Allegedly based on a "true story", the ridiculously titled "The Eerie Midnight Horror Show" nevertheless shows its audience a fairly good time. Its story revolves around an art student named Danila (Stella Carnacina), who acquires an interesting religious artifact with a sordid history. Later, it comes to life (in a standout moment), reveals itself to be Satan himself (Ivan Rassimov, "The Man from the Deep River"), and Old Scratch rapes the poor girl. Soon, he has possessed her, and her desperate parents (Chris Avram, "A Bay of Blood", and Lucretia Love, "The Arena") call in an exorcist (Luigi Pistilli, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly").
For a rather cheap movie designed to cash in on such successes as "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" (albeit with that hook of being supposedly based on fact), this film is fairly amusing trash. It has its fair share of gore and nudity, plus lead actress Carnacina, who spends a lot of her screen time either screaming her head off or moaning in pleasure, really goes for it with her performance. The cast of familiar faces also includes Gabriele Tinti ("The Flight of the Phoenix") as the mothers' sleazy lover and Umberto Raho ("The Last Man on Earth") as a psychiatrist. In an interesting subplot, the father & mother have a rather open marriage provided that she simply not embarrass him too much.
The film has its pleasures: in addition to the gore & nudity, we have some decent atmosphere, a good music score by Marcello Giombini, and a memorable icon in the form of the statue (this thing really does look quite sinister).
Pretty entertaining as far as Italian "Exorcist" knock-offs go.
Seven out of 10.
For a rather cheap movie designed to cash in on such successes as "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" (albeit with that hook of being supposedly based on fact), this film is fairly amusing trash. It has its fair share of gore and nudity, plus lead actress Carnacina, who spends a lot of her screen time either screaming her head off or moaning in pleasure, really goes for it with her performance. The cast of familiar faces also includes Gabriele Tinti ("The Flight of the Phoenix") as the mothers' sleazy lover and Umberto Raho ("The Last Man on Earth") as a psychiatrist. In an interesting subplot, the father & mother have a rather open marriage provided that she simply not embarrass him too much.
The film has its pleasures: in addition to the gore & nudity, we have some decent atmosphere, a good music score by Marcello Giombini, and a memorable icon in the form of the statue (this thing really does look quite sinister).
Pretty entertaining as far as Italian "Exorcist" knock-offs go.
Seven out of 10.