Exorcism (1975) User Reviews

Early exploitation to Exorcist with scary images , eerie events and creepy ending

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 26 January 2011]

Suspense, mystery, shocks and grisly horror is this middling terror film . It results to be a creepy movie plenty of horrible and disgusting images . This filthy and spooky movie concerns about Grace Mills ( a Linda Blair character lookalike) , she's a young with unsettling problems , at the beginning she has a car crash in an accident along with her boyfriend and then she results wounded . Meanwhile, a satanic cult in the small village commits a series of ominous crimes that have the Police Inspector baffled , as there appears various head-spinning corpses . The dead hold spitting signs on their tombs as ¨Bitch¨ and ¨Son of bitch¨. Her mental problems and intervention an Anglican priest (Paul Naschy , a Father Karras-alike) lead to an act of possession . The mother ( the late Maria Perschy who worked for Howard Hawks and here plays as an Ellen Burstyn role-alike ) who has two daughters (Maria Kosti and Grace Mills)and another son adopted is worried and asks help for her small daughter, the latter is possessed and Naschy attempt to free her from possession by the devil suffering from the effects of being deeply harassed . She's throughly possessed and the Anglican tries to help the lass. An exorcism by the Father exorcist seems to be the only mean to heal the young . The priest suffering incredible risks trying to unravel mystery of demon living inside the daughter.

This terrifying exploitation picture displays eerie horror ,witchcraft, grisly killing, satanism and lots of blood . This is a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story, based on a supposedly true flick. This tale about a young girl who is possessed by a malevolent spirit begins well and grows more and more until the creepy and ghastly finale .Revolting, horrible scenes and nasty images take place on orgy scenes worshipping a rare idol . Mediocre performance of Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina . The late Naschy was a good professional , writing, filmmaking and acting about hundred titles , mainly in terror genre. ¨Exorcismo¨ is written by Molina along with 21 screenplays as ¨Mark of Wolfman¨, ¨Night of Walpurgis¨, ¨Vengeance of the mummy¨, ¨Licantropo¨, among them . He directed 13 films as ¨The Cantabros¨, ¨Return of Wolfman¨, ¨The Beast and the magic sword¨ and several others.

¨Exorcismo¨is made in ¨The Exorcist¨ style , its an early exploitation , in fact in Spain was previously exhibited and as Jacinto Molina told was written three years before . The Exorcist spawned countless imitations and rip-offs, , as in Spain were made three at the same time , as ¨ Devil play¨ by Jorge Darnell (74), ¨Endemoniada ¨ by Amando De Ossorio(74) and ¨The Spiritist¨(1975) . ¨Exorcismo ¨ packs colorful scenarios filmed in England with a lush mansion and sinister and mysterious atmosphere with acceptable cinematography by Francisco Sanchez , though cheesy special effects on the levitation scenes. Creepy and frightening soundtrack fitting to terror scenes . Acceptable and scary make-up by Adolfo Ponte .The motion picture is regularly directed by Juan Bosch. He's a Spanish craftsman, working from the 70s in all kind of genres and B movies. Rating : 4, 5 , Average . Pretty grim but interesting for genre aficionados and Paul Naschy fans.

The Exorcist with tits

[lastliberal · 5/10 · 13 December 2009]

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.

Cheesy Exorcist Rip-Off with Paul Naschy; Not as Terrible as Everyone Says

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 5/10 · 28 April 2010]

Maybe I am biased, because I am a great fan of the late Spanish Horror/Cult icon Paul Naschy, but I do not understand how this film is so widely hated. Even my fellow Eurohorror enthusiasts seem to agree that "Exorcismo" (1975) is awful; while this is doubtlessly an incredibly cheesy, silly and trashy slice of Eurosleaze, and furthermore probably the most shameless and obvious of the many European rip-offs of "The Exorcist", I personally still found it to be entertaining enough. I'll be the last one to deny that it lacks suspense and creepiness or that the plot is illogical and stupid, or that the film overall could have used a lot more gore and exploitative elements, and that it has some lengthy parts; personally, I still didn't get bored.

After a car accident, the pretty young Leila (Maria Perschy) changes her behavior drastically. When her brother approaches Father Dunning (Paul Naschy) for help, telling him that it is the bad influence of his sister's boyfriend that has changed her behavior, the priest does not believe him at first. When a person close to Leila turns up dead with the head twisted by 180 degrees, things are getting suspicious...

