THE RETURN OF THE EXORCIST (1975)

 

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

I've been a little surprised that, following the international success of 1973's THE EXORCIST, the predominantly Catholic country of Italy didn't step up and produce an exorcism-drama fit to challenge the American product. But most of the Italian works designed to riff on the demon-possession theme remained very derivative, ranging only from interesting curiosities to slavish imitations. Angelo Panaccio's RETURN falls into the latter category, and it earns no credit for being the last film of American actor Richard Conte, since he only appears as the titular exorcist in the last half hour.

The script, co-written by Panaccio, is so ordinary that I won't recount its plot points. I'll just recount the setup and the few high points:

The demon this time is a succubus locked into a cursed ring by an archaic witch-cult. In modern times the ring falls into the hands of an innocent young man, Piero. The succubus begins possessing him, not only performing evil acts but actually morphing his body into her own (usually naked) form. 

As for notable moments, there are three.

At one point the demon tries to force Piero to have carnal relations with his own mother. She's spared that horror only by falling down a staircase and breaking her neck.

In another scene, Piero somehow grapples with the female demon, briefly separate from him, and tries to cut her throat. Instead, miles away from Piero, his girlfriend's throat starts bleeding, and she too perishes.

Finally, Piero's nun-sister does a Father Karras, taking the demon into herself to free Piero and then committing suicide by jumping off a cliff. This scene, while derivative, does draw comparisons to New Testament scripture, comparing the nun's sacrifice to the deaths of the Gadarene swine, into whose porcine bodies Jesus compelled the demon(s) known as Legion. However, the sister's sacrifice comes to naught, since she's also wearing the cursed ring when she falls, and the talisman simply ends up in other hands, so that the cycle can begin again. 

I suppose those minor moments make RETURN slightly better than 1974's BEYOND THE DOOR. That one resorted to a peasoup-spitting possession-victim unquestionably modeled on Linda Blair's character, but played by former "Nanny and the Professor" alum Juliet Mills.