Abby (1974)

Director: William Girdler

Screenplay: G. Cornell Layne

Cast: William Marshall as Bishop Garret Williams, Terry Carter as Reverend Emmett Williams, Austin Stoker as Detective Cass Potter, Carol Speed as Abby Williams, Juanita Moore as Miranda "Momma" Potter, Charles Kissinger as Dr. Hennings, Elliott Moffitt as Russell Lang, Nathan Cook as Tafa Hassan

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

We have William Marshall of Blacula (1972) in a lead role here, so we are good from the get-go, an actor who I wished could have had the huger filmography, one to match Christopher Lee's, as they both have the commanding voices, the gravitas and the sense no matter how ridiculous the film around them is, as with Abby here, they stood proudly within them. When I saw a retrospective screening of Blacula, as much as it was the cape that made him alluring, a younger woman in the patrons afterwards admitted to a male friend she found Marshall irresistible, one of those overheard anecdotes that make one glad to go to the cinema. Shame this is a role for him in a film viewed through an old sock depending on the version you can find, as this is a mostly all-black cast reinterpretation of The Exorcist (1973) which was sued off the screens. Warner Brothers may have forgotten to retract the suit, hence why it is difficult to see, alongside actually film prints. It's director William Girdler had no shame in following trends, with his most known film Grizzly (1976) if Jaws was replaced with a bear on land, but in the world of far more blatant Exorcist copies, especially the likes of the Turkish film Şeytan (1974), it feels cruel this idiosyncratic take, shot on barely a budget, was the one that got blocked from released, preserved through bootlegs or theatrical screenings of old prints.

Girdler himself is a distinct figure in American independent cinema, tragically dying in a helicopter accident whilst scouting for locations for a film. He was at only the age of thirty in 1978 when this happened, but he managed from 1972 to 1978 to make nine films. He is a regional filmmaker/producer who shot in various states - Abby shot in Louisville, Kentucky - and alongside how impressive that run is, to image what he could have do when the shot-to-video eighties era came in would have been tantalising in mind to a film like Abby, made in mind to a huge hit undeniably but having its own energetic spin to the material.  

Abby itself, alongside being a riff on the Exorcist, was also riding the wave Blacula was part of when "Blaxploitation" cinema grew in the early seventies, making films about predominantly black casts, and started touching into horror. I credit Girdler, a white filmmaker, just entirely devote himself even if in mind to the market to a mostly all-black cast driven film here, even if you do have to accept that the film might be seen as crass in its premise. I am not the right person to speak of whether the film can be defendable or not, but I could have seen something far more problematic in this premise, rather than what is over-the-top and not subtle in the slightest. Our Father Merrin stand-in, William Marshall, whilst doing humanity work in Nigeria goes on to research a site of Eshu, a trickster deity from the Yoruba religion, originating from south-western Nigeria. This is the one thing really that has not aged well, as you have an actual worshipped God of the past turned into an ancient evil that possesses his daughter-in-law Abby (Carol Speed), a young churchgoing woman with a priest husband who takes on the Regan place but somewhat differently. The deity is turned into a libidinous sex demon, which is broadly painting a figure of ancient worship as you could get and would be frowned on in the modern day, which is ironic because you could have even in a pulp film with this one's tone explored this idea of repressed sexuality and Christian faith much more.

It ultimately becomes an issue in that the film really has less interest in this figure of Eshu than to have the idea of a figure who will cause Abby to fall into being a figure who literally loves someone to death, literally steaming the car up to the point it erupts in smoke and burns up the person she was necking inside. It is more of an issue of you have the calm and saintly Abby contrasted by a demonic figure that is lascivious and has a demonic male voice which is broad in his comments. What really neutralising this, and makes the film more ridiculous than anything, is how absurd this goes. There is some unintentional humour, the demon coming up with memorable one liners, Abby tormenting an old woman to the point of a heart attack by slapping her around, or her offering sexual advice as a marriage advisor by offering to sleep with the husband. What is potentially problematic is crushed in its own alien take on The Exorcist, becoming its own take where there is no knock off Tubular Bells, but funk and monotone drones instead.

