EXORCISM (1975)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

The best thing I can say about this dull exorcism drama, co-written by headliner Paul Naschy, is that it does not attempt a beat-for-beat imitation of the groundbreaking 1973 EXORCIST. That said, it doesn't have much of an identity of its own, either.

One online review perceptively pointed out that whereas the possession of Regan in the 1973 film made audiences empathize with the victim, here possess-ee Leila (Mercedes Molina), is just a rich girl acting out long before she gets invaded. She's seen attending some sex-and-drugs party out in the countryside, and later dialogue implies that her boyfriend may be a Satanist as well as a drug-pusher. It's possible that she gets possessed at this event, though the sequence of events is never clear, and the maybe-Satanist guy disappears halfway through the narrative.

When Leila starts getting more violent, her mother and sisters initially think that she's reacting to the recent death of her father. We never know anything much about the father or the circumstances of his passing, but very late in the picture, it's stated that it's his spirit, not a demon's, possessing Leila. But the script gets zero dramatic impact out of this.

The family calls in Father Adrian (Naschy, though voiced in English by Jack Taylor). The priest mucks about with a lot of talking-head scenes that kill time until the exorcism climax, which proves utterly forgettable. Naschy undercuts his own strengths by playing a fundamentally dull "good guy." The ladies are pretty but they too aren't given anything interesting to do. Not the dullest of its type but still not very diverting.