(1973)***½
The opening of this film is identical to Lisa & the Devil up until she exits the antique shop. This time we see an alternate side of Lisa’s adventure. She is lying on the ground having a violent seizure. The crowd of tourists has gathered around her an ambulance arrives and she is quickly carted off to the hospital. There she becomes violent and unruly, a priest is called in to evaluate her. We get glimpses of Lisa’s progression in this, the real world as well as the alternate world of the mansion Lisa’s soul appears trapped in. The priest must exorcise the evil spirit that is possessing Lisa so that her soul may be returned.
At first I thought, blatant Exorcist rip-off and it very well may be. However, when I looked up the release info of both films on imdb this film was released originally in France May of ’73 and The Exorcist was released December ’73 here. Now I’m quite sure that even if the filming occurred at the same time there was talk of what was happening on the sets so a rip-off is not out of the question. The Exorcist is by far the superior or the 2 films, no questions asked. I would suggest seeing this one though, Elke Sommer does a backbend off of the orderly’s hands and it’s pretty friggin’ impressive. They possession scenes are all too familiar, right down to the puking of green shit into the priests’ face. Still, it was entertaining.
I would highly suggest watching Lisa & the Devil first or you’ll probably be quite lost in what is occurring at the mansion. If you get this from Netflix, order Lisa and both films are on that disc.
No comments:
Post a Comment