For a good while after it was first released, ABBY was a difficult film to see: that's because Warner Bros, the producers of the THE EXORCIST, sued AIP, the producers of ABBY, claiming that it was nothing more than a cheap rip-off of their classic horror film. Well, they were right. ABBY is a rip-off, and that's obvious right from the very beginning; both films are about possessed women and the exorcist attempting to save them; both have similar scenes of mini-hurricanes tearing up the inside of the rooms, and even the demons sound alike. Still, most of the B-movies I watch are rip-offs of one film or another, so I didn't let this fact bother me too much.
ABBY starts off on a good footing. This time around, the demon is an African one, accidentally released on an archaeological dig by the exorcist himself. I liked this angle; it worked well. Early scenes of Abby suffering possession are genuinely creepy; there's lots of saliva and an excruciating moment when she self-harms. However, about halfway through the movie, the plot seems to lose momentum; this may be because the production was interrupted by severe tornadoes and the bad luck that apparently plagued it thereafter. The last half of the film has Abby going on a rampage through town, making love to unsuspecting guys and killing them (although we never see what happens). This latter part of the film is quite dull, padded out with endless scenes of disco dancing and bad acting from some extras, and it only picks up in the last ten minutes for an exorcism that promises more than it delivers.
Essentially, the low budget is what hampers this film. Carol Speed, who is quite effective as the possessed woman, doesn't wear any make-up towards the end like Linda Blair did; she has a pair of scary contact lenses, but otherwise it's all down to her fierce expression. The supernatural stuff is limited to furniture and people being thrown around rooms which quickly becomes tiresome, although there's a hilarious aside in which a limo starts smoking which didn't make much sense; more stuff like that would have made this a better film. Director William Girdler, whose short-lived '70s career produced half a dozen cheapie horrors, works hard at instilling atmosphere and dread, and he succeeds in disturbing the viewer with some subliminal inserts of a rubbery demon head. But that's about it.
The cast is decent for a low-budget '70s blaxploitation movie. Headlining it is William Marshall, well-known of course for his turn as BLACULA, who puts in another good turn as the commanding exorcist. Carol Speed, as Abby, is very convincing, and outdoes what Linda Blair did; while Blair's horrific performance relied on special effects, Speed's relies on her acting ability, and she comes up trumps. Also along for the ride are Austin Stoker (ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13), playing a hard-ass cop who may well be a forerunner to his character in the John Carpenter film, and Terry Carter, giving a strong performance as Abby's put-upon husband. For fun, I spotted British character actor Don Henderson as a sleazy nightclub patron, just before he appeared as the titular menace in the Peter Cushing flick THE GHOUL.
If the second half of this movie had been as strong as the first half, I would have enjoyed it far more. But I can't help thinking that the behind-the-scenes troubles succeeded in scuppering this film's promising aspects.
ABBY starts off on a good footing. This time around, the demon is an African one, accidentally released on an archaeological dig by the exorcist himself. I liked this angle; it worked well. Early scenes of Abby suffering possession are genuinely creepy; there's lots of saliva and an excruciating moment when she self-harms. However, about halfway through the movie, the plot seems to lose momentum; this may be because the production was interrupted by severe tornadoes and the bad luck that apparently plagued it thereafter. The last half of the film has Abby going on a rampage through town, making love to unsuspecting guys and killing them (although we never see what happens). This latter part of the film is quite dull, padded out with endless scenes of disco dancing and bad acting from some extras, and it only picks up in the last ten minutes for an exorcism that promises more than it delivers.
Essentially, the low budget is what hampers this film. Carol Speed, who is quite effective as the possessed woman, doesn't wear any make-up towards the end like Linda Blair did; she has a pair of scary contact lenses, but otherwise it's all down to her fierce expression. The supernatural stuff is limited to furniture and people being thrown around rooms which quickly becomes tiresome, although there's a hilarious aside in which a limo starts smoking which didn't make much sense; more stuff like that would have made this a better film. Director William Girdler, whose short-lived '70s career produced half a dozen cheapie horrors, works hard at instilling atmosphere and dread, and he succeeds in disturbing the viewer with some subliminal inserts of a rubbery demon head. But that's about it.
The cast is decent for a low-budget '70s blaxploitation movie. Headlining it is William Marshall, well-known of course for his turn as BLACULA, who puts in another good turn as the commanding exorcist. Carol Speed, as Abby, is very convincing, and outdoes what Linda Blair did; while Blair's horrific performance relied on special effects, Speed's relies on her acting ability, and she comes up trumps. Also along for the ride are Austin Stoker (ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13), playing a hard-ass cop who may well be a forerunner to his character in the John Carpenter film, and Terry Carter, giving a strong performance as Abby's put-upon husband. For fun, I spotted British character actor Don Henderson as a sleazy nightclub patron, just before he appeared as the titular menace in the Peter Cushing flick THE GHOUL.
If the second half of this movie had been as strong as the first half, I would have enjoyed it far more. But I can't help thinking that the behind-the-scenes troubles succeeded in scuppering this film's promising aspects.