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MAGDALENA, POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL (1974)
And the Exorcist rip-offs just keep coming…
After her grandfather is murdered and crucified, the innocent young Magdalena Winter begins to behave strangely, using foul and blasphemous language, having convulsions, drooling, and tearing her clothes off at the slightest opportunity.
You know – the usual.
The makers of this film evidently felt that we wouldn’t be able to tell when Magdalena is herself and when she isn’t, so they beat it into our heads with a soundtrack that is 50% sickly sweet piano, 50% Theremin.
Oh – and this probably goes without saying, but – NSFW.
#1 by Jen S on June 18, 2011 - 12:43 pm
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No, it’s not just you. Those don’t look like boobs. Not even fake boobs! They look like–like–like dollops of plastic measured out with an ice cream scoop and krazy-glued onto that unfortunate actress’s chest.
But I’ve got to say, there is one thing more horrifying in the film–that wallpaper in the piano room. Good God, even for the seventies that shit is heinous! The drugs in Germany must have left all other countries in the dust!
#2 by The Rev. on June 20, 2011 - 9:03 am
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They look OK in the catfight picture, but that one of her lying on her back….yeeeeeeah, they don’t look right at all.
#3 by B. Wood on June 18, 2011 - 1:30 pm
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Clearly her boobs were the first thing that was possesed. Only that can explain their unnatural ablities.
I wonder if the uncut version has some sort of hilarious cats vs dogs plot. We do have a dog that must die, and a dissappearing cat. Surly theirs some reason for it right?
I think this is probably the most NSFW review you’ve ever done Liz. I certanaly don’t remember any others with that much nudity.
#4 by Ronald Byrd on June 18, 2011 - 2:55 pm
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I wonder how many IMMEDIATE ripoffs there were of The Exorcist (and other pivotal US films). Obviously, it’s been periodically ripped off from day one, but presumably only a set number debuted soon enough to qualify as, for lack of a better phrase, first-generation ripoffs.
Off on a tangent, how were there NOT Buffy the Vampire Slayer ripoffs from Italy and other common ripoff points? Or if there are, I’ve never come across any. The concept seems so eminently rip-off-able, too, easy to do a variation on: instead of vampires, center on zombies, mummies, werewolves, dragons, or other monsters. Italy has all those zombies ANYWAY…
#5 by RogerBW on June 18, 2011 - 2:55 pm
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Yikes! Quite often your reviews cause me to try to track down the film. This is the first one that’s caused me to think “thank goodness Liz watched it, so that I don’t have to”.
#6 by lyzard on June 18, 2011 - 4:21 pm
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It’s what I do. 🙂
Ronald, this is one of the things I’m interested in, too. It took a full year before anyone made the first Jaws rip-off, but there were SEVEN Exorcist rip-offs released worldwide during 1974 – of which I have now, heaven help me, reviewed six. There were another five in 1975, counting the warping of Lisa And The Devil into House Of Exorcism, but they tailed off after that…and became pornographic. Now, there’s something to look forward to!
I have had more (or at least equal) nudity, including Howling V, which from memory I forgot to tag NSFW. I do try to be a little more careful about that these days. 🙂 Zombie Lake would be the title-holder, I think – I know I included a frontal shot of the volleybasket team.
I’m glad it’s not just me re: those boobs. They look and behave like implants, but you’d think they’re too small – unless early implants were a lot smaller than today’s monstrosities?
And I meant to mention the wallpaper!! Granted, after my brush with Zombi Holocaust I’m quite hardened to appalling decor, but even so that wallpaper got a reaction out of me.
#7 by El Santo on June 18, 2011 - 9:18 pm
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Economics, I’m afraid. To a great extent, those wonderful ripoff industries we had from the 50’s through the mid-80’s were predicated on the existence of large overseas markets– American markets especially– for their products. In this country, those movies played at independently owned theaters (most of them within city limits), and used the same independent distribution networks as the drive-in and grindhouse circuits. Those neighborhood theaters started succumbing to a combination of urban decay and competition from corporate-owned suburban mulitplexes in the late 70’s, and the rise of home video in the 80’s killed them stone dead. Without a critical mass of independent theaters, the independent distributors had nowhere to peddle their wares, and they either switched to home video themselves or got out of business altogether. That was almost it for export-dependent exploitation film industries like the ones in Italy, France, and West Germany. Home video itself remained as a lifeline for a few years more, but soon direct-to-video outfits like Academy Home Entertainment and Concorde-New Horizons were churning out crap movies in bulk on budgets that even the Italians couldn’t match. By the time Buffy the Vampire Slayer came out in 1992, there was, for all practical purposes, nobody left in Europe to rip it off anymore, nor anyone left outside Europe to import the fruits of their ripping-off labor if they had. It’s really very sad.
