The Return of the Exorcist

HBL (and their Pepto Bismol pink logo, which reminded me of 555) released this under the title, The Exorcist III Cries and Shadows, despite the fact that when this film came out in 1975, there had not yet even been an Exorcist II, and with The Exorcist displayed in one font, the Roman numeral III in a different font, and Cries and Shadows in yet another font, with Directed by Elo Pannaccio' directly underneath the title, followed by the cast, "Screenplay by Aldo Crudo, Franco Brocani, Elo Pannaccio' Story by Guido Albonico" - it really took four people to write this Exorcist clone? "First ass~ director: Demetrio Soare" (I presume they meant *assistant*) The final item listed in the opening credits was Elo Pannaccio' s director credit, a second time.

Once the bewildering credits over rain-soaked Rome end, and the incredibly lengthy altar sacrifice/ orgy scene finally end - eight long minutes into the film - the plot is nearly a carbon copy of Wm. Peter Blatty's Exorcist, but with a male lead, as Davy Jones lookalike is possessed by a demon in the form of an attractive nude girl, glimpsed briefly and photographed near a waterfall. When the photos are developed, the girl is not at all visible in them, but Davy Jones begins all the usual behavioral problems Linda Blair did, and after a very long and slowly paced hour, an exorcist, in the form of Richard Conte, turns up to attempt to drive the demon away. Blah, blah blah, blah blah.

This occasionally has the mood and atmospherics of some of Jean Rollin's work, with its intentionally slow pacing, lush colours, abundant female nudity, and surrealist images, but it doesn't help that we are watching a near scene-for- scene ripoff, with nearly X-rated sex and nudity added to an otherwise PG-rated horror, which was released in Greece as Exorkistis No. 2 (Exorcist II) , in the UK, Japan, and Finland as The Exorcist III.

The only credit shown at the end is Directed by Elo Pannaccio', for the third time. He was so proud of this thing that he wanted his director credit listed three times?

"I hate you" screams possessed teenager Peter at the beginning of Naked Exorcism. It's a particularly ineffectual insult, hardly the most profane language to come from one affected by a malevolent demonic force, but then this Italian The Exorcist rip-off is weak in so many ways.

Director Angelo Pannacciò goes through the possession movie motions, as Peter finds a Satanic amulet and wears it as a lucky charm, only to fall under the power of an evil spirit as a result. The lad develops a mild case of potty mouth, fires a champagne cork at his girlfriend Sherry (a dick move, but not exactly the work of the devil), and appears to his mother and sister as the maniacal woman whose spirit now possesses his body. This is interspersed by footage of a Satanic ritual, those in attendance writhing on the floor in orgiastic bliss.

The woman who possesses Peter also causes the death of Sherry, and pushes his mother down the stairs, driving his sister Elena (Patrizia Gori), a nun, to arrange for an exorcist (Richard Conte) to pay a visit. The final twenty minutes consists of the usual flying ornaments, rotating furniture, vomit spewing, and more vile taunts, including such 'offensive' remarks as "Go away!", "I spit on you and all your mumbo jumbo", and "Go lick your master's feet".

Eventually, the evil spirit is driven out of Peter, only to enter the body of Elena, who does a 'Karras' and throws herself off a precipice.

2.5/10, rounded up to 3 for IMDb. Not scary, occasionally unintentionally funny, with lots of nudity but absolutely no originality.

Elo Pannacciò's "Un Urlo nelle tenebre" aka "Cries & Shadows" (1975) is another Exorcist rip-off from the Italian continent, by a director who was totally unknown to me before (and is likely to remain so, too!). There are bad bad films and good bad films, and I'm glad to say this makes it more to the latter part, due to its incredible badliness that makes some of the stupidest efforts of Italian / European exploitation cinema look very convincing. I mean mostly the acting of the possessed protagonist teen; rarely have I seen anyone expressing his emotions of "fear", "hatred", "blasphemy" and so on more unconvincingly and amusingly! Just look at his eyes and how much he tries in every scene! The film runs 82 minutes in PAL version (from Luminous, if anyone knows about possible cuts, please contact!) which is not bad for a film like this and I managed to sit through it very well. The Devil worshipping scene at the beginning of the film is rather funny, with huge, inverted and red pentagram on the wall and bunch of people around the "sacrifice." There's some of the usual nunsploitation/exploitation elements on display, like the group sex orgy and some gore, but compared to some other films of the time and genre, this is surprisingly tame and goreless. I hugely recommend Renato Polselli's "The Reincarnation of Isabel" which is among the sleaziest demonic b-films of the seventies.