As mentioned above, the film is probably the most shamelessly obvious rip-off of "The Exorcist" there is, so there is no need to discuss how the plot line lacks originality. There are many elements in this film which may be seen as crappy by some, and as amusing by others. I tend to the second category. The characters are eccentric and their actions often make little to no sense. A Woman who is in her 30s has a son who is in his 30s. Leila's brother and her boyfriend both look extremely weird; the latter lives in a room with silly-looking masks hanging down from strings attached to the ceiling and cupboards on which quotes like "All you need is to f***" are painted. The investigating police-officer is a superstitious freak who thinks the fact that a murder victim was drugged at the time of death is proof that the crime was a ritual murder. The role of a priest is probably not the first one that one might think of as fitting for Paul Naschy, but it actually fits him kinda well (though I tend to like the guy in any role he plays). Naschy is, of course, the main reason to watch this film. Furthermore, there is a lot of stylish sleaze and (as usual for Naschy flicks) tons of gratuitous female nudity. The female cast members are nice to look at: Lovely Grace Mills plays the possessed girl; her mother is played by Maria Perschy, who had previously worked with Naschy in "El Jorobado de la Morgue" ("The Hunchback of the Morgue", 1973) which is probably my personal favorite Naschy-flick, and "Los Ojos Azules de la Muñeca Rota" ("Blue Eyes of a Broken Doll", also 1973), which is also very good. The female cast furthermore includes María Kosty, whose face (as well as her body) is known for her roles in a variety of Spanish Horror and Exploitation features. Everybody keeps complaining about how awful the makeup in this film is, but I actually found it to be decent.

Overall, I can fully understand anyone who calls this film pure crap. It is, without a doubt, cheap and incredibly silly trash; but, personally I still found it entertaining and even enjoyable. This sure isn't for everyone, and apparently not even for all fellow Naschy fans. However, elements such as possession, gratuitous female nudity, satanic orgies, amusing cheesiness and Paul Naschy as a priest are enough to make a film entertaining in my book. 5/10

Should I give it an extra star for the contact lenses?

[capkronos · 1/10 · 30 July 2006]

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.

Dull Exorcist rip-off, not worth seeing!

[The_Void · 5/10 · 13 October 2007]

While I certainly consider The Exorcist to be a horror classic, I have to admit that I don't hold it in quite as high regard as many other horror fans do. As a consequence of that, I haven't seen many of The Exorcist rip-offs, and if Exorcismo is anything to go by, I'll have to say that's a good thing as this film is boring as hell and certainly not worth spending ninety minutes on it! In fairness to the other Exorcist rip-offs, this is often considered one of the worst, and so maybe it wasn't the best place for me to start. It's not hard to guess what the plot will be: basically it's the same as the one in The Exorcist and sees a girl get possessed by a demonic spirit (which happens to be the spirit of her dead father). The village priest is then called in to perform the exorcism. Like many Spanish horror films, this one stars Paul Naschy, who is pretty much the best thing about the film. Exorcismo was directed by Juan Bosch, who previously directed the derivative Spanish Giallo 'The Killer Wore Gloves'. I haven't seen any of his other films, but on the basis of these two: I believe that originality wasn't one of his strong points. There's not a lot of good things I can say about the film itself; it mostly just plods along and the exorcism scene isn't worth waiting for. I certainly don't recommend it!

Please God, exorcise the boredom!!

[Coventry · 2/10 · 28 January 2006]

Why every horror director wants to imitate "The Exorcist" is a complete riddle to me, as William Friedkin's "classic" is a very overrated film and, in my opinion, not all that tense or shocking. And yet here's another clean rip-off, a Spanish one this time, that shamelessly repeats the story of a young girl that gets possessed by pure evil and turns against her own family. Paul Naschy (who I must admit looks quite hot here) plays the honorable priest who gets approached by John Gibson because his sister Leila's behavior changed drastically since she met her new boyfriend. At first the priest doesn't believe it but when John's body is discovered with its neck twisted, Leila's demonic behavior becomes more noticeable... "Exorcism" is not only very unoriginal, it's also an insufferably boring film! Here Naschy and director Juan Bosch had an open opportunity to make a religiously themed exploitation flick full of shocks and gore, and yet the result is a tame and overall bloodless drama that'll nearly put you to sleep! The last twenty minutes contain some atmospheric moments, albeit very stupid, and there's quite a lot of stylishly filmed female nudity and sleaze. The absolute lack of budget is no real excuse since Paul Naschy already proved before that he has enough imagination to make up for a shortage in money. This is just an awful film, end of story. Other European "The Excorcist" rip-offs are "The Antichrist" and "Beyond the Door" and they suck as well!

