Abby ...la storia di una donna posseduta!

"The Blackorcist," as this was supposedly nearly called, is actually not as blatant a rip-off of Exorcist, The (1973) as Chi sei? (1975) AKA Beyond the Door, or Seytan (1974) AKA The Turkish Exorcist. The latter in particular steals many scenes shot-for-shot (though not actual footage), but does actually steal same recording of the music "Tubular Bells."

Abby is pretty enjoyable. I saw the Cinefear DVD of it, and hopefully some other company will be able to do a proper transfer of the film at some point. Credit to Cinefear for getting it out, though, and even including some extras.

Abby is sort of the equivalent of Linda Blair's character in The Exorcist, but Abby is not a young girl but a young married woman; her husband and father-in-law are both priests. I'm not certain what denomination they were. The father dresses like a Catholic priest with black shirt and white collar, but has a wife and son. The son wears a khaki shirt with a white collar.

The father unwittingly releases a demon in Africa, which for some reason possesses Abby in the US. The demon causes Abby to swear rather profusely - I was surprised.

If a new DVD is ever released, there was some Greek, Hindi, and an African language spoken by the demon and the priest, and it would be interesting to get some optional subtitles for those scenes. The text of the lawsuit against the movie would also be interesting.

Scary, hilarious, and vastly better than its reputation suggests, Abby has a number of moments where you don't know whether to laugh or scream. I, personally, ended up laughing most of the time. One of these scenes has Abby (Carol Speed) beating up a concerned family friend while chanting, "Here we go 'round the merry-go-round, merry-go-round, merry-go-round...." Another moment has Abby obscenely salivating over chicken blood. Still another is when she rips open her blouse and begins spouting four-letter words at a marriage-counseling session. Then there's the discotheque exorcism, with the demon bellowing and swearing as the joint is telekinetically demolished. A lot of the movie is ridiculous, yes, but that's why it's so horrific. If it were rational, what would be the point?

Some scenes, however, fall off the humor-horror fence onto the comedy side. The best example of this is Abby's performance of the soulful "My Soul is a Witness" in the church choir. The problem is, Carol can't sing! Another character mentions her "angelic voice." Apparently the angels live in her sinuses! Then there's the use of fried chicken as a constant theme and Juanita Moore's sage pearls of wisdom about "lovin' a good man."

The performances range from passable to quite good. The best comes from the always dignified, commanding William Marshall as the exorcist. Paula Henderson's main theme, "Will We Find Our Tomorrows," is memorable, as is most everything else about the movie. Though it's often silly, Abby is never dull.

Trivia: Made for $500,000, Abby was a substantial success, grossing $9 million during its month in theaters. After that month, Warners sued and profits were frozen. Director William Girdler died two weeks after the suit was settled and never saw a dime.

After years of wondering what the fuss about Abby was, I couldn't help but feel a little let down once I saw it. It's your average Exorcist ripoff but with less convincing effects, scripting, and acting. It plays more like a bizarre comedy than a horror film for most of the run time and runs out of steam midway through. Carol Speed gives a fun performance as the title character and is the main reason to see it besides the unintentional laugh moments.

Do not doubt this film's fabulousness. Doubt its credibility, maybe, but not its sheer power to amuse. But this posting is here to dispel some misinformation, not to review the movie. Suffice it to say, if you have a sense of irony and don't need MST3K to tell you what's funny, you'll enjoy it. About four scenes were taken directly from THE EXORCIST, but there were about a dozen movies that were much more derivative.

Actually, Warner Brothers lost their lawsuit in '78, but AIP didn't rerelease it out of fear of WB's corporate muscle, and because the EXORCIST craze was basically over with. I sometimes wonder if WB would have sued someone who was (or claimed to be) actually possessed during this period, as they seemed to think they had possession itself copyrighted. Listen closely: WB did not, and could not, order all prints destroyed. The movie simply went into limbo. It has been doing very well on bootleg video, and if the copyright holders (formerly AIP) wished to do so, they could find a good print and put it out on video legitamately, and rake in the dough.

"Abby" made it into the Golden Turkey Awards book as a nominee for the Worst Blaxploiotation Film of All Time and it's easy to see why! The film was released within weeks of "The Exorcist" and, as the story goes, was yanked from theaters and locked away in a vault since it bore such libelous similarity to the now classic blockbuster which so terrified audiences and caused infinite controversy of its own. No doubt, audiences that attended the few screenings of "Abby" before the film was summarily retired were pretty scared too, but in a much different way! "Abby" is truly a dreadful film on just about ALL levels, but what is most pathetic about it is it's lame attempt to exploit legitimate African-based Vodou iconography and lore into what is quite obviously a mad pastiche designed solely to trade on black heritage in order to copy "The Exorcist." The addition of Vodou-inspired and gospel religious references which could have potentially added a culturally-correct flavor to any other film does little more here than betray the attempt to "cash in".... Now, all this said, "Abby" is a hoot to watch! Dialogue, direction, and editing are lousy through and through. The acting is terribly stilted, and this film must have been a devestating dissapointment to all involved, especially then-rising star Carol Speed. Her nothing less than lewd performance (with tongue action) is splendidly embarassing. "The song" (sung by Carol Speed) is a dog you'll be tempted to howl along with. If you are lucky enough to land a copy of this shlocky African-American Blaxploitation gumbo (and check on eBay -- there's usually a copy floating around!), pair it up with another misguided masterpiece (which features one of Richard Burton's most horrendous performances as well as a bewilderingly coquettish, re-possessed Linda Blair): "Exorcist II: The Heretic" Magnificent movie masochism!