Yet another entry in the protracted cycle of demonic possession films during the fallout of the world-wide success of the previous years’ THE EXORCIST, Spanish director Amando de Ossorio’s contribution emerges as only slightly above average. Marian Salgado assumes the Linda Blair role as a possessed young girl, although here the circumstances of her possession are far more lucid. In the film’s lurid prologue, a hag defaces a Catholic Church and is soon taken into custody by the police commissioner. It occurs that the hag was merely a nerve center for an entire Satanic cult, and one of its members (played by the Cuban actress Kali Hansa, a frequent Jess Franco star and co-star of de Ossorio’s own NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS) vows revenge on the police commissioner by possessing his daughter Susan. Meanwhile, the hag refuses police interrogation and opts to hurl herself out a nearby window (!). Upon the witch’s eventual death the spirit finds a new resting-place in Susan’s young body. With Susan’s demonic fate now sealed, she soon unleashes a reign of terror on her household…

The inevitable comparison between Friedkin’s landmark film of possession and this variation is not kind to de Ossorio’s film. Granted, it is somewhat unfair to compare and contrast both films, one being almost twice the length (and at least triple the budget) of the other. However, de Ossorio consciously borrows many of the film’s flagship scenes (Blair’s infamous head spin and blasphemous diatribes) that ultimately do the film a disservice. Particularly damaging is the film’s inability to realize its humble nature, which results in de Ossorio’s trivialization of such ambitious concepts as the dividing line between religion and science. The complexity of THE EXORCIST’s father Damien, a man of the cloth fighting his own personal demons and his apparent loss of faith, is bastardized and nearly occluded by de Ossorio’s technique of having two men, one of faith (father Juan) and one of science (a scientist) enter into conflict. This damning simplification is further exposed by the film’s flimsy impetus for the shocks: the revenge of Hansa’s character. The revenge motif that charges the film is far less fruitful than THE EXORCIST’s impressively open-ended interpretation of the origin of evil and thus de Ossorio’s film is doomed to tread a path similar to that of a Shaw Brothers horror film, in which a black priestess’ lust for revenge produces outlandish, shlocky shock but no real emotional resonance and no leg room for one’s own interpretation. De Ossorio is also quite inept in "dressing up" his characters, as evidenced by the religious figure, Father Juan. De Ossorio tries to capture Father Damien’s complex, tortured soul by allotting Father Juan a troubled past, courtesy of a scorned fiancé. Because Juan chose the cloth over his fiancé, de Ossorio attempts to inject his character with some real pathos, but his subsequent guilt and grieving produces a knee-jerk reaction in the audience at best.

Thus the film is a sort of dry run of Friedkin’s film. Viewers will be relieved, however, to learn that the film is far from a complete failure. De Ossorio’s horror expertise is clearly evident in the film’s catalogue of invidious shocks. One particular sequence, in which a possessed young Susan twists her torso about her fleshy axis, is guaranteed to chill, regardless of the conspicuous EXORCIST influence. De Ossorio’s expansive experience in the genre is best evidenced in the black mass sequences where a red-robed Hansa presides over her black coven. The sequence in which Susan slays a young cherub and spills its blood into a goblet is evocative of the templar sequences in de Ossorio’s BLIND DEAD series (of which his HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES was shot the same year). Unfortunately, the sequences’ impact is muted somewhat by uncharacteristically unseasoned direction and the all-too-familiar insipid dubbing. Undoubtedly the film’s most eerie sequences are Susan’s transformations from young girl to the satanic hag. These sequences are expertly conducted, largely due to makeup artist Ramon De Diego’s stunningly hideous work. But perhaps the film’s best asset is its unforgiving mean streak. In one odious scene, Susan kills her babysitter’s boyfriend, castrates him (after crassly remarking on the size of his member) and gives the amputated organ to her babysitter as a gift! The film’s final sequence (the inevitable brawl between priest and possessed) continues the relentlessly malicious tone, in which Susan dies in the exorcism process. Indeed, it is scenes such as this that makes THE POSSESSED de Ossorio’s nastiest film, in itself a feature that will draw fans of the director to this film.

THE POSSESSED remains a sporadically engrossing revision of THE EXORCIST template. It isn’t the best of its ilk because it simply doesn’t stray far enough away from the source of inspiration (unlike Andrea Bianchi’s astounding MALABIMBA) and yet it certainly isn’t the worst, no doubt salvaged by de Ossorio’s proven talent. Unfortunately, it cannot reach the zeitgeist of de Ossorio’s work, as it swaps the director’s trademark surreal, poetic imagery for more contemporary exploitative shocks.