It’s been said by many that this film titled Exorcism is nothing but a rip off of William Friedkin’s 1973 film based on the popular William Peter Blatty novel The Exorcist, which to this day many people believe is the most frightening horror film ever made. However I did a little research and it can very well be that this Spanish film was indeed a way of banking on the success of the American made film, however upon my research the original Exorcist was never released in Spain when the film first hit theaters in 1973. In fact what my research did tell me is the first time Friedkin’s film did see theaters in Spain was in 2001 when the film was re-released into theaters worldwide. This however does not mean that this film is not similar in story however or that the filmmakers didn’t get the idea from seeing Friedkin’s movie. Actor Paul Naschy said in an interview that there is no way that Exorcism is a rip off of The Exorcist. I tend to agree with the actor, because this film comes no where near as being not only as good, but in the same league as The Exorcist.
Supposedly in Spain Exorcism was a smash hit when it came out in theaters on March 10th of 1975. The film was praised for it’s message about moral excess and familial dysfunction in society. While it can easily be argued that the plot does have such overtones. I for one saw a lot of familiarities to Friedkins Exorcist. The plot involves a girl whom becomes possessed by demonic forces. A priest named Father Adrian Dunning (Paul Naschy) is called in to stop the forces of evil from making the girl carry out their evil deeds, and from turning into a repulsive and horrifying student of evil herself.
The script is really not that great and tends to be all over the place. It’s obvious that as the viewer you know what’s going on, but as the film begins we’re introduced to a very slow and very boring beginning which drags for over a coarse of an hour before something remotely interesting begins to happen. However when something does begin to happen in this film, it looks all to familiar, as it could be augured that the script is very similar to Blatty’s. Just not written as well.
Probably the only strong thing that this film has going for it is the acting. While it’s not Paul Naschy’s best role, he is still the shining star in this film as Father Adrian Durring. As some of you may or may not know Naschy is very well known for his role in European horror films and is very well received by fans of the genre. The rest of the cast in this film was alright but their performances were nothing special. Naschy pretty much stole the show here.
I’m not going to say that the directing was bad in this movie, but it was nothing great either. Director Juan Bosch, did a decent jobs with his visuals in the film and picked some decent shots, however not all the scene in the film are as memorable as I wish they were, and I found a lot of the pacing of the film to be off. The film also just ended out of nowhere with no real explanation as to what really happened to our characters after the films final sequence.
The production value of the film was so-so, I mean we really didn’t have any great sets or anything as the majority of the film was shot in a house. I was actually very surprised that most of the make-up effects in the film were actually pretty good, although I felt that the way the film was lit, did no justice in making the effects effective enough to draw any scares from the audience.
Overall, I really didn’t care much for this film. I found it to be very similar in plot to that of The Exorcist, especially towards the end of the film. Paul Naschy performance was probably the only thing that kept at least halfway interested in the film, but was not enough for me to actually give the movie any praise. The DVD is full of a lot of special features and of course BCI has given us one hell of a great and colorful box cover for the DVD. But the only way I can recommend anyone buys this DVD is if your curious to see how similar the movie is to The Exorcist or simply for the cool box art.
– Horror Bob
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
