Category: Theme Months

Magdalena, Possessed By the Devil (1974)

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We’re back for another round of Exorcist Rip-Off Month here at B-Movie Enema, and, this time, this movie had a brief period in time in which it was closely related to a previous entry.

For this week, we go over to Germany for a combo rip-off of The Exorcist/exploitation/sexploitation thriller.  Released as Magdalena, vom Tueful besessen in 1974 in West German, and under the title In der Gewalt des Bösen in Austria, we received an edited version here in the States as Magdalena, Possessed By the Devil in 1976.  As I just mentioned, what we got here was just over 80 minutes in length and there are some pretty mature situations that I’ll be talking about in this article.  If that was the case, and it was edited to be shown here, I wonder what few minutes or so that would left on the cutting room floor that was from the original German language film?

Oh, never mind trying to figure it out because the original cuts in Europe were TWO HOURS LONG.  Again, some of the stuff in this movie gets pretty naughty.  What had to be lost from those to get played over here?  Presumably, when it was imported, it wasn’t so much the content as it was the length since this probably went straight to X-rated theaters along 42nd Street style grindhouses, but still…  I have to imagine somewhere there’s some real saucy Dagmar Hedrich stuff out there because there is some real saucy Dagmar Hedrich stuff still in the American cut. Continue reading “Magdalena, Possessed By the Devil (1974)” →

Abby (1974)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle1 Comment

B-Movie Enema’s October 2020 theme of Exorcist Rip-Off Month is back, and this time we got a pretty well-regarded one.

This week’s film is Abby, and it’s best described as one of the handful of blaxploitation horror films alongside Blacula, Blackenstein, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, and Ganja and Hess.  This was part of a trio of blaxploitation films by William Girdler.  One of those, Sheba, Baby, will someday be on this blog because I LOVE blaxploitation.  I’ve talked about Girdler before, though.  He’s probably best known for making Grizzly in 1976.  However, his final film, The Manitou, dealt with Native American themes and was something I covered over at Film Seizure on my Monster Mondays show earlier this year.

Abby isn’t without some prestige, though.  It stars Carol Speed who was in several exploitation films of the 70s, and Blacula himself, William Marshall!  It also has Academy Award nominated actress Juanita Moore.  So it is not at all lacking in talent here. Continue reading “Abby (1974)” →

Seytan (The Turkish Exorcist, 1974)

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Welcome back to B-Movie Enema and my Exorcist Rip-Off Month!

Say!  Remember last week when I said that I couldn’t just write about The Exorcist because I’d probably be run out of town for having a blog called B-Movie Enema and doing movies that aren’t just A movies in money, but also in quality?  Yeah, well fuck that.  I found a way to do it.

For this week’s movie, I’ll be digging right into the shitty bowels of 1974’s Seytan from Turkey.  Seytan is pretty much a direct copy of William Friedkin’s masterpiece The Exorcist in just about every way it possibly can be.  It’s a little shorter, but I remember the first time I ever saw Seytan, I kept looking at the screen and thinking…  “Is the audio just fucked on this movie, or what?” Continue reading “Seytan (The Turkish Exorcist, 1974)” →

Shock (aka Beyond the Door II, 1977)

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It’s October!  It’s the spoooooookiest month of the year!

In years past, I generally would find some sort of loose theme to tie all the movies covered in the month (with usual exception to the actual Halloween “special” article).  This year is no different!  This is B-Movie Enema and that means I can’t do no movies like The Exorcist or its sequels.  They are hardly “B” in quality of production, even if Exorcist II really fucking tried pretty hard.  I can, however, do the next best thing.

Welcome to the 2020 October theme month I’m calling Exorcist Rip-Off Month!  We’re getting things started with Mario Bava’s Shock from 1977.  Here’s the thing about Shock…  It’s a possession movie, yes.  However, it may only be an Exorcist Rip-Off in sort of name only.  You see, Shock was released in the United States as Beyond the Door II.  Beyond the Door was a 1974 rip-off of The Exorcist and a B-Movie Enema alum.  I really really really needed to cover this. Continue reading “Shock (aka Beyond the Door II, 1977)” →

Up! (1976)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

We’ve come to the end of Russ Meyer Month here at B-Movie Enema.

Over the last several weeks, we’ve gone from Depression-era Missouri farms to a sexually liberated Canadian girl to go-go dancers with an axe to grind to wild Hollywood hippie parties.  So naturally there is only one place left to go…  Nazisploitation.  This week, it’s the 1976 soft-core sex comedy Up!

This is another of the Meyer-Ebert collaborations, much like with last week’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.   After that film and its success with audiences and some critics, Meyer tried his hand a couple more times with mainstream films, but both flopped.  He decided he needed to get back to boobs… er basics.  Back to basics.  He swore he’d never stray away from his formula again. Continue reading “Up! (1976)” →

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle1 Comment

“This is my happening, and it freaks me out!”

Welcome back to B-Movie Enema’s Russ Meyer Month.  We’ve finally gotten to the back end of the month and his 70s features.  It also brings us to two features Meyer did with famous Chicago movie critic Roger Ebert.  First up, it’s the one the duo is most famous for – Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Meyer and Ebert cranked out a treatment that came to 127 pages in about a week and a half.  Ebert completed the screenplay in three weeks.  It was intended to be a straight sequel to the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls.  Now, here’s where we start in on the rabbit hole that leads to Meyer and Ebert coming in. Continue reading “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)” →

Vixen! (1968)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle3 Comments

I love how Russ Meyer uses punctuation in his titles.

Welcome back to Russ Meyer Month here at B-Movie Enema.  This week, we’re going to venture into X-rated territory for the 1968 drama-satire-softcore porn exploitation classic Vixen!  We also travel north of the border to Canada for our story as well.

Vixen! might just be considered one of Meyer’s very best (though I have some commentary to add later).  The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times both gave high praise to this film despite its themes and obvious sexploitation nature.  However, again, it’s Roger Ebert who maybe says the best, most heartfelt comments calling this not just the “quintessential Meyer film” but that he also talks about how Meyer creates characters.  We should already be aware with Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Mudhoney that Meyer likes going over the top for his villains and various other stereotypical characters.  Ebert calls to the front that its Meyer’s talent in doing that that helps put people at ease seeing their first “skin-flick” and allows people to just have a good time – maybe the only thing Russ Meyer really wanted people to have. Continue reading “Vixen! (1968)” →

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

Last week, Russ Meyer Month started at B-Movie Enema with Mudhoney, a nice little tawdry tale in the American Plains during the Depression.  This week, we pick up a movie that is one of Meyer’s best known – Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

As I mused there, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a fairly well known movie.  There are two movies in Meyer’s filmography that probably get the most attention in terms of being trivia answers, but for different reasons.  There’s this one that we’re talking about this week for its fun title.  The other will be covered in two weeks because of who wrote it.

Curiously, though, as popular as Pussycat is, it was an unusual box office dud for Meyer.  Most of his films did fairly well.  There was a built-in audience at drive-ins full of horny guys wanting to see big breasted chicks.  You’d think none of these movies would fail, but this one did.  It wasn’t until later that it gained a cult status. Continue reading “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)” →