#8 by RogerBW on June 19, 2011 - 2:30 am
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Yay Space Pope!
Breast implants were certainly available by 1974, and in the early days they tended to be fairly small; that might well explain it. Or she might just have had a very athletic build. IMDB shows only one other acting role, in a Brazilian film in 1967 – but IMDB would put her at 39 when this film was released.
Looking at the description of this film, the impression I get is that it’s much more about displaying Ms. Hedrich than about any sort of coherent plot, so by one definition that’s already porn.
I’m faintly surprised, with the current cheapness of DVDs, that the sixties-style ripoff industry hasn’t come back – surely it’s still cheaper to make a film in Italy than in the USA, given union pay scales and so on? But maybe they’ve all gone on to do other things.
#9 by B. Wood on June 19, 2011 - 11:41 am
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Type your comment here
Only reason I can think of for why the turnaround for Exorcist rip off was faster than Jaws is the Jaws ones would have to be done with at least some scenes on boats. That may have slowed them down a little. On the other hand most Exorcist rip-offs don’t need too much in the way of effects. Just some stuff bieng thrown around, and some dubbed in demonic voices, and a little makeup for possesion. Unless you go the strut around naked route like this film.
I have got to track down Zombie Lake. It seems like every b-movie reviewer has tackled that thing at some point. I just hope my heart can handle seeing the zombie “makeup” in action.
#10 by lyzard on June 19, 2011 - 4:22 pm
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Although of course, the first thoroughgoing Jaws rip-off was set in a forest.
I tend to think that The Exorcist, like Dawn Of The Dead after it, appealed to European sensibilities in a way that Jaws didn’t. But yeah, it also presented opportunities for sleaze in a way that Jaws didn’t.
And everyone needs to see Zombie Lake at least once. 🙂
#11 by RogerBW on June 19, 2011 - 4:37 pm
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Perhaps B.Wood’s and Lyz’ comments can combine to account for the delay. With The Exorcist, it was pretty clear how to make a cheap ripoff of it – you need a young girl, a priest, some other people, and some shock-effects. With Jaws, hey, boats are expensive… so it took a little longer for someone to think of setting it somewhere cheaper.
(And now I’m wondering whether the isolated-in-the-woods sensibility of Grizzly fed into the summer-camp setting of the Friday 13th films.)
#12 by El Santo on June 19, 2011 - 6:13 pm
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It might have, at that, although there had already been a few notable gialli with woodland settings by 1980.
And by the way, Lyz, your disappointment regarding my neglect of the Schoolgirl Report films is soon to be assuaged. The first in the series currently holds the #4 slot on my Netflix queue.
#13 by lyzard on June 19, 2011 - 7:03 pm
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My HERO!!
#14 by Ronald Byrd on June 20, 2011 - 11:57 am
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Re Buffy ripoffs/variations, Japan has provided Sakuya: Slayer of Demons, Rika the Zombie Killer, and High School Ghosthustlers, and perhaps others (Japan has so much going on in the high school girl as central character genre that it’s sort of hard to sort through…), but it seems like there should be more, from *everywhere*. AFAIK not even low-low-low-budget USA productions have tried it, and I’ve received the impression that they’ll rip off anything. Oh well. The economic explanation helped, thanks.
(some might suggest France’s Bloody Mallory qualifies as a Buffy knockoff but IMHO it strays a little too far from the central concept to qualify; plus the main character is an adult)
#15 by Ronald Byrd on June 20, 2011 - 12:01 pm
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addendum: Seriously, Japan’s sf/fantasy/horror film output intimidates me. Even if you restrict yourself to live action films and not animation, where do you even START?
#16 by lyzard on June 20, 2011 - 4:28 pm
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Now, you see, this is one of the reasons I do the whole “chronological order” thing – it takes care of the decision-making, and with it that frozen, panicky feeling that comes with having too many choices.
So my answer would be, “ghost cats, invisible men, and guys in rubber suits”.
#17 by Ronald Byrd on June 21, 2011 - 2:19 am
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It just occurred to me: Why not make an Exorcist knockoff that is ALSO a Buffy knockoff? The teenage girl who gets possessed by a demon (OSLT) can only exorcise it by FIGHTING demons (OSLT), and then, after she’s done that, she keeps fighting demons (OSLT) because it turns out she’s GOOD at it.
Ah, why is there no paying “Idea Person” position in the film industry…
#18 by B. Wood on June 21, 2011 - 6:17 am
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Well I’d watch it. Throw in some pea soup vomit, and some rubber monster heads, and I should have no trouble getting all my friends to watch it.
It actually makes perfect sense that Japan would be the ones to make Buffy knock offs. Between the countrys love of schoolgirls, and the varous ghosts and ghouls, Japan is rife for that genre.