13 Exorcismos

"13 exorcismos" is a film that promised quality but fails to deliver it for much of its duration. The script is supposedly based on true events and offers a long, tired story without having a gloomy atmosphere or suspense, the most interesting thing is the theme of faith on the part of the protagonist together with her religious family and logic on the part of the school psychologist, topics that fail to be really exploited and end up falling into predictable clichés. The best achievements are the performances of the entire cast and the cinematography in night scenes, which, although they do not achieve an atmosphere worthy of a horror movie, do manage to be well done. A movie to see and never repeat.

This is a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story, based on a supposedly true flick . First film by directing director Jacobo Martinez in which he delves into the drama of a troubled teenager, tormented by an oppressive confessional upbringing and eventually suffering a deep possession . The movie begins well and grows more and more until the scary and eerie finale . After the strange behavior displayed by teenager Laura Villegas (María Romanillos) , she is a 16-year-old girl repressed by her environment, her parents , good-natured father Tomás (Urko Olozabal) and fanatic Catholic mother Carmen (Ruth Diaz) , who usually pressures her children to keep praying . Then , on a Halloween night, Laura and her friends go to a party at an abandoned building with an unsettling past , holding a séance to summon a murderous spirit , which seems to affect Laura in and an unusual way . From then on, a series of strange phenomena will disturb the family. Later on , the parents call a Vatican-sanctioned exorcist , Father Olmedo(José Sacristán), the only person who could not only answer these questions , but also put an end to the ordeal . Olmedo is one of the 15 priests authorized by the Vatican to perform exorcisms in Spain. The priest attempts to free her from possesion resulting in fateful consecuences . While her parents think that God is punishing her for performing profane acts . As the young girl is really possessed by a malevolant spirit until a surprising and astonishing final. The devil knows how to corrupt us ! . And you, do you believe in Hell?. Is she going crazy? Must she somehow pay for her sins? Or is she possessed by the devil?

Suspense , mystery , shocks and grisly horror is this Spanish horror film . This terrifying exploitation movie displays possession, witchcraft , eerie horror and disgusting Satanism . An acceptable horror picture, thanks to fine acting , tight pacing , well mounted edition and skillful special effects with decent make-up . William Friedkin's classic Exorcist spawned countless imitations , sequels and rip-offs , this ¨13 Exorcismos¨ is a late imitation but entertaining enough . A film inspired by a series of registered cases of exorcism in Spain in which veteran José Sacristán gives nice acting , playing a prestigious exorcist , an authorized priest to intervene in a case of demonic possession on a teen suffering weird and vivid visions that plague her .

Ramón Campos, producer and screenwriter of the film, says the following : ¨the idea to made this movie arose after realizing that no exorcism movies had been shot in Spain, so they began to document it from the last real case that happened in Burgos in 2014 backwards and we discovered many points in common¨. However , while it is true that contemporary Spanish cinema has not made films about exorcisms , this subgenre got some mediocre adaptations made at the same time in the Seventies , including the following : ¨Endemoniada¨ 1974 by Amando de Ossorio with Julián Mateos , ¨The Spiritist¨ 1975 with Vicente Parra, Maria Salerno and ¨Exorcismo¨ by Juan Bosch with Grace Mills , Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina and ¨El juego del diablo¨ (1975) by Jorge Darnell with Imma de Santis .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Jacobo Martinez. The film was nominated for the best special effects at the 2023 Goya Awards and has the same creative team as the successful Malasaña 32.

No pun intended - do not compare this with the original Exorcist! No movie can really hold its own against it! If you can see past that, I think there is a decent horror movie here. On the other hand I have been accused of being to lenient or too soft when it comes to ratings.

That said, the shock effects are nicely placed, the acting is really good overall. And I do not only say it because I saw another horror movie that was none of those things ... though that may have something to do with the dubbing (I try to stay away from those like the devil from holy water, but had to give in this time).

With the Exorcist being 50 years old you could watch that - it holds its own ... but if you watch more than one movie, you can also give this a try!

Well, finally, a new possession themed movie that I actually like enough to recommend. Naturally, it's NOT a Hollywood made movie. It's a Spanish film called, 13 Exorcismos, which means 13 Exorcisms. Spanish with English subtitles, and it's pretty grim from beginning to end. The story goes into the "eternal battle" of church vs. Medicine in trying to help a girl who deteriorates drastically after encountering the spirit of a really horrible murderer at a seance on Halloween. You'd think kids would know better by now, but it's actually a pretty scary setup and the rest of the film follows the girl's violent and vicious self destruction while her mother and father and psychologist and priest argue over who's best to save her, the church or the hospital. I differ from the other review in thinking that the mood and atmosphere of this film was consistently foreboding and menacing throughout, aided by an effective soundtrack and steady pacing. I felt it was really the first original possession themed movie in decades and the ending is tragic. Unfortunately, I don't think it's available on most of the streaming services, even though it was made in 2022. I doubt it got much if any of a US release, but hopefully will show up someday on a popular streaming service.