Exorcisme

My copy is titled Exorcism and is absolutely great. There's naked girls chained upside down getting whipped and covered in sacrificial blood and some demented ex-priest stabbing people with at least one scene of guts or a heart or something removed from what was probably a dead pig.

I think maybe this movie should be viewed as a comedy, its certainly believable that it was intended as such.

In Paris, the former priest Mathis Vogel (Jesus Franco) writes pornography for a magazine. When the deranged priest watches an erotic show based on a Black Mass, he believes that the cast and audience are possessed and he goes on a murder spree to exorcise the demons of his victims.

"L'Éventreur de Notre-Dame" is another Eurotrash by Jess Franco, who is also the lead actor. His trademark is present in every scene, with sexploitation, violence, nudity, bad acting and gore, but for fans of this genre it is funny to watch this trash. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Exorcista Diabólico" ("The Devilish Exorcist")

EXORCISME (1974) ** Jesus Franco, Lina Romay. Jesus Franco directs and stars in this story about a crazed ex-priest who witnesses a series of staged "Black Masses." Convinced the participants are possessed by Satan, he kills them in order to "exorcise" their demons. Although this storyline has a lot of promise, numbingly repetitive dialogue and Franco's amateurish acting keep the film from reaching its true potential. It's also padded with numerous sex scenes--featuring suggested autoerotism, bondage, sexualized torture, lesbianism and an orgy, among other things--none of which serve to advance the plot. The result is a film that tries to be both porno and horror film, but doesn't really succeed at either.

My wife bought me this by mistake! Some company called Boulevard entertainment had somehow mixed this up with another film called Exorcism (and American religious film or something), but when Lina Romay's pubic hair appeared within 0.001% of a second of the film starting, I thought "We're back in the land of Jess Franco!"

That's bad news for most of us, by the way. There is a small fraction of the populace that rather enjoys a Franco film, but if you've sat through any of his films you know what to expect here: Endless scenes, much nudity and little sex, plenty of misogyny, and zoom shots.

Truth be told, this is nowhere near as painful as Succubus or Oasis of the Zombies, but it's also nowhere near as funny as White Cannibal Queen or the Devil Hunter. It involves Franco himself as a crazy ex-priest running around Paris carving up women that are involved in some sort of half-arsed black mass ceremony, with his prize being Lina Romay, who, surprisingly, spends most of the film naked or tied up and naked.

That's your plot, and reading that back over I realised that I've made Exorcism sound a bit exciting, which it's not. "Crazy ex-priest running around Paris" doesn't sound right. How about 'slowly moping around Paris, usually hiding behind things, staring"? Instead of 'carving up women' I'll say 'very slowly tormenting women and gibbering on about how they've got the devil in them for endless minutes'? I'll stick by the 'half-arsed black mass' though. Plus there's an orgy scene which seems to involve nothing but naked people writhing around and not doing much (and this is the early seventies – all them naked bodies must have reeked!). Additionally, there's this old guy who has a hilarious blue rinse, so watch out for that.

I loved how, when the dust settled and the film was over, the police just got back into their car and drove off, leaving all the bodies/victims behind. Hurrah for realism! Also, hurrah for nepotism as Franco himself gets to run his gnarled hands over quite a few naked actresses!This film gets an extra point for the sadly departed Lina Romay, who is the only good thing about this film. Do they have pubes in heaven?

I've just noticed Jess has now gone off to the soft-core film in the sky too. Shame - I know I rag on most of his films but still, he'll be missed.

*This is a review of the version with the international aka. Title "EXORCISM".

Does the plot of this movie serve mainly as an excuse to show tons of sleaze, gratuitous female nudity, sadomasochistic perversions and violence? Yes, it does, and if you have a problem with that you better stay away from this film, as from any other film made by the prolific Spanish Exploitation-deity Jess Franco after the mid-70s. To my fellow fans of the man, however, L'ÉVENTREUR DE NOTRE-DAME aka. EXORCISME aka. EXORCISM of 1979 is highly recommendable, as it combines Franco's passions for sleaze, elegance and controversy in a highly entertaining manner. Franco had cameos and supporting roles in many of his 190+ films, but he plays the main psychopath here.

Mathis Vogel (Franco), an author who writes sadomasochistic stories for a sleaze magazine, is really a religious fanatic who kidnaps, tortures and murders sexually promiscuous young women in order to save their souls. The hot girls working for the sleaze-magazine, who also appear in sadomasochistic fake black masses in front of decadent audiences, soon begin to disappear...

EXORCISM is interesting for a variety of reasons. Jess Franco, who was once labeled "The most dangerous film-maker alive" by the Vatican has been one of the most active adversaries (and victims) of censorship throughout his career; some decades ago, censorship in the name of morality still came partly from the influence of the church. While evil devil-worshipers were very popular villains in 70s cinema, Franco actually gives us an evil Christian who is out to murder promiscuous girls and innocent leisure-time-Satanists. The sleaze-level is high in this one, and anybody disgusted by the combination of sexuality and violence in a movie should stay away from this as from most other Franco-flicks. The young Lina Romay (Franco's real-life wife) is the most beautiful member of the entirely exhibitionist female cast. The story is often ridiculous but fun to follow, even though some clichéd elements like super-idiotic police might make viewers roll their eyes. As in the majority of Franco's films, the set-pieces, cinematography and score are great. As it is the case with many other Franco-movies, there are (hardcore-pornographic) alternate cuts of this movie available, this is a review of the non-porn 'Horror' version. Sleazy Franco-typical nastiness, recommended to my fellow fans of the man.