Orla Zuniga
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Roy Hart
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Scarecrow-88
Sheltered 16 year old, Malabimba is possessed by the spirit of a deviant ancestor, after a séance unleashes her, who uses the girl as a tool for unmitigated lust, shocking the girl's family and "nun protector" with suspicious sexually depraved behavior.Little more than well made soft-core erotica with a slight bend towards horror. Superb camera work(..two cinematographers contributed)and an ideal setting(..a wonderfully atmospheric isolated castle monastery on a hill)provide this film with some class despite the trashy premise and characters.The shocking subject matter is what sets it apart from what one might see in today's modern cinematic porn. A teenage virginal innocent besieged by the spirit of a horny ancestor who was once a nymphomaniac. Malabimba attempts to seduce her own father, gives grandpa oral sex(..which, I guess, gets him so worked up he has a coronary!), successfully ravages her nun, Sister Sophia(Mariangela Giordano;the spirit had attempted to possess her at the opening), and often peeps on the sexual activities of her voracious slutty aunt, Nais(Patrizia Webley). Nais is married to Bimba's uncle(Giuseppe Marrocco)but yearns for her father, Andrea(Enzo Fisichella). Nais, after repeated tries, is able to secure Andrea's desire, and Bimba looks on, actually luring Sophia into voyeurism with her. And, easily the film's most unpredictable sequence, has Bimba pulling up her dress, displaying her naked body for a dinner party of guests as her family stare in disbelief! Director Andrea Bianchi is known as a director willing to push boundaries, and does so here. Katell Laennec, who has a more mature body than an expected 16 year old, still looks young enough for her teenage character's wild antics to cold-cock an audience into silence and awe. Bianchi's camera enjoys closing in on the crotches of both Webley and Laennec, both seemingly open and free with exposing themselves. Webley is often seen in lingerie, gallivanting her body for those she wishes to proposition. The film's most erotic component is probably Bimba's methodical seduction of Sister Sophia who is able to ward off the permeating desire to engage in lesbian pleasure, finally giving in at the end, ultimately allowing access for the evil spirit to invade her(..I'm not sure why the spirit would wish to leave the younger Bimba for Sophia, unless it was the devious idea of overtaking the body of a God-fearing nun). The Karoli family is an open wound for the viewer and we witness their moral decay.NOT for the easily offended or those bothered by immoral acts of sexual gratification. Often labeled an EXORCIST rip-off, I think the film is it's own beast, really only using a little bit of the Catholism..this is a possession movie exploring erotic territory, rather than Satanic horrors regarding unsettling demonic images.
lazarillo
This isn't necessarily a high compliment, but this might be the best of the many Italian rip-offs of "The Exorcist". It's definitely better than bigger budgeted nonsense like "Beyond the Door" and "The Temptor". It may be kind of a toss-up between this film where Mariangela Giordana plays a middle-age nun engaging in hot inter-generational lesbian sex with her demon-possessed teenage charge and "The Sexorcist" where Ivan Rassimov plays a demon/Christ statue come to life who pulls himself off a crucifix and nails, in quite a different sense, a sexy female artist. I guess what it comes to though is that I'd rather see Giordano naked than Rassimov (that or I'm just a sucker for nun-related, inter-generation lesbian scenes). This movie does much more faithfully follow the plot of the "The Exorcist". The possessed girl, Bimba, lives in an old castle with sundry relatives and a nun guardian. She is somewhat older than Ravin in "The Exorcist"--the character is supposedly sixteen but the actress (the never-to-be-seen-again Katell Laennac)looks to be a few years older than that. This is no doubt a good thing as she spends the movie graphically masturbating with stuffed animals, spying on her sleazy aunt having sex with her uncle and her widowed father, dispatching an unfortunate (or lucky?)elderly relative with a fatal bout of oral favors, or having the aforementioned lesbian sex with Giordano.This movie works for two reasons. The first is the director Andreas Bianchi who, though far less prolific, was a lot like Spanish auteur Jesus Franco in his ability to take irredeemably sleazy material like this and make it somehow oddly watchable. Bianchi's work includes "What the Peeper Saw" which offered the unusual pairing of Swedish sex kitten Britt Ekland and the kid from "Oliver", scuzzy giallo favorite "Strip Nude for Your Killer" where the usually classy Edwige Fenech simulated both oral and anal sex (not surprisingly, it's the only recent DVD release she hasn't provided any commentary for), and his follow-up to this film "Burial Ground" again with Giordano who this time gets her latex nipple bitten off by a strange-looking dwarf who is supposed to be her zombified son. Which brings me to the second reason:the infamous Mariangela Giordano. Although she is sometimes labeled a "scream queen" this label doesn't really fit Giordano as she was an actress for twenty-five years in Italian genre films before she ever started doing nude sex scenes in sleazy horror movies like this in her early 40's (during her marriage to producer Crisanti). She proved so good at it though that even years later when she appeared in Michael Soavi's "The Sect" she has a scene as the world's sexiest 53-year-old naked corpse! But besides having a virtually un-aging body, she was a pretty decent actress. It is a testament to her thespian abilities that this sultana of sleaze is even remotely believable as a nun. (And if her initial seduction by the possessed teenager seems amazing just wait around for the "exorcism").The only serious downside to this movie is the inclusion in most available versions of unappetizing hardcore "inserts". In this case though they may, at least, have involved the original talent: Bianchi often did hardcore work, the actress playing the aunt certainly looks like a porn star,and even Laennac at one point shares the screen with a visibly aroused male. Still these scenes could easily be lost. It's a sufficiently sleazy and enjoyable movie without them.
HumanoidOfFlesh
Seemingly as a result of séance that goes wrong(or was this an attempt at exorcism)Daniela is possessed by the evil spirit of Countness Lucrezia and becomes sex crazed and her mother Nais,also becomes sex crazed as Daniela watches.Daniela grabs men's crotches,flashes her pussy during a party,gives her grandfather a blow job and thereby kills him,seduces Sister Sofia who then commits suicide by leaping off the battlements."Malabimba" is a crazy Italian porno/horror that has to be seen to be believed.Apparently producer Gabriele Crisanti didn't thought the film was sleazy enough so he edited together an alternative version which included about five minutes of hard core sex footage.Some of the horror scenes-such as the séance at the beginning-are wonderfully over the top and stupid.So if you liked Andrea Bianchi's sleazy giallo "Strip Nude for Your Killer" or his extremely entertaining zombie film "Burial Ground" give this sleaze classic a look.9 out of 10.
anthonycwhittle
Wow, this was just great and to think it came from the director of Burial Ground( one of the best zombie films ) made it even better. The storyline is tenuous but who cares, there is enough licentious festivities happening to satisfy the most avid euro-trash followers. This sordid film is almost impossible to find but if you do find it purchase it because you will never see anything like it out there.
