Bad movies I love: Cheap, hilarious rip-offs of ‘The Exorcist’

ABBY (1974)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

Shortly after the box-office success of “The Exorcist” in 1973, studios flooded screens with cheap, American and European knock-offs that played second-run theaters and the drive-in circuit.

From Italian films like “The Return of the Exorcist” and “House of Exorcism”  to Spain’s “Exorcismo” and Turkey’s hysterically funny “Seytan,” film makers cashed in on the hottest craze in cinema: Satanic possession.

Even backers of the original “Exorcist” produced a terrible sequel, “Exorcist 2: The Heretic.” That film was followed years later by the equally bad “The Exorcist 3” and two separate, completely different versions of what was, essentially, “The Exorcist 4.” Let’s hear it for another shining example of Hollywood originality. How could anyone dare to think he or she could duplicate the success of the greatest horror film of all time?

Now, here’s where the fun begins. Buried in this huge, overflowing pile of rotting, stinking garbage of “Exorcist” sequels and cheesy rip-offs are two small gems – movies that are wildly entertaining simply because they are so pathetically awful.

“Abby” and “Beyond the Door” are almost impossible to find these days on home video or pay television. But if you happen to find DVDs of either or both of these films, buy them immediately, pop them in your DVD player, sit back and laugh until you cry. These films are better than any horror film parody.

Let’s look at “Abby” first. This 1974 release from American International Pictures, the king of drive-in exploitation films, features an African American cast in the story of a woman, Abby, who is possessed by an African demon. This blaxpoitation classic is often referred to as “The Black Exorcist.”

WILLIAM MARSHALL LATER STARRED AS BLACULA

The movie has countless similarities to “The Exorcist” including a possessed woman who spouts vomit and spews profanity in a deep, guttural voice. And, of course, the film offers a detailed exorcism sequence in which the demon is expelled from this poor woman’s body.

Legendary B-movie director William Girdler helmed “Abby” and does a pretty good job. Because the entire cast – headed by William Marshall as the exorcist, an actor who found greater success later in the blaxploitation camp classic “Blacula” – takes the film so seriously, it’s hard to keep from laughing.

“Abby” opened in December 1974 and played until Warner Bros., which released “The Exorcist” a year earlier, accused the film makers of copyright infringement. “Abby” was eventually pulled from theaters. That’s too bad because “Abby” is in a class all of its own.

Girdler, by the way, had a successful career directing a series of B-films that included “Grizzly” in 1976, a “Jaws” rip-off featuring a killer grizzly bear that mauls campers at a national park. Not to be outdone, Girdler returned in 1977 with “Day of the Animals” in which all animals suddenly rampage against humans.

Before he died in 1978, Girdler directed one final bizarre masterpiece. “The Manitou,” starring Tony Curtis and Susan Stasberg, is about a young woman who discovers a growth on her back – the living fetus of an old Indian shaman out for revenge against the white man. Girdler was brilliant.

BEYOND THE DOOR (1975)

My second “Exorcist” rip-off is Italy’s “Beyond the Door” from 1975,  a film that is a more direct knock-off of  “The Exorcist.” The film was shot in San Francisco and in Italy on an extremely low budget; it was released here by Film Ventures International.

The plot is simple: Juliet Mills (star of the TV sitcom “Nanny and the Professor”) is Jessica Barrett, a young woman possessed by a demon while also being pregnant with the Antichrist. The film’s plot, in a way, is a combination of “The Exorcist” and “Rosemary’s Baby.”

Like “The Exorcist,” “Beyond the Door” features the requisite bed levitation, body levitation, head-spinning and vomit-spewing scenes – only this time they generate hearty, unintentional laughs. And the dialogue is so awful it must be heard to be believed.

Warner Bros. filed copyright infringement against “Beyond the Door,” but lost. And for a film that cost $300,000 - $350,000 (depending on your source, the Internet Movie Database or Wikipedia), the film did incredible business from an unsuspecting public. For that, you can credit great marketing by Film Ventures International.

I saw the movie in July 1975 when it opened at second-run theaters in metropolitan New Orleans, sucked in by an effective television ad campaign that promised more thrills than “The Exorcist.” Instead, I laughed my head off as did much of the audience at Joy’s Cinema City 6.

Director Ovidio G. Assonitis went on to direct another horrible film, “Tentacles,” a 1977 knock-of “Jaws” featuring a giant octopus and starring, of all people, John Huston and Henry Fonda. As silly as that film was, it isn’t as good or as unintentionally funny as “Beyond the Door.”


“Beyond the Door” is available in a DVD collector’s edition for purchase or rental. Click here to purchase “Beyond the Door” through Amazon.com. The DVD includes running commentary from Juliet Mills along with two separate cuts of the film.
“Abby” is much harder to find; sometimes if you are lucky you can purchase a copy through ebay. Click here to check on the availability of “Abby” and to purchase the film on DVD through Amazon.com. Both films are rated R for violence and profanity.

Here is a TV spot for “Abby”:








Here is the theatrical trailer for “Beyond the Door”:

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