THE DEVIL WITHIN HER (1974)

 So the opening credits of this Italian EXORCIST/ROSEMARY'S BABY rip-off/mash-up list the title as THE DEVIL WITHIN HER(not to be confused with that porno where the devil wears a cock-ring) but the closing credits give us BEYOND THE DOOR as the title which is a bit odd. In fact the whole movie is a bit odd and fairly incomprehesible in exactly what the hell is going on for most of it's runtime. You get Richard Johnson(Dr. Menard from ZOMBIE) who is sent back to earth after dying in a car crash by the devil himself to make sure a lady has a baby which I guess is supposed to be the Antichrist?(foreshadowing THE OMEN which was yet to be made) None of this is made all that clear from the English dub so I'm making a few guesses here. There are a couple of foul-mouthed kids, one of which drinks cold Campbells pea soup with a straw, which are good for a few laughs, you get the puking up green slime and a very Exorcist-ish possession scene. Though not my favorite EXORCIST-rip-off, if weird confusing Eurotrash is your bag I guess give it a look.

 There is a BEYOND THE DOOR II but it's just Mario Bava's SHOCK under a misleading title. 

       

In VIBRASOUND!:

AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982)

 The first AMITYVILLE HORROR film, as well as ghost movies in general are not my favorites so I had very low expectations going into this 2nd chapter. I will not say my expectations were necessarily exceeded but at least this one has a few quirky oddball plot details that keep it from being the totally generic re-hash that I had anticipated. Of course you get the same old creepy house but this time instead of just haunting our new occupants(a dysfunctional family headed by Paulie from ROCKY(Burt Young)) they have to deal with their oldest son, conveniently named Sonny, being possessed by some bad spirits. There's also an out of the blue, creepy brother-sister incest thing going on and papa Paulie beating on his wife and kids frequently for additional uncomfortableness. Things do ramble on for a lot longer than necessary after it feels like the movie should be over and it all just feels like they tried to shoe-horn THE EXORCIST into a dumb ghost story but you do get to see some kids viciously murdered which is pretty rare(especially in American films) so I guess it should get some bonus points for taking a few chances if nothing else.




The trailer and this poster states that the film is actually a prequel to the first movie but that fact is never made all that clear in the actual film which clearly takes place in the 80s and not the early 70s as it would have to in order to fit in that timeline:

RING OF DARKNESS (1979)

 As far as Italian EXORCIST-rip-off movies go this one has a pretty different take on the ol' "my daughter is possessed by a demon-tale". For one thing the daughter here is controlled by Satan himself, who for the most part just stands around and points at people but we are assured that he has some great powers. For another thing this gives a good reason for her demonic experience, mainly her mom is involved with this weird Satanic cult that does kooky rituals. Things get a bit more predictable when John Philip Law shows up as a priest hired to perform an exorcism but even that is performed with it's own unique style. Maris Mell(Law's super hot co-star in DANGER; DIABOLIK) also appears as one of the coven of devilish moms. Overall the film is a bit of a jumbled mess and probably more interesting if you've previously viewed a few of the other EXORCIST-clones for comparison. The one element that might scare fans of this off is that the daughter here, Lara Wendel, was only 14 years old when this was filmed and we see her very naked throughout the runtime, including a big showdown battle of magic with her mum, but this was Europe in the 70s when this kinda thing wasn't viewed so shockingly. An interesting watch but woulda been a bit better if they came up with an ending. AKA SATAN'S WIFE



Super cool soundtrack that evokes Fulci and Argento with a bit of DAWN OF THE DEAD thrown in for good measure!:

Wacky DVD cover!: 

THE DEVIL HORSE (1975)

 This is a weird Mexican flick that's all over the place. It starts out as a wacky western musical comedy with a dad and his two sons who call themselves The 3 Musketeers and get into bar fights and other shenanigans. Then shit gets serious as one of the sons gets brutally murdered and a Satanic horse brings him back from the dead in exchange for the father's soul. I think this part is based on some Mexican folklore/legend thing and this tale has been done more than a few times over the years. It finally ends up being a sort-of EXORCIST rip-off as they try and get rid of this new violent(towards people and animals) and rapey devil-man. While certainly not a Mexican horror classic I found it worthwhile for it's weird disjointed plot line and it's probably the most artsy film that director Federico Curiel(who also made a few Santo flicks) did.

