I saw this just before Planet Terror,(the other half of the Grindhouse double bill)at the annual Horrorthon Film Festival which was founded by Edward King and is organised by him and his team that also made the Irish zom-com hit Dead Meat (2004),which I have also reviewed on this site. Only this time the roles are reversed, producer Edward King writes and directs while writer/director Conor McMahon produces this one.
Before the screening, 2001 Maniacs director Tim Sullivan introduced King on stage to introduce his award winning short film. It seems that the man who has programmed Dublin's horror film festival for ten years has turned to comedy. King admitted this before the lights went down which seems to have confused hundreds of die hard horror fans. Having said that, this is an entertaining piece of craziness.
The plot, a black priest without soul is called to perform an exorcism on a white teenage girl who's own soul has been possessed by "soul" ! The Godfather of Soul "James Brown" references are quite priceless here and it is quite obvious that King loves 70's music, Blaxploitation and comedy.
The story is told in three acts which is extremely unusual for such a short film, but it moves in swiftly with great detail, both in narrative and in production design. The dialogue almost sounds like a rap song which is amusing while viewing it.
Everybody is perfectly cast, Marcus Valentine is the John Shaft of priests, Tim Dillard as the rabbi is both affectionate and sincere while Donna Nikolaisen is obviously having a blast as the possessed James Brown-like girl in the bedroom.
All in all, The Blaxorcist is worth seeking out for a good laugh but it's an awful shame that both King and McMahon don't make more films together. Come'on guys !!!
