Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil

The Devil's Female

The Devil's Female

source: Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil

What would a German ripoff of The Exorcist look like? That's an important question to ask. And when I describe ripoffs of said film, I always say, "You know how in The Exorcist, it's still somewhat of a classy movie. What if it wasn't? Wouldn't that be awesome?" Most people, sane people, at that point say, "No. I had no interest in seeing that at all." For the rest of us, there are films like this. In fact, Bill from Groovy Doom texted me late one night, asking if I had seen this film, knowing that it would be a movie that I would fall in love with. Director Walter Boos is better known for his Schoolgirl Report exploitation films. But man, this movie... We start with a prostitute arguing with several men in the streets before coming home to find a man crucified to the wall of her apartment building. I should also mention that her clothing is hideous, even for a prostitute character in a 1970's German exploitation movie. The dead man had visitors all hours of the day and night, including a woman with a giant dog and has only one living relative, his granddaughter...the titular character of this film. We find Magdalena in school, where they delay telling her the news until everyone can have a party. Again, as you do. Magdalena elicits a Pavlovian response, as every time you hear the sound of flies buzzing, something completely maniacally insane is about to happen. Like the dead body of a man sitting up in the morgue. Or Magdelena frothing at the mouth and tearing her clothes off. Or a tiny dog losing its mind. Actually, I live with a dog this angry all the time. For the rest of the film, Magdalena alternates between being a virginal high school girl and being a complete lunatic. And would you really have it any other way? She goes from smashing dishes in a kitchen and kicking her way through doors to having sex with invisible demons in a no time at all. Magdalena is fine and has to go to her grandfather's funeral, who she loved when he was alive, but now that he's gone, she yells, "I despise the dead!" She hitchhikes there, but when a driver tries to molest her while she sleeps, she kills him. And then goes back to school, where things get crazier. Of course. Magdalena has another fit, during which she tears up a photo of her parents and tries to have sex with all of the old women who run the school before beating the crap out of every single one of them. Then she runs out of steam and the women slap her around way too many times for this to be comfortable. Oh and I forgot - she's naked the entire time. That's when Dr. Stone gets involved and runs tests on Magdelena because you need a scene in an Exorcist film where science can't solve what faith can. That said, not many of these films have the doctor fall in love with his patient. Obviously, the rules about this kind of thing are much different in Germany. Even though she's found true love, that doesn't mean Magdelena isn't going to stop being possessed. She even appears * to two brothers, making them fight one another in a bowling alley as she lies naked on a lane, begging for them to kill one another for her. Spoiler warning: one of them stabs the other and she disappears. The rest of the film alternates between good and evil Magdalena, who even gets Stone to have sex with her (I mean, it wasn't much of a stretch) and then claiming rape. Finally, the forces of good are able to get the evil of her grandfather out of her body. And how does that happen, you may ask? Well, she vomits up a snake and Stone steps on it. Wow. Yeah, not since Enter the Devil have I watched a film so unafraid to be completely and utterly unhinged. Dagmar Hedrich only appeared in one other film than this and she goes utterly crazy in this, just a tornado of a performance. If you love possession films - and really, you should - grab this ASAP.

After her grandfather is murdered by Satanists, teenaged Magdelena drops to the floor in her dorm, convulsing and drooling white foam. Naturally, she has been possessed by a demon (the sound of buzzing flies signals the event). For the remainder of the movie, she alternates between innocent schoolgirl and a superhuman, sex-starved demon who masturbates in public and shouts obscenities. The headmistresses keep telling each other, "Magdelena's not well," and, "All she needs is a tranquilizer." They take her to Sunday service, where she tears a Bible in half and swears at the pastors. Magdelena is removed to a country cottage where concerned psychologists can keep an eye on her. In her possessed state, she sweats a lot and teases an infatuated young medic, who unctuously professes his love even after she tries to strangle him. Finally, she recites a prayer and vomits the demon in the form of a live snake, which the medic quickly grinds under his boot. This German-made schlock fest offers much debate between doctors and clergy, none of it effective or especially dramatic. The sex talk is surprisingly crude and Dagmar Hedrich, who looks closer to 30 years old, is energetic as Magdelena and gets naked a lot.

The title says it all, really. Following the horrific crucifixion murder of her elderly Uncle, Magdalena, an orphan at a local boarding school, starts to act very strangely. She starts speaking like a Glaswegian fruit market stall owner, walking around naked, and best of all, has some sort of kicking fit that results in her kung-fuing a door to pieces before destroying a kitchen. The best bit about that scene was the two lesbian classmates that shrug it all off while nonchalantly getting busy with each other. We are truly in the realm of the sublime here. This monumentally daft film is of course an Exorcist rip-off, but it has no exorcism and mainly concentrates on Magdalena stripping off and spewing forth a barrage of filth at everybody she has contact with. In fact, the first half of the film is best part as that holds the most horror elements, highlighting with something destroying the attic in front of the two civil partnership teachers, before the attic cleans itself up courtesy of a black cat, who hisses at everyone except Magdalena. It'll be no surprise to you that Magdalen's eyes turn into those of a cat before the cat just disappears. If only the rest of the film continued on like this. The film instead settles down into a bit of a rut as everyone whisks Magdalena off to a retreat run by two doctors, one of which hits it off with in a very short montage sequence as the two fall in love, which is repeated again only to have the possessed Magdelena drive the fellow mental by giving him the brush off. There's also a sub-plot wherein two cops try and figure out who killed the old guy at the start, but it doesn't really lead anywhere. Also, it should be noted that the demon involved here puts up absolutely no fight whatsoever, therefore marking it as the crappest supernatural enemy I've seen in a film (save for the Three Mothers of Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy). I didn't need to see a live snake stamped on, film, so try not to do that next time. If you like to watch a film where a lady runs about in the scud screaming about her fanny, you might want this one.

