Exorcismus is set in London in England where teenager Emma Evans (Sophie Vavasseur) lives with her mom Lucy (Jo-Anne Stockham) & dad John (Richard Felix) & younger brother Mark (Lazaro E. Ortli Ortiz), she should have a good life but Emma is unhappy. Emma feels that her parents are restricting her, not letting her go out, not letting her go to a proper school & making her look after her little brother (I can sympathise with Emma here though, Mark is an annoying kid) so Emma rebells & takes drugs, cuts herself & generally tries to be as awkward as possible. After the usual argument Emma collapses & has a fit on the living room floor (lucky they never had guests around) & is taken to hospital but is given the all clear, Emma then has anther fit & pukes up blood & starts to look very ill. Medical science has no answers so John calls in his brother, a priest named Christopher (Stephen Billington) who is convinced that Emma is possessed by the devil & only an exorcism will save her...
This Spanish production was directed by Manuel Carballo & if you haven't already guess Exorcismus is a complete rip-off of the all time classic The Exorcist (1973), & a pretty bad rip-off as well. Just look at the similarities, the title Exorcismus is also the same as The Exorcist (not quiet enough for Warner Bros. to sue though), the central story of a young girl being possessed by the devil, the way that the Church steps in to perform an exorcism & the effect that it has on the girls immediate family. Sure, there are differences & the script throws in a lame twist at the end which has virtually no impact at all, the twist reveal is pedestrian & is not the dramatic height of the films as it should have been but rather a damp squib that left no impression on me at all. The script is slow going, at almost 100 minutes long Exorcismus drags & very little of note actually happens. It takes ages for anything to happen & the big problem is none of it is surprising, nothing in Exorcismus is particularly original or new. The events of Emmas possession are also really tame, she speaks in a deep voice, she has a fit, she pukes up some blood & that's about it, in fact it's surprising how readily her parents accept that she must be possessed by the devil despite the lack of any convincing evidence. Where's the foul mouth obscenities? Wheres the green vomit? Why doesn't her head spin round 360 degrees? Exorcismus feels like some sort of soap opera where some rebellious teenage girls acts weird for forty odd minutes, there are pointless flashbacks as well to nothing of any great significance.
Filmed under the title The Possession of Emma Evans the makers go out of their way to play down the exploitation & horror, in fact the whole film is far too subtle & forgettable as it deliberately goes for a low key realistic ordinary suburban setting & feel. There's no blood or gore that I could remember, there are a few scenes where Emma hallucinates seeing hordes of Cockroaches emerging from various places including her boyfriends mouth in just about the only straight horror sequence in the entire film. A few people are stabbed, there's a bit of blood but nothing else worth mentioning. The makers of Exorcismus seem to refuse to build up any scares, any tension or generate any creepiness & as a result the whole film is very bland & dull. This whole low key realistic approach just doesn't do the subject matter or story any favours & in fact makes it difficult & boring to sit through.
With a supposed budget of about $1,800,000 this was made in English by a Spanish crew, despite Doug Bradley getting a credit on the titles he's only in it for about two minutes. The rest of cast are average, I can't say I was particularly moved or impressed by any of the performances.
Exorcismus is a total rip-off of The Exocist but manages to fail to even equal it let alone better it, it's a drab & dull film that offers nothing new or memorable. Not recommended.
This Spanish production was directed by Manuel Carballo & if you haven't already guess Exorcismus is a complete rip-off of the all time classic The Exorcist (1973), & a pretty bad rip-off as well. Just look at the similarities, the title Exorcismus is also the same as The Exorcist (not quiet enough for Warner Bros. to sue though), the central story of a young girl being possessed by the devil, the way that the Church steps in to perform an exorcism & the effect that it has on the girls immediate family. Sure, there are differences & the script throws in a lame twist at the end which has virtually no impact at all, the twist reveal is pedestrian & is not the dramatic height of the films as it should have been but rather a damp squib that left no impression on me at all. The script is slow going, at almost 100 minutes long Exorcismus drags & very little of note actually happens. It takes ages for anything to happen & the big problem is none of it is surprising, nothing in Exorcismus is particularly original or new. The events of Emmas possession are also really tame, she speaks in a deep voice, she has a fit, she pukes up some blood & that's about it, in fact it's surprising how readily her parents accept that she must be possessed by the devil despite the lack of any convincing evidence. Where's the foul mouth obscenities? Wheres the green vomit? Why doesn't her head spin round 360 degrees? Exorcismus feels like some sort of soap opera where some rebellious teenage girls acts weird for forty odd minutes, there are pointless flashbacks as well to nothing of any great significance.
Filmed under the title The Possession of Emma Evans the makers go out of their way to play down the exploitation & horror, in fact the whole film is far too subtle & forgettable as it deliberately goes for a low key realistic ordinary suburban setting & feel. There's no blood or gore that I could remember, there are a few scenes where Emma hallucinates seeing hordes of Cockroaches emerging from various places including her boyfriends mouth in just about the only straight horror sequence in the entire film. A few people are stabbed, there's a bit of blood but nothing else worth mentioning. The makers of Exorcismus seem to refuse to build up any scares, any tension or generate any creepiness & as a result the whole film is very bland & dull. This whole low key realistic approach just doesn't do the subject matter or story any favours & in fact makes it difficult & boring to sit through.
With a supposed budget of about $1,800,000 this was made in English by a Spanish crew, despite Doug Bradley getting a credit on the titles he's only in it for about two minutes. The rest of cast are average, I can't say I was particularly moved or impressed by any of the performances.
Exorcismus is a total rip-off of The Exocist but manages to fail to even equal it let alone better it, it's a drab & dull film that offers nothing new or memorable. Not recommended.