Director: Mario Gariazzo
Year: 1974
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: L'ossessa; The Eerie Midnight Horror Show; The Obsessed; The Devil Obsession; The Sexorcist
Genre: Exorcism
Plot:
After buying a strange religious artifact, an art student begins to suffer from a series of strange dreams and hallucinations afterward leading others to believe she’s become possessed by a malicious force and tries to use a local priest’s help in saving her soul from the demonic force.
Review:
This was a solid enough and enjoyable enough ripoff. One of the better elements within here stems from the admittedly likable and far more intriguing setup that offers a quite over-the-top series of setpieces throughout. The central storyline about the whole possession coming into play with the acquiring of the cursed artifact and the subsequent series of outbursts that take place involving her change of behavior makes it seem quite nicely that something is wrong and signals the start of looking into her condition. With the main evidence being her extreme physical deformity, seduction attempts on her brother, and other forms of violent manifestations against herself, this creates a genuinely likable and compelling motivation for setting out to perform an exorcism by comparing the differences in who she was quite nicely, when it’s all furthered by the excessive grunting and moaning taking place over the soundtrack.
When it comes to the introduction of various supernatural activities into this one, there’s a solid enough setup in place already so that these scenes are far more fun than they should be. Most of that comes from the excessively over-the-top sequence involving her dreaming about succumbing to the whims of the Satanic cult that put her through this elaborate ceremony involving a series of exacting rituals, nailing her to a cross, and the sexual antics at play, usually associated with the genre, and is a rather fun sequence. Other great touches include the series of encounters with the rest of the family that leads to them finally realizing that she’s become possessed, and the final exorcism in the Church brings together some solid enough imagery as the idea of her possession comes full force and offers up some intriguing ideas that give this a lot to like.
There are some issues here that hold this one down. The main factor here that holds this one down is the usual series of detrimental issues found here, in that it goes through the motions of so many other genre films, it doesn’t do much of anything all that original. There’s not much in here that serves any kind of original or unique viewpoint other than the type of vicious behavior that takes place here, where it’s based more on the sexual elements she has toward those in her circle, and that’s not much different than other types out there, which is honed in on more than one occasion. As well, other setpieces are taken wholesale from other films as well, mostly filmed in the same manner and focusing on the same general approach for their inclusion, so it can run off into a similar enough feeling, creating a repetitive approach at points. With the low budget being featured pretty prominently, there are some drawbacks to be had here.
Overview: ***.5/5
A likable overall exorcism cash-in, even with some issues, this one comes off decently enough in this style, which manages to hold it up over the few minor drawbacks present. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre or who are massive fans of this era of European genre cinema will have a lot to like, while most others out there should heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
Comments
Post a Comment