thirteenprime I saw this ... thing ... last night on TCM under the title The Devil Within Her and am still wondering why they scheduled it. It's a slapdash mess, a Rosemary's Baby ripoff by way of The Exorcist. The only good thing about it is Joan Collins, who's still in her '70s career decline and taking whatever work she could get. Joan's a pro who gives this film her best, and as a result the best thing about the film -- the only good thing, really -- is her name on the poster. That's it. It's a daft story about a dwarf and strippers and bizarre murders. Donald Pleasance shows up to lend a bit of weight to the proceedings but, really, just skip this one. It's not bad enough to be any fun at all. It's just bad.

John Seal A popular (or at least ubiquitous) title on home video, The Devil Within Her (also known as I Don't Want to Be Born and, less commonly, Sharon's Baby) stars Joan Collins as Lucy, a new mother who soon discovers that her sprog is…not normal. In fact, the little devil seems to have been possessed by the spirit of an evil dwarf who once tried to have his way with Mum, and swore vengeance after being spurned by her. Oh, those evil dwarfs. Considering the film was directed by Peter Sasdy (also responsible for superior Hammer chiller Hands of the Ripper, as well as sci-fi classic Doomwatch), this should be a better film than it actually is, but with Collins headlining and Ralph Bates, Caroline Munro, and Donald Pleasence co-starring, horror fans will still want to scope it out. That said, many scenes are unintentionally hilarious, especially when we're asked to believe the film's (shockingly uncredited!) headlining baby is a devious killer possessed by an evil spirit.

moonspinner55 Combination "Rosemary's Baby"/"The Exorcist"/"It's Alive" rubbish from the UK, released there as "I Don't Want To Be Born", is an absolutely ridiculous occult thriller without one single redeeming attribute (apart from the camp factor, as well as a devilish dwarf who pops up dressed like a court jester). Low-rent showgirl Joan Collins is cursed by the little guy after spurning his advances, which leads to the malevolent possession of her newborn infant--who packs a mean right hook!--eventually becoming homicidal. Collins, flashing some skin, looks like she'd rather be elsewhere, perhaps in another naughty adaptation of one of her sister's tawdry books. The incredulous will either scoff or stick around for the unintended amusement, though it feels rather shameful to laugh while all these actors are being humiliated. NO STARS from ****

MARIO GAUCI This was shown on local TV as part of a Horror movie season back in the Summer of 1983 when we still owned a black-and-white TV set; other similar screenings included TASTE THE BLOOD OF Dracula (1970; that I caught up with only a few years ago) and LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF (1975; that I did watch back then). Although the film under review has been available on DVD in R2 land for some time now (including from reliable label Network), I shirked from purchasing it for two reasons: its being a bare-bones affair – as opposed to, say, Sasdy's COUNTESS Dracula (1971) from the same label – and its (somewhat undeserved) maligned reputation as being one of the least among British horror films of the 1970s. The theme of a possessed infant, of course, harks back to Roman Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) but the medical tests/exorcism bits naturally had the more current THE EXORCIST (1973) as its template. Since the film utilizes the services of several Hammer veterans (Sasdy, Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Caroline Munro), it can be mistaken for one of their productions; genre regulars Donald Pleasence and John Steiner (in a rare appearance in a non-Italian film) are also featured but the acting honors are stolen from 'newcomer' Eileen Atkins (as the exorcising nun!). The seedy atmosphere of British night-life is well-captured as Collins – playing an ex-stripper who marries Italian businessman Bates(!) – is cursed when she rejects the sexual advances of the dwarf who performs with her in the cabaret shows!!; frankly, it was quite disappointing to find that it was his evil spirit that possessed Collins' child as opposed to Satan (or one of his minions)...especially since the sinful dwarf is still alive at the time! Still, the recurring images of him in the baby's cot (as they appear to the increasingly distressed Collins) are disturbing enough in themselves. Also, the fact that the baby is born during the credits sequence robs the film of much-needed audience empathy with the characters (especially the ineffectual Bates); suffice it to say that the baby is only 'seen' at the very end of the much-longer ROSEMARY'S BABY! For the record, the 'devilish' antics of the baby include: the repeated trashing of his room; spitting at his visitors; scratching bloodiedly (both Collins and Atkins receive this facial treatment); biting fingers (the sullen maid – whose fate should have been much worse given how much she comes to loathe the boy!); slapping potential father Steiner's face; pushing the baby-sitter to her death in a pond; strangling Bates and hiding his body in the sewer!; beheading Pleasence with a shovel!; and fatally stabbing Collins. The baby – or, rather, the dwarf's evil spirit – finally gets his comeuppance when Atkins (Bates' nun sister) performs the exorcism rite (causing the dancing dwarf to expire agonizingly in mid-routine). As a whole, the film proved sufficiently enjoyable if decidedly too preposterous and silly to be taken too seriously and, at the end of the day, Atkins' performance and Ron Grainer's groovy score (that, alternately, reminded me of both Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd!) emerge as its outstanding qualities. While the film's original title, I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN, is the one I am most familiar with, it should be said that the film was released under the totally misleading moniker of THE DEVIL WITHIN HER in the U.S. (which probably got it confused with the recently-released Italian EXORCIST rip-off, CHI SEI? aka BEYOND THE DOOR – which I will be getting to presently) and, more recently, it was released on R2 DVD as the ultra-generic THE MONSTER (despite there already being a totally unrelated Lon Chaney movie from 1925 with that name)!