There was also an earlier neat-looking comic book featuring our black Satanic Devil Horse!:

NINJA III: THE DOMINATION (1984)

 The 80's were really dumb times and this movie here is a perfect example of just how dumb they were. It starts out with a ninja on a rampage on a golf course taking out golfers and about a bazillion cops. Then when he's finally almost dead after taking 3 zillion rounds of ammo at point blank range he decides to possess a chick who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, of course, she now has magical ninja skills and beats up would-be rapists and all those cops that dared to shoot at our ninja ghost guy. That is until, 80's martial arts video favorite, Sho Kosugi shows up to kick ass. As dumb as kung fu movies from Hong Kong can be I think it's only the ones intentionally made for children that could top this in terms of sheer dumbness. Still it's an entertaining watch as long as you don't take anything serious.      
 Apparently the first two chapters of this are 1981's ENTER THE NINJA and 1983's REVENGE OF THE NINJA which also had Sho Kosugi in them but, from what I recall, I don't think there was any EXORCIST-rip-off shenanigans going on in those.

MALABIMBA (1979)

 Italian director Andrea Bianchi  is probably best known for the insanely nutty but awesome 80's zombie movie BURIAL GROUND and this movie even features the mom who gets her boob bitten off in that as a nun this time who also doesn't wind up with a very happy ending.  It seems like every director in Italy got at least one chance to make their own version of THE EXORCIST and this seems to be be Mr. Bianchi's extra-sleazy version of that classic film.  He really just takes the basic premise of a young girl being possessed by an evil entity and goes off into a sex-filled, euro-nudie flick with some evil undertones sprinkled in.  There's lots of naughty peeping, fucking on a bear-skin rug, cheating partner swapping, lesbian humping, naughty nun groping and when you think things are about as sleazy as possible Bianchi throws in a supposedly 16-year old girl giving a hardcore blowjob to an old crippled man until he dies to take us into X-rated territory and blow our minds.   This is probably my favorite of all the EXORCIST rip-off flicks just because I can't imagine anything being more filthy and at the same time entertainingly absurd.  I really need to check out more of Bianchi's films!
 There are apparently two different version of this out on DVD and I've only seen the X-Rated cut so I'm guessing the "uncut" version might be missing some of the penetration and blowjob shots. 

ABBY (1974)

This black version of THE EXORCIST was sued by Warner Brothers when it first came out due to the blatant similarities here and became pretty obscure for many years.
 It is a pretty goofy retelling of that movie that stars two of my favorite stars from the blaxploitation-era William 'BLACULA' Marshall as a priest and Carol 'THE MACK' Speed as our possessed Linda Blair stand-in.  Speed is especially great as she becomes possessed and vomits up saliva everywhere, kicks guys in the nuts a lot and generally acts super horny and super evil and usually both at the same time.  Though I think the intention was to make a scary film due to these over-the-top insane outbursts I think the movie can't help but be seen as a comedy by anyone viewing it today.  Highly recommended to anyone who can appreciate high-camp value in their entertainment.

EXORCISM (1975)

 EXORCIST-rip-off movie starring Paul Naschy as a devil-fighting priest.  According to Naschy he wrote this story before that other slightly more well-known devil-possession movie came out.  While that sounds to me like a load of horseshit and way too big of a coincidence there are a few slight differences in here, like a whole Satanic group that perform human sacrifices and have naked orgies, lots of LSD use going on and people getting murdered by a mysterious killer, so maybe he came up with a giallo-type film and the producers shoe-horned the more familiar EXORCIST-aspects into it later on.  Either way this movie is mostly just filled with boring dialogue and nothing very interesting happens besides maybe those fleeting Satanic cult sequences and the mimicking of stuff from the Linda Blair classic.  I think overall this is my least favorite Naschy film that I've seen so far.  I feel Naschy's best stuff is when he does straight up monster mash type stuff like THE WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMEN or his blasphemous stuff like EL CAMINANTE.  Stick with those and if you want a way better Spanish EXORCIST-rip-off check out Amando de Ossorio's THE POSSESSED which features a nasty little girl ripping off a guys testicles.  That's exactly what this movie needed more of.

THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW(1974)

This is a barely watchable Italian version of THE EXORCIST, which came out just a year earlier. You got some weird scenes that at least kept me mildly interested. Sex scene with a woman getting whipped with roses and getting sliced-up by the thorns, possessed gal diddling herself and looking for some action from her dad(who gives her a nice hard smack in the mouth for her incestuous advances). There's even a puking scene like the EXORCIST but instead of pea-soup there's some nasty looking green milk product. For a better Italiano version of the Linda Blair classic I'd recommend THE ANTICHRIST from the same year. This one climaxes with a silly-dick priest giving a half-assed exorcism which somehow works. What the connection to the ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW is I have no idea. There was no cross-dressing in this at all.

Stupid villagers, where are their torches?: