As far as
THE EXORCIST
ripoffs go THE ANTICHRIST isn't too bad. A young woman named Ippolita
(Carla Gravina) was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident when she was
12. The strange thing is the doctors cannot find anything wrong with
her. Her father (Mel Ferrer) is extremely wealthy and will do anything to
cure her, so when her uncle (Arthur Kennedy) suggests a psychologist, who
specializes in cases like hers, Mel immediately brings him in. The doctor,
using hypnosis, soon discovers that the paralysis is caused by both sexual
frustration and a past life experience by a relative (who had the exact
same name) who was burned alive for witchcraft! Wow!!! Somehow
during all of this Ippolita is possessed by the same demon that possessed her
ancestor.
Anyway, the whole story is just an excuse to get to the demon stuff and...it's
entertaining. THE ANTICHRIST had a lower budget than THE EXORCIST and the
story is nowhere nearly as gripping, but the acting (by the impressive cast) is
above average and the story does move along at a nice pace. The
demon-possession scenes themselves featured green projectile vomit, one
head-spinning murder, demon-powered levitation, visions of a Satanic ritual
(complete with off-screen goat butthole licking!), fire, rain, a
fake-as-hell-looking snake,
very mild nudity, blood licking, vomit licking, invisible demon sex, mouth foam, tons of
blasphemous profanities and floating furniture.
Worth a viewing for fans of such things, but mainstream audiences would probably
dislike it.