Lots of Fun

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 31 October 2014]

A young woman participates (unknowingly) in a satanic ceremony and gets possessed by the spirit of her late father.

The big issue with this film is whether or not it ripped off "The Exorcist". Some say it did, and can point to such scenes as the "reverse head" murder as evidence. Writer (and star) Paul Naschy claimed he had written the script earlier and it just was not filmed at the time.

Troy Howarth sees something of a middle ground, and suspects that Naschy had read the book but not seen the movie. As such, certain elements would have been lifted. Now, not having read the novel, I do not know hoe much it differs from the film, but assuming there is a great deal of overlap, it does make sense that uncredited source material might result in a similar movie.

The truth of the matter, though, is that it makes no difference. Whether it is a ripoff or just a similar theme, the movie is a lot of fun. A priest acting as a detective, a 1970s possession, and lots of good, clean European cinematography.

Sure, this is not the classic "The Exorcist" is, but it might just be more fun. We never get anything nearly as scary, and the Satanic elements make it in many ways more interesting than a simple possession.

A really bad Exorcist-rip off...

[Zarathos-5 · 10 August 2000]

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...

Esta película chupa ***** en el infierno!

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 19 May 2020]

I know I'm in the minority, but I've always considered The Exorcist to be a rather dull film when the pea soup isn't hitting the fan. Exorcismo, a Spanish Exorcist rip-off starring Paul Naschy, is boring even when the possessed girl is doing her thing, and only regular nudity from its pretty female cast members prevent the film from being a total waste of time.

The girl with the demon problem is Leila (Grace Mills), whose heretical activities with a local Satanic cult has left her possessed by the malevolent spirit of her late father. Naschy plays priest Father Adrian Dunning, who is called by the girl's stepmother to lend his expertise. Meanwhile, people are turning up dead with their heads facing the wrong way.

The main problem with this film is that Leila doesn't develop cracked lips, crazy contacts, and bad complexion until well over an hour into the film, and even when she does, it's not very impressive, the few pesetas in the coffer not nearly enough to replicate the head-turning, vomit-spewing craziness of The Exorcist. With everything leading up to the possession being boring (nudity excepted), and everything after being almost as boring, the result is... well... boring.

Bums, boobs and bush aside, the only thing I found remotely interesting was that, despite being Spanish, the film was set in England (although certain shots of arid countryside are clearly not the rolling hills surrounding Bristol), and that Father Dunning is only too happy to carry out the exorcism without the go-ahead from his superiors (I always thought that express permission had to be granted by a bishop).

For Naschy Completists Only

[ferbs54 · 6/10 · 12 March 2013]

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....

Possessed women in Eurohorror act no differently than the non-possessed ones

[Groverdox · 4/10 · 10 October 2018]

Paul Naschy claimed to have started writing the screenplay for "Exorcismo" long before "The Exorcist" came out. It is difficult not to conclude that he finished writing it afterward. There is a scene in which the possessed young woman interrupts a party with some Satanic behaviours that immediately recalls the famous "Exorcist" urination scene.

However, the subtle difference between the two scenes is striking. You see, Eurohorror (and especially Giallo, which"Exorcismo" is not) exists largely to show rich people being horrible and living empty lives. The women in these stories are usually creatures of pure hatred.

The scene with young Regan surprising the well-to-do party guests was truly disturbing, as we had an innocent child doing decidedly non-innocent things. The scene in "Exorcismo" when the not-as-young possessed girl makes a scene at the snobbish party, you're thinking, so what? She's only doing what women always do in European horror flicks.

At first I thought they just didn't have the budget or the know-how to make the girl look "possessed", so they just had her act horribly to the other characters, apparently unaware that all women in Eurohorror act that way anyway, so there's nothing shocking about seeing it here.

The movie does, eventually, make with some contact lenses and make-up, and give the possessed girl someone else's voice, but it's too late. There's just not enough going on in this movie to hold your attention for more than a moment. You're either thinking about how much better "The Exorcist" is than this movie, or you're not thinking about this movie at all.

Paul Naschy weaves his own wickedly warped vision of demonic possession.

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 24 June 2021]

In the mid-70s, Paul Naschy, that remarkably prolific Spanish horror maestro, appeared to be an unstoppable monster-making machine! This darkly charismatic, broad-chested B-horror behemoth, able to turn his enviably versatile monster-making talents to creating many of the more indelible characters of vintage horror cinema! In Juan Bosch's suspenseful satanic panic 'Exorcismo', Naschy exaggerates the sensational elements from influential horror masterpiece 'The Exorcist' and luridly invokes his very own wickedly warped vision of demonic delirium!

