The Return of the Exorcist (1975)

Pretty Good

Please don't spend money on this.

Admirable film.

Absolutely Brilliant!

A young man Paul sees a naked woman close to the waterfall while on a visit to the country and becomes possessed by her evil spirit.His sister Elena tries to exorcise the Devil from his body."The Return of the Exorcist" aka "Exorcist III:Cries and Shadows" is an quintessential Eurotrash.The location sets which include an Italian town in the mountains or creepy looking church are very atmospheric and there is enough sleaze and full-frontal nudity to keep the viewer entertained.The devilish woman driving the action is often seen as the naked attacker with incredibly hot body.Richard Conte plays the exorcist in his final role.The scares are mostly effective,but there are also some insanely cheesy moments.7 out of 10.

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 film deserves no more than this; ABSOLUTE PILE OF HORSE****!DONT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH IT!THIS IS AN OFFICIAL WARNING!Im only writing this bit here because it is necessary in order to allow me to warn you against this film.

There were many good and bad European Exorcist clones turned out in the mid-Seventies but for my money this manages to be one of the most ridiculous and sex filled Exorcist clones of all time. Released on its native Italian soil as `Un Urlo Dalle Tenebra' and given the well deserved come-on title Naked Exorcism when it was released in English. Hard to believe that anyone could better Naked Exorcism for a greater English title, but someone did just that when it was re-released on tape in both the US and UK in the the mid-Eighties as Exorcist 3-Cries and Shadows with seemingly drug induced video sleeve notes. Luckily for the cheeky distributors, the producers of the official Exorcist 3 never sued but to further complicate things one of the Italian titles translates as The Exorcist Part 2 (then again it is more watchable than the real Exorcist 2). Directed by one Elo Pannaccio in 1975, Pannaccio apparently directed another horror film (Sesso Della Strega) which also boasted an Exorcist inspired plot, he's also responsible for numerous sweat and grunt home grown pornos, and here tries to fuse the two genres. Naked Exorcism is about Mark a mild mannered archeological research participant who is gradually possessed by the Devil, and ends up puking on and insulting members of the clergy and his family. The reason for his possession and subsequent flying furniture attacks on priests is a toss between the influence of an 18th century Devil worship orgy which happened in his house (and is repeated a lot in the film) or the person the bizarre and inept video notes describe as `evil Haggia', an Italian floozy who frenziedly overacts and spends lots of time in the nude. Haggia appears to be some witch who torments Mark after he picks up a sacred talisman. She forces him to cut his girlfriend's throat, then later tries to cop a feel of Mark's mother before throwing her downstairs. Mark himself is eventually possessed although the acting is so bad that he actually comes across more like a drunk in a bar than the Devil. His sister cops most of his verbal abuse `stupid slut, lecherous bitch' since she's a nun. What is remarkable about the whole endeavor is how err religiously it follows the Exorcists set pieces- we're talking whole scenes here. In fact the only moments in the film that don't rip off the Exorcist are the endless nude and many lesbian scenes. Unnecessary to the plot, but for sleazy sexploitation fare like this a necessity. The most shocking footage appears in flashbacks, where its revealed that the nun sister turns out to have spent time in an asylum, what I here you ask has that to do with anything? Well nothing really other than a chance to show some very real looking footage of mentally deranged women in an asylum, and mad naked women being tied down to beds while gratuitous bongo music plays in the background. The Exorcist himself doesn't turn up till about an hour in, in the form of a tired looking Richard Conte ( in one of his final roles) and in the film's piece de resistance of rip-offs he stands outside a window with light coming out of it, just like in another certain film. Exorcist purists will no doubt be horrified since if you stick with it you'll also witness disco music, childlike make-up that apes Dick Smith's Linda Blair makeup, a soundtrack borrowed from the Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, not to mention pointless flashbacks to the Middle Ages that seem like outtakes from a long lost 70's remake of Witchcraft through the Ages. Eurotrash fans should also look out for Bruno Mattei regular Frank Garfield (Zombie Creeping Flesh's ping pong ball eyed soldier) as the master of ceremonies in the orgy scenes. As I've already mentioned the film is one of many which uses the Exorcist format to spin off a sex pot-boiler. The bait of Devil possession proving an excuse for numerous deviate sexual behaviors in ways that the puritan Friedkin movie wouldn't dare was obviously just too hard to resist for most Euro sleaze personalities - Jess Franco, Andrea Bianchi, Paul Naschy, Amand o de Ossario and many more all made their own versions with varied results. Naked Exorcism certainly has little claim to be best attempt at this, but its certainly the most wackiest and incoherent. Pannaccio (or Frank C Lucas as he is called in the English version) obviously knows his kinky sex scenes and piles on the nude scenes at a gobsmaking rate. I don't think he had a clue when it comes to the movies horror trappings, and overplays all the horror scenes in a barnstorming fashion -resulting in a truly deranged mess of a film. This thing really is incredible, boasting to be a `film you will never forget' you've probably heard that come-on tag line a zillion times before, on movies that were anything but memorable, but in this case believe me there's truth in advertising.