ferbs54 The notion has often struck me that one of the hallmarks of truly great screen stars is their ability to render even the most egregiously shlocky films highly watchable and interesting by dint of their very presence. This idea occurred to me again several months back, as I caught the 1957 film "Voodoo Island" for the first time; a picture that might be close to unwatchable, had it not starred the always fascinating Boris Karloff. And this thought struck me again last night as I sat before the 1975 Spanish horror outing "Exorcismo," which stars and was cowritten by the so-called "Boris Karloff of Spain," Jacinto Molina, who is more popularly known as Paul Naschy. A slow-moving, talky affair, the film is most assuredly rescued by Naschy's always interesting presence.Here, for a change, Naschy plays the part of the "good guy," a bearded priest named Father Adrian Dunning (seeing Naschy essay the role of the altruistic hero is almost akin to watching Christopher Lee portray the Satanist fighter Duc de Richleau in the 1968 Hammer classic "The Devil Rides Out"!), who comes to the assistance of a family in dire need. The youngest daughter, Leila (Mercedes Molina; a relation of Jacinto's, perhaps?), has fallen in with a bunch of devil-worshipping drug users, her older brother has just been killed by an unknown neck twister, and before long, Leila's recent boyfriend suffers the same hideous fate. Leila's older sister, Deborah (Maria Kosty), believes Leila should be institutionalized, but their mother, Patricia (the beautiful Maria Perschy), is unwilling. Soon, however, when Leila's violent mood swings, screaming, writhings on the floor and speaking in tongues progress to horrible physical changes, even Patricia must admit that her daughter is neither merely troubled nor psychotic, and that it is time to call in Father Adrian, bring in the holy water, and expunge the evil, possessing spirits....Unlike a certain classic exorcism film that had been released just two years earlier, "Exorcismo" does not really get into its scary possession and exorcism aspects until its final 20 minutes. Its first 75 minutes are more concerned with those two murders, and of Adrian's and the police's investigation. As I mentioned, it is a very talky stretch, largely devoid of incident and certainly not in the least scary. It is in this section that Naschy's solid, charismatic and reassuring presence really does save the day. Quite surprisingly, the film is quite replete with nudity, even of the full-frontal variety. Somehow, I had thought the rigid censorship laws in Spain--which were only loosened in 1977--would have prohibited such a fleshy exhibition. Or perhaps a cut version was shown in Spain at the time? I would be interested to know. "Exorcismo" has been directed in a fairly unimaginative manner by Juan Bosch, who only evinces flashes of style here and there, such as when he zooms in on the grotesque African masks in Leila's boyfriend's apartment. The background music by Alberto Argudo is arhythmic and completely unmemorable, consisting largely of throbbing bongos and celestial female chanting, but does a fair job of ratcheting up the freakiness quotient. And as for the film's special FX and makeup job, they are certainly better than one might expect, especially in the scene in which Father Adrian suffers hallucinations in the family kitchen. A company called General Optica is listed in the end credits for providing Leila's contact lenses, and these are perhaps the single most effective prop in the entire film. A mottled black and white, they make Leila's scabbed, pallid features, near the film's end, even more hideous to behold. I might add that "Exorcismo" ends way too abruptly for this viewer's taste, and just as things were starting to get exciting, too. In all, certainly not one of the better Naschy films that I've seen, such as "Horror Rises From the Tomb" and its remarkable sequel, "Panic Beats," but still, an interesting enough diversion."Exorcismo" seems to be exclusively available today from the outfit known as Sinema Diable...certainly a proper company name, in this case! The DVD features a nice-looking print but horrendous dubbing (subtitles for the original Spanish would have been SO much more preferable), and absolutely no extras to speak of. The film is most assuredly for Paul Naschy completists only, but quite fittingly, the Naschy fan base seems to be expanding, thanks largely to the DVD revolution and, as mentioned up top, Naschy's own undeniable star quality...even in minor fare such as this....

lastliberal 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.

slayrrr666 "Exorcism" is a rather interesting and at times really fun entry in the genre.**SPOILERS**Suffering a car accident, teenager Leila, (Grace Mills) suddenly begins acting very differently, much to the detriment of her family, her mother Patricia, (Maria Perschy) as well as step-siblings John, (Jorge Torras) and sister Deborah, (Maria Kosti) who sense something is wrong. Getting to the point where they call on Father Adrian Dunning, (Paul Naschy) to make a visit, he doesn't think it's that bad and down-plays the whole situation. Following a death in the family, the strange situations continue and soon more murders arrive to them. The more time he spends around the family, the more he becomes convinced that something has happened to her, eventually finding that she has been possessed by Demonic forces. Intent on trying to get her back to her normal self, he wages a powerful war against the forces inside her to release the evil inside.The Good News: For an exorcist film, this one isn't that bad. One of the nice things about this one is that it changes around the rules that had previously been used. There's the whole issue of whether the spirit is of demonic origin or of familiar descent, which is something new to the whole affair. It raises them nicely and uses some really clever clues to help them out, with each side of the argument getting a fair share of the proceedings and never being overlooked. It's a nice addition to be able to see this from such a film, and it's handled quite nicely. Once the film switches over and becomes an actual possession film, there's rarely little that it gets wrong. The make-up look here is simply outstanding, as the body becomes grossly discolored, full of bruises, sores and cuts as well as the single creepiest and most memorable set of eyes ever. They look remarkable and nearly impossible to describe, being completely otherworldly and inhuman. It even goes the extra mile to incorporate a transformation sequence showing the marks appearing on the body, which is a great touch and really helps to make it feel that much more terrifying. There isn't a whole lot of scenes showing the possessed doing anything, the few times there are do give some good scenes. The lone priest in the house tormented by supernatural forces as they're preparing for the final battle is pretty good, with the hallucinations taking place, the furniture levitating and attacking as well as the forces coming out in even more powerful effects, as the wind blowing and eerie voices are heard to great effect. The Satanic orgy that takes place towards the end is where the film gets it's quota of nudity and impressive imagery, using them all in a great sequence that's sleazy, fun and quite exciting. That there's a really nice amount of scenic shots on display is something to behold, especially early on with the family wandering around the house and a later sequence where one is attacked by a figure wearing a demonic mask and a black cape, giving this one some really nice visuals here and there. All in all, this one here isn't that bad.The Bad News: This one does have a couple of flaws present. Most of them relate to how dull it is. There's a large portion of the film in the very beginning where nothing at all happens, and it gets to a really weak point eventually. A lot of it is based on the fact that the priest here has to suspend a large amount of pretty convincing evidence merely to keep the plot going. The first visit is obvious, but by the second and third visits complaining of the same thing, only in larger doses. These are done for a long time in the beginning to make it seem longer than it really is, but all it does is grow on the viewer with how repetitive it is as well as feature nothing of real interest later on. The subplot about the police investigation does nothing of importance either, being just a way to get more into the story rather than doing nothing to explain it or featuring anything of substantial interest, only going so far as to provide more scenes of dullness that the other scenes already feature. The infamous dog scene as well will get a rise out of some, merely for the cruelty it exhibits as well as the fact that it occurs right at the end, breaking up the pivotal scene in the film somewhat slightly. It's not all that bad, but these here are what keep the film down.The Final Verdict: A halfway decent entry in the exorcism genre, this would be better had it not been as slow to start. There's far worse to be had in this genre, and is a must-watch for fans of European Horror, Naschy or Exorcism-film fans, while those who aren't into any of those won't find much with this one.Rated UN/R: Graphic Language, Full Nudity, Mild Violence and mild animal violence

capkronos 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.