Malabimba

This one is weird, pagan and malicious in a non-bloody way - I love it. A young girl, enprisoned in a convent-like country estate environment which is her home and has been in the family since generations, can't handle the frustration of being entrapped and not let out of the country estate area. There is a nun in the building that is to comfort and watch for this girl but I bet she wish she didn't because something lurks in this twisted girls mind... she simply can't keep her sexual frustration inside, but have to push it further... and she does.

This movie is a freaking wonderful masterpice in my opinion - make your own ;)

This isn't necessarily a high compliment, but this might be the best of the many Italian rip-offs of "The Exorcist". It's definitely better than bigger budgeted nonsense like "Beyond the Door" and "The Temptor". It may be kind of a toss-up between this film where Mariangela Giordana plays a middle-age nun engaging in hot inter-generational lesbian sex with her demon-possessed teenage charge and "The Sexorcist" where Ivan Rassimov plays a demon/Christ statue come to life who pulls himself off a crucifix and nails, in quite a different sense, a sexy female artist. I guess what it comes to though is that I'd rather see Giordano naked than Rassimov (that or I'm just a sucker for nun-related, inter-generation lesbian scenes). This movie does much more faithfully follow the plot of the "The Exorcist". The possessed girl, Bimba, lives in an old castle with sundry relatives and a nun guardian. She is somewhat older than Ravin in "The Exorcist"--the character is supposedly sixteen but the actress (the never-to-be-seen-again Katell Laennac)looks to be a few years older than that. This is no doubt a good thing as she spends the movie graphically masturbating with stuffed animals, spying on her sleazy aunt having sex with her uncle and her widowed father, dispatching an unfortunate (or lucky?)elderly relative with a fatal bout of oral favors, or having the aforementioned lesbian sex with Giordano.

This movie works for two reasons. The first is the director Andreas Bianchi who, though far less prolific, was a lot like Spanish auteur Jesus Franco in his ability to take irredeemably sleazy material like this and make it somehow oddly watchable. Bianchi's work includes "What the Peeper Saw" which offered the unusual pairing of Swedish sex kitten Britt Ekland and the kid from "Oliver", scuzzy giallo favorite "Strip Nude for Your Killer" where the usually classy Edwige Fenech simulated both oral and anal sex (not surprisingly, it's the only recent DVD release she hasn't provided any commentary for), and his follow-up to this film "Burial Ground" again with Giordano who this time gets her latex nipple bitten off by a strange-looking dwarf who is supposed to be her zombified son. Which brings me to the second reason:the infamous Mariangela Giordano. Although she is sometimes labeled a "scream queen" this label doesn't really fit Giordano as she was an actress for twenty-five years in Italian genre films before she ever started doing nude sex scenes in sleazy horror movies like this in her early 40's (during her marriage to producer Crisanti). She proved so good at it though that even years later when she appeared in Michael Soavi's "The Sect" she has a scene as the world's sexiest 53-year-old naked corpse! But besides having a virtually un-aging body, she was a pretty decent actress. It is a testament to her thespian abilities that this sultana of sleaze is even remotely believable as a nun. (And if her initial seduction by the possessed teenager seems amazing just wait around for the "exorcism").

The only serious downside to this movie is the inclusion in most available versions of unappetizing hardcore "inserts". In this case though they may, at least, have involved the original talent: Bianchi often did hardcore work, the actress playing the aunt certainly looks like a porn star,and even Laennac at one point shares the screen with a visibly aroused male. Still these scenes could easily be lost. It's a sufficiently sleazy and enjoyable movie without them.

Malabimba, The Malicious Whore (1979)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground) directs this Italian rip off of The Exorcist, which adds some hardcore footage to the mix. Katell Laennec plays a teenage girl who becomes possessed by her dead, whore mother and soon starts acting out in sexual ways. I've probably seen about five or six of these Italian rips of The Exorcist and this one here is probably the best, although that's not saying too much. If you've seen the director's cult zombie film Burial Ground then you'll have the idea of what to expect from this movie. The entire thing is silly, over the top and at times downright funny, which I don't think was the intent but oh well. The performances are actually pretty good as is the photography but the rest is pretty much camp entertainment. Some of the sex scenes manage to be quite erotic but the added hardcore inserts don't work and come off looking very cheap. The teenage girls sexual desires range from molesting her paralyzed uncle to having sex with her teddy bear so those against this type of thing shouldn't even bother with the film. There are plenty of beautiful, naked women running around throughout the film, which is never a bad thing especially when they're Italian. The film gets to be too long for its own good and it could have used some editing but God knows there's a lot worse out there.

Malabimba is not just a sleazy film. The film has more depth than people give it credit for. It is one of the more notorious "Exorcist" rip-offs (and the best of them in my opinion). This is of course a matter of taste. I've seen some of them:

"The Antichrist" (cinematographically speaking is the more traditional of the lot and therefore the easiest to please the majority, but being an Italian film (even if tame for Italian standards) it crosses boundaries that Hollywood would never dare to trespass (the goat scene). It's a film that in spite of being exploitative follows the "Exorcist" recipe more closely and with more seriousness.

"L'Ossessa" (The eerie midnight horror show) – See my comment in IMDb.

"Un urlo nelle tenebre" released in English under many different titles ("Cries and Shadows", "Naked Exorcism" "The Possessor" etc..). The film is a hopeless mess. It's very uneven. Sometimes it's visually stylish and atmospheric (good use of scenery – small village on the top of the hill, narrow and gloomy streets, the house and its interiors etc..), but the film seems like a collage of different scenes, losing some steam in consequence. It was directed by two directors: Angelo Pannaccio and Franco Lo Cascio.

Back to Malabimba. A lonely mansion/castle on the top of a hill. There live the Karolis. The Karoli family was once wealthy and aristocratic, but now they are almost bankrupt. Tragedy, resentments, intrigues, decadence... In this place, Bimba (Katell Laennec - mala means bad), a shy teenage girl, lives a secluded life. One day a harsh wind blows into the house. It's the devil – a hoarse whispering wind. It attacks everybody in the household, but it takes possession of the innocent Bimba. Bimba's sexuality till then dormant explodes. Sexual hunger, anger, frustration, she wants satisfaction at any price... but the grown-ups (with the exception of her preceptor, the nun, Sister Sofia – Mariangela Giordano) are too busy with their own problems to realize what's really happening with Bimba. She's passing through hell and the devil in her will convulse the whole house.

"Malabimba" is audiovisually an engaging film – the hand-held camera explores corridors, enters rooms, follows the characters, as well as the hoarse wind (the devil) that prowls around. The gardens are seen from the upstairs windows, and the distant mountains..... There are many sex scenes (already widely commented by other reviewers). Some hardcore porn inserts are present, but not many, and they don't spoil the overall effect. The images are punctuated by a good and effective soundtrack (some of it borrowed from "La morte ha sorriso all'assassino" by Joe D'Amato, but who cares?).

Immerse yourself into the film, and you'll have an enjoyable sexy audiovisual trip.

Surprisingly sleazy! I was expecting a giallo film for some reason, but it is not that.

After a séance in which the presence indicates itself to be foul-mouthed, accusatory and randy, things get even dirtier. A young woman exhibits the same behavior. Perhaps she's possessed, or perhaps it's her frustrations and acting out against repressed desires.

Some reviews mention a scene with a grandfather, but the video box of the copy I saw refers to the father, but the subtitles in the movie refer to Uncle Adolpho. Perhaps different copies subtitle that scene differently.

The movie takes some ideas from The Exorcist, but seems more Gothic than that, and it was also pretty explicit.