As far as "Exorcist" rip offs go, "L'Anticristo" isn't as bad as "Beyond the Door", which is small praise indeed. It benefits in numerous scenes from the cinematography of one Aristede Massaccessi - otherwise known as trash purveyor Joe D'amato. This is the guy who was so eager to cash-in on Hollywood success stories that he would generally go into production on a movie as soon as he heard that one like it was being produced in America. He wouldn't even wait to see the finished product.
If you have ever had to sit through one of those cinematic turds, you might be surprised to hear that the man did indeed have talent. I still commend people to his best movie, "Buio Omega", which showed that within that money-grubbing exterior beat the heart of an artist - even if it was an artist who wanted to show you people's fingernails being ripped out.
But that's enough about D'Amato. We're here to talk about "L'Anticristo", the 1974 "Exorcist" cash-in. What is there to say about this movie? Not a whole lot, it turns out, except for the astoundingly silly premise. I'm not talking about the supernatural junk - obviously nobody expects that to be plausible. I'm talking about the film's supposed catalyst for its protagonist's possession. You see, she's a sexually frustrated paraplegic who lost the ability to walk in a car accident when she was a child. Why, or how, does she become 'possessed'? She endures a hypnosis session designed to help her walk again. How is hypnosis supposed to help her do that? Did the car accident merely cause her to forget?
The movie is a little more interesting than the typical "Exorcist" clone in that the woman in this story has been "possessed" by the spirit of a medieval witch, who she perhaps was in a past life. The scenes with the witch are interestingly shot, reminding me of Russell's "The Devils", and the scene where the woman meets Satan is also strikingly shot.
However, after these scenes the movie falls back onto its source material, with the requisite projectile vomiting and levitation, which can't do anything other than remind you how better the original movie was than the one you're watching.
It finishes with a chase scene in an ancient ruin, which is again well shot, and a welcome relief from the indoor scenes where the movie ticked off all the motifs "Exorcist" made famous.
If you have ever had to sit through one of those cinematic turds, you might be surprised to hear that the man did indeed have talent. I still commend people to his best movie, "Buio Omega", which showed that within that money-grubbing exterior beat the heart of an artist - even if it was an artist who wanted to show you people's fingernails being ripped out.
But that's enough about D'Amato. We're here to talk about "L'Anticristo", the 1974 "Exorcist" cash-in. What is there to say about this movie? Not a whole lot, it turns out, except for the astoundingly silly premise. I'm not talking about the supernatural junk - obviously nobody expects that to be plausible. I'm talking about the film's supposed catalyst for its protagonist's possession. You see, she's a sexually frustrated paraplegic who lost the ability to walk in a car accident when she was a child. Why, or how, does she become 'possessed'? She endures a hypnosis session designed to help her walk again. How is hypnosis supposed to help her do that? Did the car accident merely cause her to forget?
The movie is a little more interesting than the typical "Exorcist" clone in that the woman in this story has been "possessed" by the spirit of a medieval witch, who she perhaps was in a past life. The scenes with the witch are interestingly shot, reminding me of Russell's "The Devils", and the scene where the woman meets Satan is also strikingly shot.
However, after these scenes the movie falls back onto its source material, with the requisite projectile vomiting and levitation, which can't do anything other than remind you how better the original movie was than the one you're watching.
It finishes with a chase scene in an ancient ruin, which is again well shot, and a welcome relief from the indoor scenes where the movie ticked off all the motifs "Exorcist" made famous.