It is still, undeniable, with an eye on a huge hit, but this strips out most of the iconic aspects of The Exorcist, such as there being no Father Karras and his crisis of faith. It is as much budgetary reasons clearly we do not get some of the more elaborate scenes recreated, though we get someone floating by the end. It nonetheless is fun to witness, working with the bare essentials to its own quirks, such as the exorcism itself taking place in a nightclub and involves one destroyed disco ball. For a film in the context it was made in too, all the potential issues I have described do not thankfully have anything to them in regards to demeaning its cast, all barring one detective and minor figures an all-black cast, working actors who if you dig into their careers have films and television work which stick out. Our titular lead Carol Speed's career was sadly mostly within the seventies only, with films like The Mack (1973), but it took me by surprise to realise that, playing her mother, is Juanita Moore, famous especially for her key part in Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life (1959), an incredible film, whilst you have Austin Stoker from Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) too among others.

In terms of whether the film is actually "good" in terms of portrayals of these characters, rather than avoiding problematic stereotypes, one has to be blunt. It is in mind to whether you find Abby's foul mouthed, sex obsessed demon form against the saintly Christian archetype she begins as problematic or just ridiculous. It is, at its heart, openly cashing in on The Exorcist, and with the choice to spin it the way the film did, everything feels ridiculous instead. Everything feels unintentional in its mistakes than deliberately problematic stereotypes. It even attempts to bring in aspects of the Yoruba religion which, whilst not dealt with well, least gives us one good moment, with William Marshall mocking the demon, in a variety of languages between them, for pretending to be the real Eshu, and even moving into using non-Christian African religious rites to perform the exorcism. It is the scene that stands out as distinct even if one also wishes for a film which elaborated on this sequence more than here. If anything, it just makes me appreciate William Marshall more, who actually was not a fan of the film he was making¹, but still committed a powerhouse performance. I wish he was as well known as other cult horror actors as, with one of the better scenes in what is a silly film made on a very low budget in that example, the comparison to Christopher Lee is perfect. He was someone who could have been incredible in so many films if he had the wider length of filmography as the later did. As with the rest of the cast, and Girdler himself as producer-director, I wish this had not been stuck in this lawsuit situation, as alongside the pointlessness of this when most of these films are clearly not like the big hit, which feels like a power game in committing to the lawsuit, Abby within the light of day cannot be taken seriously. It becomes instead a fascinating item from the past with figures involved within it who shine in spite of criticisms of the film itself.

 

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1) Abby (1974): A Unique Blaxploitation Horror or Nothing More Than an Exorcist Rip-Off?, written by Neil Gray for Horror Obsessive and published 29th September 2022.

Blackenstein (1973)

 

Director: William A. Levey

Screenplay: Frank R. Saletri

Cast: John Hart as Dr. Stein; Ivory Stone as Dr. Winifred Walker; Joe De Sue as Eddie Turner (as Joe DeSue); Roosevelt Jackson as Malcomb; Andrea King as Eleanor; Nick Bolin as Bruno Stragor

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #205

 

Green haze looms over a Gothic mansion, turning into the title of Blackenstein, one of the most infamous films of the blaxploitation era. Consciously aware the representation of African-Americans onscreen is still at a place, when this review is written, that is fraught and in continual need of being emphasized, the blaxploitation era comes to me as a paradox, on one hand a needed moment of representation in front of and behind the camera, also however an era of white producers cashing in and the the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protesting the movement for giving African-Americans a bad image. This paradox is something to consider the more films from this movement I see, but Blackenstein, among the horror subgenre within it, was still infamous as not being very good among these films. It has aspects of its era that stand out, which show its historical place. It also evokes, when we cut to a science lab in that mansion, when Ed Wood in the Tim Burton 1994 film on him, when he wanted on a set for Bride of the Monster (1955) a machine that produces sparks for his mad scientist set.

