be Incarnated Into Your Corpse" (1966), and O ESTRANHO MUNDO DE
ZÉ DO CAIXÃO/"The Strange World Of Zé do Caixão"
(1968). The weakness, no doubt, lies in the fact that Marins had little
to do with the project other than star in it and work on the script. His
direction is uninspired, and the principal photography (which was in color)
was left to one of Brazil's top cinematographers. Still, despite these obvious
handicaps, EXORCISMO NEGRO is able to produce ample chills for the viewer.
One scene in particular has Marins stumbling into a room where the oldest
daughter of this friend is trembling and squirming as if the spirit that
dominates her is virtually squeezing her soul into a sexual pulp. His utter
revulsion upon discovering her drives the point home that he must destroy
his evil alter ego Zé. The final confrontation between the maker
and his shade is filled with torture, bloodshed, and nudity one comes to
expect from a Marins horror film - the problem is, we had to wait over an
hour to see the carnage.
Turning stateside for the last Possession Film of this bountiful year, ABBY
is William Girdler's plunge into the realm of demon disarray. The film is
still banned by Warner Brothers from being released on legitimate video
because of the supposed similarities between it and Friedkin's production.
There are some affinities, but the dissimilarities are there as well. ABBY
is not a Black version of THE EXORCIST. There are enough distinguishing
points of originality which keeps it from becoming just another horror film
in blackface. ABBY is not another BLACKENSTEIN (1973, D: William A. Levey)
which was, despite some neat tricks, a tired re-telling of the rampaging
patchwork creation of a misguided scientist bent on helping humanity. Whereas
BLACKENSTEIN and the interesting but flawed DR. BLACK, MR. HYDE (1976, D:
William Crain) fed off of blackploitational motifs (the bad white guys,
etc.), and BLACULA (1972, D: William Crain) attempted a reasonably true
to form Hammeresque approach (despite faults, SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM [1973,
D: Bob Kelljan] was superior in many ways to the last few Hammer vampire
outings), Girdler's ABBY relied heavily on the popular fusion of African
religious beliefs with that of the rich US Black religious heritage. There
is a distinct African-American feel to the production, something that a
number of other low-budget blackploitational projects lacked. And besides
that the film is scary.
Professor/Bishop Garnet Williams (genre actor William Marshall, star of
SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM, STAR TREK episode "The Ultimate Computer",
the defunct PEEWEE'S PLAYHOUSE's "King of Cartoons", and the violent
1957 Rock Hudson/Sidney Poitier vehicle SOMETHING OF VALUE), on a trip to
Nigeria comes across an ancient relic in a forbidden cave. The object is
a small stone vessel with the carved image of a man possessing a huge erect
penis. Puzzled at first on how to open the container, Williams, a religion
professor of Louisville University on sabbatical in Nigeria to study the
cult of Eshu, twists the image's erect member and the lid pops open. There
is a rush of foul air, and the entire cave shakes with the force of a minor
earthquake. Unwittingly, Professor Williams has unleashed a minor demon
of the Eshu cult. This particular cult relishes disaster and death ... and
the spirit unleashed is a really nasty one. Being especially shitty, this
minor god of sexuality and mischief (known as "The Trickster"
to the Yoruba religion) escapes the cave, killing everyone but Williams
- the monster has plans to torment him further!
Back in the United States William's son Rev. Emmett (Terry Carter, star
of Jack Hill's FOXY BROWN, 1974) and his wife Abby (Carole Speed, who sang
the production's theme song "My Soul is a Witness") move into
their new home. Everything is perfect: Emmett is a nice guy who doesn't
drink or smoke or cuss, and Abby is a pretty, faithful, and God-fearing
woman - just ripe for demonic pickings! While taking a shower she is taken
by the minion of Eshu and a chill wind blows through the house, knocking
down dishes and lamps. Just to make sure Abby is in the monster's control,
the devil violently possesses her for a second time in the basement while
she is putting clothes in the washer.
During a church picnic Abby takes a large butcher knife and slashes her
wrists. Emmett bites his lip and suspects something is dreadfully wrong
with his once stable wife. He consults a doctor who prescribes a lot of
rest and some sleeping pills. Things get worse as Abby vomits during church,
and attacks one of the church-goers - urping goo upon the poor sod. Then
while she is counseling a church couple who is having trouble with their
marriage, Abby rips her shirt off and announces she's going to "fuck
the shit" out of the startled husband. Emmett interrupts his wife's
flagrantly blasphemous actions, only to have his masculinity insulted in
front of friends. Abby then torments an elderly woman to the point that
the oldster has a heart attack and dies. Fearing something more than common
insanity is the cause of his wife's wild ways, Emmett calls his Father in
Nigeria and begs for help. It sounds like demonic possession, Professor
Williams concludes, and hops on the next flight to the USA.
Our heroes are joined by Abby's police detective brother Cass Porter (Austin
Stoker, star of Carpenter's 1976 classic thriller ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
and director Girdler's 1975 SHEBA BABY which co-starred Blackploitational
queen Pam Grier) and the three of them comb the streets looking for the
wayward demon. Meanwhile Abby picks up men and proceeds to fuck them then
twist their heads in the traditional 180 degree technique for which demons
are famous (L'ANTICRISTO has a similar scene). It isn't until Emmett spots
her in a notably seedy bar that the exorcism comes into play. "Hold
her down!" orders Williams, who then puts on an African dashiki and
takes out various items of religious paraphernalia - both Christian and
Pagan. Williams calls upon Jehovah and Loran to exorcise the demon from
the poor woman's ransacked body. In an explosion of spiritual energy the
creature erupts from Abby and is imprisoned once again inside the aboriginal
receptacle which Williams placed on the bar counter. Dazed but alive, Abby
is happy to be back among her loved ones, and Williams returns to Nigeria
to continue his studies.
The late director William Girdler was very active in the exploitation field
for some time before his death in 1979 (he died in a helicopter accident).
The concept of melding brooding Blackploitational epics with the new budding
EXORCIST genre, and making a film as competent - and at times intelligent
- as ABBY strikes me as both novel and audacious.
