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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
SEYTANIC GOBBLE, January 30, 2008
Having a bit of an obsession with the original EXORCIST film directed by William Friedkin, I was curious to see this Turkish version, reportedly a scene for scene unauthorized copy though one with a minimal budget.
I admit that I got the DVD to heckle with friends after hearing about the less than inspired special effects and the voice of the demon sounding like a "drunken pirate." As it turns out it is not a great heckle film, falling prey to the ultimate reason for most anti-heckle worthy films, that of being listless, slow and dull. However, taken as a curiosity, it's worth watching once if you can make it through even that far.
True to its reputation most of it is indeed a scene for scene remake of the original EXORCIST, although there are some major changes in the story. One presumes that all the elements of Catholicism in the American film have been omitted here for their irrelevance to most Turks or perhaps from an aversion to portraying such clearly defined aspects of faith and religion in a fictional story. We instead have a battle of wills between a more or less generic idea of good vs. evil. The young priest from the original film is here a doctor of psychology and author of books involving inner demons, free will and the effects of them upon society and human nature. The older "Exorcist" is some rather ill-defined expert in battling evil and in the minimalist exorcism scenes he spouts plenty of generalized faux-ritualistic chanting and quoting that only seems to be religion based. Perhaps it is significant to Turkish people and their faith, but if so, it went past my limited knowledge of the country. Most of the other characters are pretty true to the original, the mother, the 12 year old girl, the detective, etc. There are minor variations here and there, but they pretty much stick to William Peter Blatty's blueprint.
The production itself is, of course, laughable compared to the original film, but it is not without some inherent creepiness mostly due to the echoes of its progenitor. The acting isn't bad, particularly by the mother, who is much hotter than Ellyn Burstyn, haha, and the actress who plays the possessed little girl is also very effective given that she has to do a lot of the physical deformities without aid of special effects. No, she does not turn her head completely around all by herself, but much of her efforts to appear "possessed" are done purely through her own movement and expression. What effects there are can't match the original in any way, shape or form, but for a low budget and without any enforced comparisons, it is acceptable for a cheap horror film. The music is a hodge-podge of just about every type of mood cue, with a special emphasis being on endless repeats of Mike Oldfield's TUBULAR BELLS, with nary a credit to Mike in sight! For the most part however everyone involved in the film, both in front of and behind the camera, SEEMS to be taking the film very seriously and with an approach so earnest it's as though they were laying claim to the brilliance of the original all on their own. I would assume that the Friedkin film was not released in Turkey prior to this one, so no potential audiences could cry FOUL upon seeing this last page Xerox.
The DVD is abysmal in terms of quality. It's true that the film itself probably never looked all that great, but the transfer of this DVD doesn't give it any chance at all. It is murky, dirty and so soft it looks like 8mm blown up to 35 and then transferred to VHS in the -EP- speed. One would think that would only add to the heckle-ability of everything, but instead it is just distracting and depressing. The subtitles are a trip all on their own, with a limited grasp of English and often with bizarre footnotes marked by an asterisk underneath them and even some editorializing about the film itself! It almost appears as if the translator made notes about his translations and the folks burning them onto the film thought EVERYTHING on his notes were intended to be used. At one point in an exchange using Latin, there is a translation that says "Search GOOGLE."
I cannot recommend anyone buy this DVD, but it is worth a rental at Netflix. I don't think there is any repeat value to the film, so it's not worth owning, but as a curiosity and a relic of the Exorcist frenzy that swept the world in 1973-74, it's worth watching.
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