I did com to Blackenstein with surprisingly high expectations - the director helmed Hellgate (1989), a weird South African shot film - and the proper opening credits show promise, introducing Dr. Winifred Walker (Ivory Stone), leaving an airport set to a nice soul song. The premise, in its cheese, does promise a character drama bolted to a premise Ed Wood Jr. could have come up with. On one hand, Dr. Stein (John Hart) who owns the mansion looks a suspicious mad (white) scientist, the only Caucasian figure of prominence in the cast, who with the patients who live in his home dabbles in creating a youth serum that needs to be used every twelve hours, or a "RNA" formula with an unfortunate side effect of turning one's leg tiger orange with black stripes. On the other hand, he is not a villain however, wanting to help people including graft new limbs to those without, Winifred becoming his assistant explicitly to have him help her estranged fiancée Eddie (Joe De Sue). Eddie, a former Vietnam War vet, has had all his limbs blown off due to a landmine explosion, just one lyric away from the synopsis of Metallica's One¹.

It is set up as a melodrama instead, like an older horror film decades before, where his assistant Malcomb (Roosevelt Jackson), a deeply voiced man, has fallen in love with Winifred as they have worked together, but she is still in love with Eddie. To change things to his favour, Malcolm splices the chemicals used to attach new limbs to Eddie with the RNA serum, which causes primal throwback, as a voiceover during the scene he does this repeats over and over again, and turns Eddie into a mindless monster. On one hand, he becomes snazzy dresser in all black smart clothes, but on the other, his head is turned into the shape of a potato as a result as well as becoming bloodthirsty. It is from here Blackenstein was painful to sit through, as this drama gives way to scenes of Eddie stalking people killing them, all as dry as toast and at a snail's pace. Baring one character, a male hospital orderly who signalled his demise for mocking Vietnam vets and Eddie, no one after that is anyone of note, just random bystanders. Usually it is a terrible sign for me, in any horror film, where a monster exists that just chokes their victims to death. Blackenstein would have easily come from the fifties or even earlier; even when it has gore and animal organs used, the film has a tendency to immediately cut away from the attacks to their immediate aftermath, so you do not see a lot.

You do not see a lot anyway, as even restored, the night scenes of Eddie in the outside world are difficult to actually watch and get images of. Beyond this, you have a string of repetitious scenes of Eddie killing people, cutting to the other characters trying to figure out what is going on, which is all bland. There are touches of note, but not many. A creepy man trying to seduce a woman by touching her hair is a distinct scene of random victims, only because the film punishing her rather than him annoyingly. There is also a stand-up comedian talking about a talking dog in a bar, by accounts a real one named Andy C, a long tangent abruptly included for a joke which is not really funny, but is proven the most memorable and charming aspect after Blackenstein descends into this nadir.

Blackenstein even from that title sounds ridiculous, but I would have been fascinating to see a good film from this with this melodramatic pulp premise. One of its few virtues is that most of the cast, and people with important roles, are African Americans which at least remotely progressive, even if the film does indulge in gore and some lurid nudity for a cheesy plot. Even if the titular character is ridiculous to look at, the idea of an African American man being experimented on by a white scientist would be a loaded premise with some interest. [Major Spoiler] Even the ending, where Blackenstein is ripped to shreds by police dogs, has more uncomfortable in the modern day let alone before when it was made. [Spoilers End]. But, as always with bad horror cinema, when it is padded out or without lack of care it turns any premise, no matter how dumb, which had potential into something tedious.

 

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1) Yes, that song was based on Johnny Got His Gun, both the Dalton Trumbo 1939 novel to the 1971 film he also directed which the Metallica music video for One uses clips from. At the point of this review, I have never experienced either, so neither would be appropriate to reference.