Magdalena, vom Teufel besessen

I saw this film under the title Magdalena and enjoyed it for what it is. Most complaints can be answered the same way.

Magdalena is a stupid film - Yeah, it's by the guy who made the Schoolgirl Report films.

The horror element is weak - Yeah, it's by the guy who made the Schoolgirl Report films.

The film is unmemorable - Yeah, it's by the guy who made the Schoolgirl Report films.

The film is technically inept - Yeah, it's by the guy who made the Schoolgirl Report films.

There are only two questions one needs to know the answers to. Does Magdalena deliver on the exploitation goodies? Yes. Is it boring? No. I don't know what else to write. The girl gets possessed, kicks at invisible dogs, plays the piano naked, gets men to kill for her, and vomits up a plastic snake. Good times!

A young virgin,Magadalena(Dagmar Hedrich),orphaned at a boarding school for girls is raped and possessed by an invisible demon which exists the corpse of a recently deceased Satanist.Possessed by the demonic spirit Magdalena spews obscenities and runs around naked."Magadalena,Possessed by the Devil" is loaded with delicious sleaze and exploitative elements.The film is fun to watch and quite blasphemous,so fans of outrageous exploitation cinema will be enthralled.The acting is terrible,the plot is weak and there is no suspense whatsoever,but I don't care.I wanted sleaze and nudity and that's what I've got.So if you like sleaze cinema give this one a look.Highly recommended especially hand in hand with "Malabimba" by Andrea Bianchi.

An old man is found crucified by a streetwalker in a German village. Miles away at a boarding school in Munich, the man's granddaughter begins to exhibit very strange behaviour as if she were, I don't know, possessed by Satan. . . I admit, I LOVE European "Exorcist" rip-offs. None them really equals the power of the original (they're more like "The Exorcist" if it had been directed by Ed Wood Jr.). But actually the term "rip-off" is a bit of misnomer since few of them really tried too much to equal the big-budget spectacle of the Hollywood blockbuster. They could actually be quite creative and very different from both their inspiration and each other.

I had kind of high hopes for this one since it was directed by Walter Boos, one of the men responsible for the long-running German "report" films (i.e. "hausenfrau-report", "schulmadchen-report"). I didn't think it would be good, but I thought it would be an interesting collision of genres (kind of like the old Reese's commercials: "Hey, you got Satan in 'report' film!" "Hey, you got schulmadchen in my devil possession movie!"). Boos does follow the familiar European exploitation route of making the possessed girl several years older than "Ravin" in "The Exorcist" (and played by an actress obviously several years older than that). But this isn't quite the "barely legal" sex romp of Boos' "schulmadchen-report" films. In fact, he seems at times to be doing a fairly earnest (if very inept) imitation of the actual "Exorcist", which is not exactly his forte.

This does have some interesting elements like the crucified grandfather or the scene where the possessed "Magdalena" tears a bible in half with her bare hands. She's actually not much more foul-mouthed than your usual teenager, but you got to laugh at the scene where she tells a priest she wants to take communion, but not in her mouth! Interestingly though, satanic possession turns her not into a crazed nympho, but rather a virginal tease from hell who gets grown men killed fighting over her. The lead actress Dagmar Henrich, though German, has a real early 70's teen look about her, kind of like "Marcia Brady" or "Laurie Partridge" gone horribly bad (she's not nearly as cute as Maureen McCormick or Susan Dey actually, but she has a lot more full-frontal nude scenes). Due to the severe budget limitations, she has to work a lot harder than Linda Blair to convince anybody she's possessed. And whereas, Blair was dubbed by Mercedes McCambridge, she gets dubbed by the usual gang of Euro-idiots who dubbed these things. This certainly isn't a bad performance all things considered, and as a movie this not totally un-entertaining.

After her grandfather is murdered by Satanists, teenaged Magdelena drops to the floor in her dorm, convulsing and drooling white foam. Naturally, she has been possessed by a demon (the sound of buzzing flies signals the event).

For the remainder of the movie, she alternates between innocent schoolgirl and a superhuman, sex-starved demon who masturbates in public and shouts obscenities. The headmistresses keep telling each other, "Magdelena's not well," and, "All she needs is a tranquilizer." They take her to Sunday service, where she tears a Bible in half and swears at the pastors.

Magdelena is removed to a country cottage where concerned psychologists can keep an eye on her. In her possessed state, she sweats a lot and teases an infatuated young medic, who unctuously professes his love even after she tries to strangle him. Finally, she recites a prayer and vomits the demon in the form of a live snake, which the medic quickly grinds under his boot.

This German-made schlock fest offers much debate between doctors and clergy, none of it effective or especially dramatic. The sex talk is surprisingly crude and Dagmar Hedrich, who looks closer to 30 years old, is energetic as Magdelena and gets naked a lot.

This cheesy, very West German "Exorcist" ripoff (not that it really follows the template of that movie beyond having a heroine who is possessed) starts out in such spectacularly energetic and sleazy fashion that for a while there I thought I had stumbled upon a hitherto unknown (to me at least) camp classic. Unfortunately, it gradually loses steam, and really just peters out at th end--there isn't even a climax, per se. Still, it earns points for shamelessness, tastelessness, gratuitous full-frontalism, and English dubbing that enhances dialogue that was no doubt terrible to begin with. I think this is the only horror movie by a director who otherwise worked entirely in German softcore films of the "Schoolgirl Report" variety, and he certainly sticks to what he knows here. It also appears to be the 2nd and last movie of the lead actress, and while she appears to be game enough, you can understand why maybe this crossed a line for her, one that hopefully people later in her life would be blissfully unaware of. (Unless you're the type of person who's happy with relatives looking at the photo album and saying "Oh look, here's another pic of young Grandma, extra-perky and starkers.") Anyway, ultimately a disappointment, but only because it's SO enjoyable for a while. Nonetheless, some big laughs here.