Take the essential ingredients of William Friedkin's The Exorcist, add 'fros, flares, fried chicken and funky grooves, and what you have is Abby, the 1974 demonic blaxploitation flick from director William Girdler that unsurprisingly received a great deal of attention from a very unamused Warner Brothers legal department.
Just like The Exorcist, the film's supernatural events are kick-started by the discovery of an ancient artifact by an elderly man of the cloth—in this case, it's a small carved box depicting the powerful sex demon Eshu that is unearthed by African-American bishop Garnet Williams (William Marshall). And just like The Exorcist, the discovery of this item results in a case of possession—only instead of a twelve year old girl, the victim is the bishop's daughter in law, Abby Williams (Carol Speed). Within a matter of days, God-fearing Christian Abby is transformed from a gospel singing pillar of the community into a blasphemous, vomiting, sex-mad harlot, eventually driving her desperate husband Rev. Emmett Williams (Terry Carter) to enlist the help of his father to cast out evil Eshu.
Instead of the classy style of Friedkin's movie, Girdler's effort is cheap, trashy and unintentionally hilarious, which in my book makes it almost as entertaining as the film it so blatantly rips off. Speed attacks her performance with gusto, coughing, drooling, puking, speaking in guttural fashion, getting slutty with total strangers, and even appearing in cheesy demon make-up for several subliminal flashes that simply scream 'plagiarism'; meanwhile, those around her play their roles with absolute sincerity, doing their utmost to look concerned and frightened (but failing badly).
Despite not being in the slightest bit original, shocking or scary, Abby is easily one of the most watchable (ie., funny) Exorcist rip-offs I have seen; I say 'get your mitts on a copy', even if it is the VHS-quality DVD release that seems to be the only version currently available.
Just like The Exorcist, the film's supernatural events are kick-started by the discovery of an ancient artifact by an elderly man of the cloth—in this case, it's a small carved box depicting the powerful sex demon Eshu that is unearthed by African-American bishop Garnet Williams (William Marshall). And just like The Exorcist, the discovery of this item results in a case of possession—only instead of a twelve year old girl, the victim is the bishop's daughter in law, Abby Williams (Carol Speed). Within a matter of days, God-fearing Christian Abby is transformed from a gospel singing pillar of the community into a blasphemous, vomiting, sex-mad harlot, eventually driving her desperate husband Rev. Emmett Williams (Terry Carter) to enlist the help of his father to cast out evil Eshu.
Instead of the classy style of Friedkin's movie, Girdler's effort is cheap, trashy and unintentionally hilarious, which in my book makes it almost as entertaining as the film it so blatantly rips off. Speed attacks her performance with gusto, coughing, drooling, puking, speaking in guttural fashion, getting slutty with total strangers, and even appearing in cheesy demon make-up for several subliminal flashes that simply scream 'plagiarism'; meanwhile, those around her play their roles with absolute sincerity, doing their utmost to look concerned and frightened (but failing badly).
Despite not being in the slightest bit original, shocking or scary, Abby is easily one of the most watchable (ie., funny) Exorcist rip-offs I have seen; I say 'get your mitts on a copy', even if it is the VHS-quality DVD release that seems to be the only version currently available.