There is one thing I find especially amusing in "Cries and Shadows". When the Devil inside the character starts to speak to the exorcist and another people around him, he screams "I live by your lies!!" and the like which makes me wonder how can he be in physical existence in the first place, if the writer suggests the religion He originates from is only lies? Maybe I really shouldn't think about it any more, but it managed to make me smile for the rest of the film! I recommend not to waste too much time or money to track this rather rare and unknown title down, but if you do, some juicy laughs are guaranteed to follow. I promise!

This one has tons of titles, like Exorcist 3: Cries and Shadows, The Possessor, Un Urlo Dalle Tenebre and Naked Exorcist. It lives up to those titles, trust me. Particularly the last one.

A nun learns that her brother, Piero, has become possessed due to a pendant he found and a mystery woman who he isn't sure that he saw. Within minutes — no need for the build of the original here — Piero has chest pains, is flipping out on everyone and sometimes becomes the previously mentioned woman. His powers aren't well defined, but you won't care. Your jaw will be on the floor at the craziness that this film has in its grip.

Oh yeah. There was also a huge Satanic orgy in the house a few years ago. We know this because this scene is repeated throughout the movie. Luckily, the Exorcist (Richard Conte in his last film. Conte was going to play Don Corleone in The Godfather, but as the film increased in budget, A-list actors started competing for the part. He did end up playing one of the film's villains, Don Barzini.).

If you watched The Exorcist and thought, "This would be so much better with b-roll footage of Rome and, oh by the way, could we make it a ton sleazier?" then yes, this film is exactly what you want. Franco Lo Cascio is the perfect director for this, as despite starting his career with 1975's Mark of Zorro (starring George Hilton from All the Colors of the Dark as Zorro!), he's worked mostly as Luca Damiano in the Italian porn industry.

For all the movies that Warner Brothers sued out of theaters, the fact that this one got through unscathed is a miracle. Then again, when we're referring to movies about Satanic possession, perhaps that isn't the best choice of words.

A warning: this film is not for the weak. If you were offended by The Exorcist, you're in for it. If Amityville II: The Possession upset you, you are also in for it. If you're looking for a film that doesn't suddenly stop the narrative and starts showing b-roll footage of nightclubs, you are also in for it.

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Richard Conte picks up one last easy paycheck before checking out for good in his last film. Conte fans should probably be warned right away that the man himself doesn't show face until one hour and seven minutes into proceedings, but don't write off the film because of that - there's plenty of stupidity here to keep you going before Conte shows up.

Now, this Exorcist rip-off establishes its plot in a series of flashbacks so it takes a bit of patience to figure out why the film has seemingly jumped to the young guy tied to a bed talking like the singer of Cannibal Corpse. All of this seems to involve young Peter being drawn to a medallion lying in a river by a naked redhead that sends him mental and driving away his childhood sweetheart. Peter by the way sports a massive mullet and can act about as well as a discarded sock lying in the central reservation of the M5.

Peter starts acting a bit strange and when the redhead turns up in his room she prompts him to slash her throat, which causes his girlfriend's throat to be cut even though she's miles away in a disco giving it laldy on the dancefloor. This prompts a series of events where Peter himself tries to do away with family members or he turns into the redhead and does the same. This has got something to do with Franco Garofalo holding some sort of orgy years prior to this which is explained by a priest but by this point I was wondering when Richard Conte would show up.

Basically, this film takes scenes from the Exorcist (moving beds, swearing, spewing up, etc etc) and inserts rampant nudity and sleaze in between. At one point Peter even tries to shag his own mum, then his sister! That's the kind of romantic subplot you need in a film like this. It's bizarre how people's opinions differ massively on these Exorcist rip off films - some say this is the worst, but it's far from boring, and yet others say Beyond The Door is most boring, and I thought that one was the best.

This is pure Italian trash by the way so if you don't like that stuff, forget it. Richard Conte's last film too - he had a fatal heart attack the same year this was released.