Obscene Desire (1978)

Sorry, this movie sucks

best movie i've ever seen.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Sexy Marisa Mell stars as an American ex-pat whose new husband brings her back to his ancestral castle where she learns the family was cursed by a witch burned at the stake centuries before. She soon becomes pregnant and it's a ROSEMARY'S BABY redux (cashing in on THE OMEN's recent success) from here on out, only now the emphasis is on "erotic horror". Almost all the sex is gratuitous; Marisa's husband kills prostitutes in his spare time for no good reason other than to provide more nudity in a film already rife with it courtesy of Ms. Mell. Even the U.S. title, OBSCENE DESIRE, is only there to titillate. Since it's the '70s, an exorcism (sort of) was thrown in for good measure and although the whole thing is more than a little silly, it's a lot of fun anyway, the "bare" essence of "Eurotrash". But what was up with that ending? ***SPOILER***When Marisa and her baby (the son of Satan) board a plane for the U.S., one of the coven seeing her off smiles and says, "America needed that baby." ***END SPOILER***This was obviously a good-natured (?) zinger, unlike the Italian giallo's cumulative xenophobia. Most of them are exotic "travelogues" set in the various capitols of Europe and beyond but when seen collectively, the unmistakable (albeit unintentional) message seems to be, "This sick sh!t doesn't happen here", it's always somewhere else whereas nearly all Spanish gialli take place on their own turf. The still-gorgeous Marisa Mell was about 40 when she made OBSCENE DESIRE and her looks are a bit "hard" here, no doubt from a growing cocaine dependence. She'd been an international playgirl and tabloid darling for over a decade and was romantically linked to Alain Delon, Warren Beatty, Robert Evans, Roman Polanski, Alex Onassis, and the Shah of Iran among others but by the early 1980s the actress was reduced to posing nude in hardcore men's magazines. Destitute and alone, Marisa died a horrible death from throat cancer in 1992. "Movies are my life, and my life is a movie." -Marisa Mell

Obscure and underrated Rosemary's Baby style thriller from Italian director, Giulio Petroni. He was better known for spaghetti westerns, made this when he was sixty and had his name taken off the credits. I don't know why but with such a fierce and satanic theme with the added sexuality of Marisa Mell, this was bound to upset someone. Not me, however, I was surprised how enjoyable it all was and if the director doesn't seem to have a clear grip on things there are enough excellent sequences to make up for the odd rough edge. Chris Avram, for instance, seems particularly lost in his ill defined role as husband, serial killer and defender. Marisa Mell, on the other hand, is magnificent, well remembered for her role in Fulci's, One On Top Of The Other, ten years before, she was raped by Helmut Berger in 1977's, The Mad Dog Killer (Beast With A Gun) and here puts in a very fine performance and her submission to the powers of evil as she lays in bed is remarkable.

"Obscene Desire" aka "La Profezia" is an erotic and genuinely eerie Italian "The Exorcist" clone which predates and is quite similar in tone to Andrea Bianchi's "Malabimba".Amanda,a beautiful American girl is soon to be married to Andrea Orsomandi,a wealthy nobleman who lives in an extravagant Gothic mansion.However there exists something dark,sinister and supernatural within the walls of the mansion.It seems that Andrea has been driven to madness and is a victim of the evil contained within the house.It soon transpires that he is involved in black magic,perverse rituals and serial killings with the aid of his sadistic henchman and gardener Giovanni.Killing prostitutes in order to exorcise this Evil.Now the demonic forces set out to possess Amanda,take her soul and turn her into another victim of the mansion."Obscene Desire" is full of graphic nudity provided by Marisa Mell,Laura Trotter and Paola Maiolini.It has solid acting and moody score by exploitation veteran Jesus Franco.8 out of 10.

This is yet another ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)/THE EXORCIST (1973)/THE OMEN (1976) clone – which I was unfamiliar with until a few months ago – and, again, one in which the possession is really by an ancestor (shades of BLACK Sunday [1960]) rather than the Devil himself. We still get the obligatory 'demonic' scenes, but these here are perhaps the tamest I have ever seen: the would-be exorcist (a disheveled Lou Castel) gives up immediately after the 'victim' (Marisa Mell, past her prime but still looking good in the nude) spits out a host he had just fed her – retreating in a room to pray, where a gust of wind turns a hanging cross upside down, he runs hysterically out into the streets soon after only to be run over by a truck! Similarly, the climax sees the trio of devil-worshippers sent to protect the unborn Devil's spawn (including an unhinged elderly gardener) struggle with and eventually set fire(!) to Mell's husband (whom she had earlier spied in an orgy with two of them – or was it just her imagination? – and is even revealed to be a serial killer on a 'mission' to cleanse the world of sin)!! Following this, in a typically cynical conclusion, Mell boards a plane bound to spread evil in the U.S. The film, then, is muddled in plot development (as if Spaghetti Western exponent Petroni was wary of the material, or presumably lost interest when the producers insisted on adding softcore scenes – in fact, he subsequently disowned the film!) and typically listless in pace…but it nevertheless remains engrossing throughout, aided immeasurably by Carlo Savina's moodily romantic score. By the way, this was originally released as LA PROFEZIA i.e. THE PROPHECY.