A modest German Exorcist rip-off that never really gets going properly. Director, Walter Boos, it seems was more used to the Schoolgirl report type films which consisted of faux documentary sequences, ostensibly warning parents of what their daughters might be doing and then enacting the said doings. Simple sexploitation. Here faced with a full length movie he seems to run out of steam every now and again and have to think of something else. Dagmar Hedrick as the possessed one is good enough, she gets naked a lot, she does the blasphemy bit, seduces in very blunt language and generally does her bit but nobody else does. Its largely drab, silly and done without any enthusiasm or feeling for what is being depicted. Lots of running about, various people being got into trouble for no reason and the most fantastic cop out ending possible. Did I mention that there is a lot of nakedness though!?

This cheesy, very West German "Exorcist" ripoff (not that it really follows the template of that movie beyond having a heroine who is possessed) starts out in such spectacularly energetic and sleazy fashion that for a while there I thought I had stumbled upon a hitherto unknown (to me at least) camp classic. Unfortunately, it gradually loses steam, and really just peters out at th end--there isn't even a climax, per se. Still, it earns points for shamelessness, tastelessness, gratuitous full-frontalism, and English dubbing that enhances dialogue that was no doubt terrible to begin with. I think this is the only horror movie by a director who otherwise worked entirely in German softcore films of the "Schoolgirl Report" variety, and he certainly sticks to what he knows here. It also appears to be the 2nd and last movie of the lead actress, and while she appears to be game enough, you can understand why maybe this crossed a line for her, one that hopefully people later in her life would be blissfully unaware of. (Unless you're the type of person who's happy with relatives looking at the photo album and saying "Oh look, here's another pic of young Grandma, extra-perky and starkers.") Anyway, ultimately a disappointment, but only because it's SO enjoyable for a while. Nonetheless, some big laughs here.

**Possible Spoilers Ahead** Various American, Spanish and Italian rip-offs may be better known--or more notorious--but this sordid little item proves that our friends in der Fatherland weren't above hopping on the EXORCIST bandwagon either. And when it comes to German imports, you'd do better with a case of St. Pauli Girl, Dark. An evil spirit enters the body of a nubile boarding-school student, in more ways than one. (She probably would have been corrupted sooner or later by one of the openly lebian house mothers but the demon hastens things merrily along.) Our heroine's shenanigans include foaming at the mouth and doing breakdances, beating the crap out of a lecher who picks her up hitchiking, greeting the parish priest with language I can't duplicate here, and seducing two brothers before setting one against the other with lethal results. None of this will faze veterans of possession flicks, but they will be put off by the lousy lighting, bad color, and lame direction. The dialogue sometimes matches PLAN 9 at it's looniest; witness this exchange: WOMAN: Magdalena's escaped! PRIEST: She tore open her strait-jacket? WOMAN: No, she RIPPED it open!!! This demonic dog-and-pony show was released here as BEYOND THE DARKNESS. Most discussed when this hit the Hudson Valley was the scene in which Magdalena herks a big black snake out of her mouth. Mr. Blatty, Mr. Friedkin--are you proud of what you started?

"Magdalena, vom Teufel besessen" is a West German German-language film from 1974, so this one is already over 40 years old. I will spare you all the other German and English titles for this one. I'm m sure you know where to find them. If you take a closer look at the other works by director Boos and writer Rieger, then you already know what to expect here: trash film for the most part. And you would be correct as it is at times embarrassing to see how they were trying to make this a second Exorcist, but it is really only a very poor man's version and I don't even need to have seen this classic (yet) to make such a statement. But back to this one here, it gets especially cringeworthy near the end during the exorcism scene. This is the story of an attractive young woman apparently possessed by an evil spirit and the film is packed with sexual implications, fittingly with Boos' other works. There is just one scene relatively late when the protagonist looks like she is getting raped by an evil force. You don't see genitalia, but it is still all pretty explicit and obscene, never feels as if it makes sense for the story, but really just get the audiences horny. A great body of work was definitely not the reason why lead actress Dagmar Hedrich was cast here, but you can cut the "of work" and you will have the explanation. Her looks are perhaps the only somewhat memorable component of the film. It makes me a bit sad to see actor Rudolf Schündler in here as I quite like him and I believe he was quite a talented actor, which is indicated too by the fact that he appeared actually in "The Exorcist". I guess they must have paid him a lot that he would agree to show up in this embarrassing rip-off. Oh yeah, another positive aspect: I believe somebody got mixed up the duration here. It says 120 minutes on IMDb, but all the versions I found ran for 1 hour and 20 minutes only in fact, so it's definitely good that you don't need to watch another 40 minutes here. But the best is if you skip it altogether. 4 stars out of 10 is probably very much on the generous side. Don't watch.