User Reviews

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.

"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.

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.

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 nude 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.

**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?