"Exorcism" opens with some funky music and a dungeon-esqe tunnel-view of a naked woman strapped to a wooden bondage rack. She is bound and gagged, and needless to say, she looks like she wants to get the hell out of this torture chamber. Soon enough, the appearance of a dominatrix appears and she whips the tied woman and forces her to drink blood until she finally succumbs to her master.

All of this was staged, as we are shown by an audience viewing all of these actions, and then a fake death scene performed by the leatherclad women on stage. Thus sets the tone for Jess Franco's sleazy view at S & M that is "Exorcrism." Plus it reminds us that this is not a rip-off of "The Exorcist," which is something you sure as hell need if you are going to title your movie "Exorcism."

Thing about "Exorcism" is that most of the dark morbid sexual nature that this movie feeds us is indeed staged like the opening scene. The audience knows it, and the the audience watching it in the actual movie knows it. But that's how this movie is fairly intelligent for the exploitive piece of cinema it is.

There are people out there who hate films like this, almost to the extent to where it drives them mad, or it drives them insane. Some people chose to picket outside of theaters showing films like "I Spit On Your Grave" or "Maniac," while other people get in touch with their psychotic by nature side and decide to get deadly all in the name of god.

This movie centers around a character just like that. Not only does Jess Franco write and direct this film, but he also plays the main character, an ex-priest named Mathis Vogel. Mathis writes S & M stories for a local magazine that publishes his work, and he always claims that his stories are true to history.

While he drops off one of his manuscripts, he takes an interest in the long haired assistant Anna, played by Lina Romay. This is the same woman we were introduced to in the movie's memorable opening scene, and off and on throughout the film, we get to see more of her leisure sexual activities.

Mathis turns to stalker as he stands by the open window of his apartment and veers across the street into Anna's apartment where he gets a free showing of some lesbian sex.

Anna and her partner get the idea to throw a mock-black mass. This is done more than once through the movie, and they are witnessed by Mathis, but the deal is is that Mathis is watching all of this and to him it all appears real, and his thought process, which proclaims that these people have fallen under the spell of the devil, drives him insane to where he begins to murder all those who were involved in these fake black masses in an attempt to exorcise them and cast out the devil.

Mathis is essentially a metaphor for the audience that despises all the fake murders sexual acts that we see in movies such as "Exorcism" or pretty much any other movie in the Jess Franco collection. What makes it all the more interesting is that the movie makes him out to be a hypocrite, because not only does he commit several acts of murder, but there is a look in his eyes that takes a fascination to what he feels are sins from the sleazy characters.

Some people consider these movies to be car accidents. Horrifying, but one can't look away. That's the attitude that represents Mathis, only in his case, he doesn't accept it, and he goes for the deadly "hand of god" point of view which leads to his psychotic downfall.

This movie is heavy on sex and in sleaze. One version exists for the pornography market in which Franco does all his own "stuntwork." The movie is much more effective in the soft-core state, because it doesn't cut out the plot and it makes it all the more meaningful in its message.

Franco's "Exorcism" isn't a great film by any means, but it is one that requires some thinking involved, which I feel is cool when watching a movie like this. It's always nice when you get to think about the sleaze that is presented to you onscreen, and this one does contain its fair share.

The main focus certainly is on the sex, and personally I think that some more attention should have been given to the violence in this film, because in this particular movie, the violence is every bit as meaningful as the sex. The sex scenes mean something in this film, because the main character needs that factor in order to drive him insane, but the insanity scenes in themselves should be more of a payoff than what they are, although his ranting and raving about "saving the souls" does get his own point across.

I purchased the DVD from a company called Synapse Video, and it is the most complete version you can find on a legit DVD. We all know that a bootleg hardcore version can be found, but as I said, it's almost as if they are two different movies in more ways than one: plot and tone.

The color in the DVD often fades in and out due to the piecing together of the many versions of this film, so the quality isn't the best, but what the DVD succeeds at giving us our fare share of extras. We have the first ever commentary from Jess Franco which is worth a look, and there is also the alternate opening scene for the edited U.S. release, which was under the title of "Demoniac." The difference: the actresses are clothed. Plus there is the reversible cover, which in my opinion, is one of the best extras you can have with a DVD. Better than an easter egg.

"Exorcism" is a slice of sadomasochistic sleaze and "in the name of god" type violence. I think it's one of the director's best films because he is actually saying something through the usual trashiness that appears in some of his other flicks like "Ilsa, The Wicked Warden" or "Vampyros Lesbos."

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD