La endemoniada

Demon Witch Child (1975)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Amando de Ossorio, director behind the four Blind Dead films, wrote and directed this rip of The Exorcist but he adds a few neat twists to make the film stand on its own. A young baby goes missing and the police suspect a local Satan worshipper so they bring her in for questioning. During the interrogation the witch praises Satan and then kills herself but soon her evil spirit returns and takes over the body of a young girl. There are countless items in this film that borrow heavily from The Exorcist but do Ossorio also adds some new stuff like the twist of the possession coming due to a witch. There's also a couple eerie scenes involving the witches and the ending is quite good. However, like all these Italian rips, there's a lot being ripped off from the troubled priest to the dirty talking little girl. The dubbing to this film is pretty bad so the dirty talk from the child comes off with more laughs than anything else. This is no great masterpiece but it's certainly one of the better rips I've seen.

Spanish horror director Amando de Ossorio will always be best known for his Blind Dead series and rightly so because they're good films, and also because most of the rest of the stuff that he directed isn't up to much. Italian and Spanish filmmakers would often make their own versions of popular American films, and it's not surprising that Exorcist rip-offs almost became their own sub-genre after 1973. The Possessed is clearly yet another copy of Willian Friedkin's groundbreaking horror hit, and while it's not very good and has nothing on the earlier classic; to my greatest surprise, this film is both not bad and definitely one of the better Exorcist rip-offs. The plot focuses on the daughter of a politician who becomes possessed. Sometime earlier, an old woman suspected of being a witch is accused of kidnapping young children and kills herself by jumping out the police station window. The politician's daughter later has an encounter with a strange woman who gives her a necklace. It's not long before the girl is speaking foreign languages and turning her head round one hundred and eighty degrees...

Despite being a rip-off, this film actually has a few good ideas of its own. The idea of the girl being possessed by a witch rather than some demonic force actually works quite well and the film has a couple of subplots, such as the one that sees the token young priest being chased by a girl against his wishes. This plot doesn't have much to do with the film's central idea, but it's interesting and amusing. It also seems like director Amando de Ossorio was trying to have a swipe at the church through a lot of the events in this film - including the subplot with the girl and the priest. The film was obviously made on a shoestring budget and as such there isn't much room for anything spectacular. The special effects are largely inept and unconvincing and the acting is matched by some truly atrocious dubbing. The only real notable cast member is Marián Salgado, and she is only notable for the fact that she was cast in the film because she was the Spanish dubbing actor for Linda Blair in The Exorcist (a nice touch in my opinion). Overall, The Possessed is lacklustre, but it's not a bad way to spend ninety minutes and it is one of Amando de Ossorio's best films outside of the Blind Dead series.

These kind of movies are usually dismissed as "Exorcist" rip-offs, which is not entirely accurate as they often lacked the budget and talent to "rip-off" a mega-budgeted Hollywood spectacle like "The Exorcist" even if they wanted to. What they really did was take advantage of all the notoriety and publicity surrounding the American film to make something that usually wasn't any good, but was often a lot more original than they have been given credit for. An old gypsy witch is accused of kidnapping a baby. After she dies in custody, her daughter arranges for her soul to possess the neglected young daughter of the local magistrate. Like Ravin in "The Exorcist" the possessed young girl floats in the air and starts speaking in foul-mouthed, adult voices, but she is also far more active, leading the sacrifice of the kidnapped baby to Satan, and luring the male lover of her governess to a park where she kills him,castrates him, and gives his genitalia to his poor girlfriend as a present! Her eventual exorcist meanwhile, like Father Damien Karras, is a local priest facing a crisis of conscience, but a far more ridiculous one--a woman he earlier jilted for the priesthood has become a prostitute.

I, in no way, want to imply that this is a good movie. Amando Ossorio has become somewhat of a cult director, but while he may handle atmospheric horror well in his "Blind Dead" series (or even the much-maligned "Night of the Sorcerers"), he is well out of his element here with this kind of more visceral horror. The script is (obviously)very stupid, the special effects are generally inept, and the atrocious English dubbing makes the whole thing completely risible. The movie should be commended though for its originality (relatively speaking)and its sheer audacity (the infanticide, the castration etc.). Most of the objectionable material, it should be said, is done off-screen (probably more due to budget limitations and censorship than good taste), but it unusual to broach such disturbing subject matter at all in a commercial film. The make-up on the little girl is also pretty good, and is aided greatly by the fact that the young actress looked pretty creepy (and a lot like the old witch) to begin with.

So does all this add up to a recommendation? Well . . . I guess if you like these "Exorcist" rip-offs like I do, you could do worse.

It's another Exorcist rip-off, but then who cares because it's a pretty entertaining one too. Fernando Sancho fans please note: He does not eat any chicken in this one.

A creepy old woman desecrates a church, steals a chalice, and probably lays a cable on the floor on the way out, causing more problems for an overstretched police force who are trying to track down a kidnapped baby. The young priest in charge of the church is disturbed and thinks that its the work of satanists, whereas the police think it's some young people who are bored with drugs and sex. Good thinking, coppers!

The old woman is the head of a satan worshipping cult and is quickly arrested by the police (which is confusing considering what they were just saying). Turns out the old witchy woman has also kidnapped the baby and wont talk, throwing herself out of a window while her second in command curses the police (including the eighties band led by Sting). Curses, eh? Better keep an eye on that young girl that's the daughter of a local judge - she looks like a typical possible possession case.

What unfolds is kind of like The Exorcist as the girl starts cussing everyone left right and centre, spouting out their secrets, making door handles move on their own, writhing about the floor and turning the top half of her body round the wrong way. You get the usual science/religious conversations from the parents/priest/police/psychiatrist involved, but there are a good few differences that set this one apart.

For one thing, there's an entire sub plot regarding a relationship the priest had with a girl before he became a man of the cloth. I know folks take breakups bad sometimes, but this girl becomes a drunken hussey and blames everything on him! She doesn't stop there either, which i guess sets up the priest for one of those 'crisis of faith moments' near the end of the film.

What's also creepy is the little girl transforming into the old woman (while still being a little girl) and getting all murderous on the population. Reagan out the of the Exorcist just lay in bed waiting for victims - this kid goes out and cuts their tallywhacer off. That would give the impression that this film is gory by the way. It's not at all.

I put this up near the top of the Exorcist rip-off pile. There's an effective burning sequence, the girl climbing down the side of a building, and all sorts of devilly jazz.

A person breaks into a church, and steals a chalice while leaving behind a mess and a Satanic calling card. That would be bad enough, but just wait until a little girl gets possessed and becomes the Demon Witch Child! Written and directed by Amando de Ossorio. He has made a number of low budget horror films, particularly in the "blind dead" series.

Interesting score, vaguely reminiscent of Claudio Simonetti's work.

The girl, Susan, is very weird, like a small child trapped in a preteen's body. Some of this may be due to the off dubbing, though. Her extreme innocence does seem logical in comparison to her transformation, making it seem more extreme. Very nice makeup effects, too. (Was this you, Pablo Perez?) (Interestingly, the actress playing Susan was the Spanish dub for Linda Blair in "The Exorcist").

There are some "Exorcist" similarities, but it is not a blatant ripoff, even if this film was clearly inspired by it. When the priest gets called either "queer or impotent", that is pretty amusing.

There is some completely erroneous nonsense about inheriting languages through genes, which may remain dormant for generations. I cannot imagine that any credible scientist would ever say such silly things.

Absolutely deserves a decent DVD release. Whoever owns the rights, if any, and the original negative needs to get this one released to us in a clean copy. Someone call Dark Sky! They are the people for the job.