Following the psychedelic, sordidly Satanic intro, our pretty protagonist, Leila Gibson (Mercedes Molina) suffers a horrific near-fatal car accident. Convalescing at her crumbling ancestral estate, Leila's once carefree existence is soon sinisterly shattered by manifestations of ancient, hell born evil! Her terrible fits are abominable in nature, strongly suggesting preternatural origins, rather than a schizophrenic disorder. Paul Naschy's stern, occult-repelling priest performs the sacred rite of purification in order to release this nubile child of god from her incumbent demon in a bravura climax of memorably boisterous Euro-horror insanity!

Cerebral Exorcist copy

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 30 May 2022]

EXORCISM (1975, original title Exorcismo) is one in an endless stream of EXORCIST rip-offs that filled up cinemas in the mid 1970s. This is a Spanish variant starring and co-scripted by the ubiquitous Paul Naschy, and it's much more restrained than you might expect, given the genre. Naschy plays Father Adrian, called in to investigate the case of young Leila who has been acting strangely ever since a car accident. Her family suspect the involvement of a Satanist boyfriend, but the real answer turns out to be far, far worse...

Rather than a straight-up possession flick, this is more of a murder mystery set in a country house. Agatha Christie with added nudity, perhaps. It's quite a sedate film for the most part with no real gore, but the production vaues are pretty decent and Naschy gives his usual dedicated performance; I wasn't bored. The demonic scenes take up the last half an hour and are pretty decent, the make-up job particularly strong. More cerebral than outright horror, but for me there's no harm in that.

EXORCISM (Juan Bosch, 1975) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 28 January 2011]

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!).

Daddy's Girl...

[azathothpwiggins · 16 February 2022]

Paul Naschy is a kindly priest in this psycho-demonic thriller, with plenty of nods to THE EXORCIST without being a complete clone thereof. One obvious difference is that the girl in EXORCISM (aka: EXORCISMO) is possessed by her eeevil, dead father instead of the devil.

This movie is on par with other European possession epics of the era.

BEST BITS: #1- The possessed girl's hideously transformed eyes! #2- The devil dog attack! #3- The naked devil women running around during the Satanic ritual sequence! #4- The all-too-short grand finale!

Another triumph for Mr. Naschy...

The only memorable thing for me is that Exorcism was one of the first films that I ever saw on VHS

[Stevieboy666 · 4/10 · 17 January 2021]

Before my parents bought a VCR I can remember watching Exorcism at a friend's house around 1984. The nudity would have raised a few schoolboy giggles, otherwise it was unremarkable. A Spanish Exorcist rip-off that is set in England, and filmed both there and in Spain, it suffers from the usual bad dubbing. Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy plays a priest called in to help with a series of brutal murders (sharply bearded men having their heads twisted around 180 degrees) and a demonically possessed young woman, who spits the usual green pea soup and obscenities. My favourite line has Naschy say to a policeman "I'm sure you haven't come to me to talk about streaking". The movie is very slow and dialogue heavy, it takes almost an hour to spice things up with a black magic ceremony inside some old ruins featuring some naked women and an African drummer. It's 70 minutes until we finally see the woman properly possessed. I do love my Euro horror and the UK VHS (which I own) has great artwork, sadly the film is rather boring.

A worthy viewing for Paul Naschy fans.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 16 February 2023]

Leila Gibson (Mercedes Molina) takes part in a Satanic ceremony at the outset of this terror tale. Unfortunately, this leaves her vulnerable to possession; soon, she is behaving in an irrational and hostile manner. Things only get worse until Leilas' desperate family calls in calm, dependable Father Dunning (genre icon Paul Naschy, in one of his good-guy roles) to exorcise the vile spirit from her body.

Some horror fans may consider this one fairly talky and largely uneventful, but this viewer appreciated it for taking a rational approach to the erratic behavior of a family member. The good Reverend is the kind of character who believes in concrete evidence, but he *will* get plenty of it before the end of the tale.

