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This indescribably blatant German-produced rip-off of "The Exorcist" is entertaining for literally ALL the wrong reasons! "Magdalena Possessed by the Devil" takes all the qualitatively great elements of William Friedkin's classic horror milestone (like suspense, shock-impact, smart dialogs, complex character drawings, pea soup vomit, etc
) and replaces them with sleaze, sleaze and
more sleaze! But hey, lead actress Dagmar Hedrich is fully curved and several years older than Linda Blair was in "The Exorcist", so at least you don't have to feel like a pervert when watching this. The scenario is incoherent from start to finish and doesn't make one iota of sense most of the time, but seriously who cares when there are copious amounts of gratuitous nudity and perversity to enjoy? The story opens with a young girl in a boarding school getting possessed by evil forces overnight. This appears to be happening automatically following the death of an elderly Satanist. The next morning Magdalena wakes up and says really naughty things to her boarding school teachers and the local priest. The absolute highlight of Magdalena's poetry: "I do want to take communion, but not in my mouth
Stick it right here in my pussy
" Isn't that just the greatest quote you ever heard? Although even the title confirms the theme of satanic possession, the vast majority of the cast persistently continues to look for other motivations to explain Magdalena's unholy behavior. They subject the poor girl to a whole series of medical examinations and one genius even claims Magdalena is just capricious and has a problem with authority. It actually takes up until 47 minutes into the film before someone even briefly mentions the possibility of demonic possession and then it takes another 23 minutes (yes, I did measure with a stopwatch
) until everyone else acknowledges the problem, which leaves very little time to perform the actual exorcism. That's okay, though, because apparently performing an exorcism is just a formality, like getting a tetanus shot or something. "Magdalena Possessed by the devil" totally lacks suspense, atmosphere, action and excitement. However, if it's lewdness and stupidity you seek, this is an absolute must see. 7 out of 10 for sheer entertainment value!
To finish up this review, I simply have to mention these five little trivia elements about "Magdalena" that are too magnificent to ignore. Beware, there will be spoilers, so be advised only to read the following if you have already seen the film. Did you know that:
1."Magdalena" shamelessly imitates nearly element of "The Exorcist" except for the actual exorcism?
2. When you're possessed by the Devil, flies are constantly buzzing around your head
3. You can hypnotize the Devil
4. Contrary to popular belief, the art of exorcism can be practiced by an ordinary doctor just as well as by a prominent priest and it really only takes a couple of minutes
5. The Devil is a tiny black snake you can easily crush underneath your shoe.
score 7/10
Coventry 26 December 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1995782/ |
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28-3-2021 00:05:11