For just one film in the long line of horror films that capitalized on the great success of "The Exorcist", this is actually one of the better ones. It's good fun: well-acted, intelligent *and* exploitative at the same time (there is an abundance of female nudity), atmospheric, and nicely scored (by Alberto Argudo). While it's true that it has no real original ideas to its credit (among other things, there are heads twisted 180 degrees and a victimized character who comes to resemble Regan MacNeil quite a bit), it's fundamentally a good story that is well told by star / co-writer Naschy and director Juan Bosch. Naschy is solid as a rock as the holy man, with Maria Perschy standing out among the supporting cast as the despairing mother.

Maybe this is NOT one of Naschy's best, but it fills an hour and a half pretty well.

Expatriate actor Jack Taylor, a familiar face to fans of European horror & exploitation, performed Dunnings' voice for the dubbed version.

Seven out of 10.

A nifty supernatural shocker

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 30 August 2007]

The Gibson family are rich, decadent and dysfunctional. Youngest daughter Leila (a convincing performance by foxy brunette Grace Mills) is especially wild: her fiancé Richard practices the black arts and takes Leila to a debauched satanic ceremony. Pretty soon Leila starts acting strange: she says mean and spiteful things in a vulgar tongue, throws temper tantrums, and has severe seizures. Her mother Patricia (ravishing Maria Perschy) and sister Deborah (hot blonde Maria Kosti) are understandably worried. They call upon longtime friend Father Adrian Dunning (excellently played by Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy in a rare good guy role) to save Leila's soul before it's too late. Director Juan Bosch grounds the fantastic premise in a believable everyday world setting, which in turn gives the story a substantial additional credibility. Bosch earns bonus credit for handling the potentially lurid subject matter with admirable taste and restraint. Moreover, this film makes a strong and provocative point that mankind's flawed nature and immorality perpetuate the existence of evil (Leila becomes possessed by the spirit of her deceased father who hand incestuous longings for her). The gradual build-up leads to an especially chilling and unnerving third act; the climactic exorcism is quite tense and rousing. Francisco Sanchez's slick cinematography and Alberto Arguda's spooky funky-ripping score are both up to par. Nice ambiguous ending, too.

Leftover Split Pea Soup, Anyone?

[Gafke · 3 May 2004]

If this were not a very blatant rip-off of "The Exorcist" (which it very obviously is) it might be a halfway decent movie. Not a GREAT movie, but not too bad. But

instead, we get some scenes that we've seen before and were better the first

time around. A young, rich beauty (is there any other kind?) unknowingly

participates in a Satanic ritual and becomes possessed by the spirit of her late father, who died in an insane asylum. Things get moving with a head-turned- around-backwards murder (sound familiar?) and proceed onto the inevitable

demonic fried-egg eyeballs and scabby, vomit encrusted special effects make- up. There's nothing very new or original here. That said, it's still not the worst movie I've ever seen. It suffers from bad dubbing and a lame ending, but there's a few genuine scares, some groovy hippie coolness and lots of naked girls

dancing around, if you're into that sort of thing. Fans of the demonic possession genre may enjoy it, but die-hard fans of The Exorcist may be somewhat

disgusted. Four stars out of ten.

Decent Exorcist Rip

[Michael_Elliott · 14 November 2017]

Exorcismo (1975)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Leila (Grace Mills) goes to a "love in" with her boyfriend and soon afterwards she begins acting strange towards her family. Over time her attitude grows more aggressive and before long her family asks Father Dunning (Paul Naschy) to look at her. Before long he realizes that she fell into a Satanic sect and has become possessed.

EXORCISMO is a Spanish horror film that's yet another cash-in on the success of THE EXORCIST. Naschy, who co-wrote the screenplay, says this was written before he saw that film but who knows what the truth is. Either way, for the most part this here is a mildly entertaining horror film that starts off well enough and ends on a good note but there are some questionable moments stuck in the middle.

If you've seen enough of these EXORCIST-rips then you know that all of them add a few touches of their own. The screenplay here pretty basic stuff, although the love in is something new and there are a few other new things including something involving a dog. I thought the film actually worked quite well in a sleazy type of way and especially early on with all of the nudity. The ending of the picture is also quite good as the possession aspect goes full steam and we get a pretty good exorcism sequence.

As I said, the biggest flaw with the movie is the middle section. For some reason the sleaze factor pretty much dries up and we've got around forty-five minutes worth of bland footage where not much is going on except for characters talking to one another. I do feel that Naschy gave a good performance and it was nice getting to see him in a straight role that didn't require make-up or messing around with women. Molina was also attractive in her role and added some fun.

EXORCISMO isn't the greatest film that you're going to see but it does offer up some mild entertainment that makes it worth watching if you're a fan of Naschy or the genre.