AllMovie

In this intensely Sadean sex-horror film, cult filmmaker Jesus Franco directed himself as Vogel, an insanely paranoid religious fanatic who works as a reporter for a sexy tabloid. Vogel's editor Raymond Franval (Pierre Taylou) and his secretary Anne (Lina Romay) are in charge of secret sadomasochistic sex parties at a jaded noble couple's mansion. Flagellation and torture are the rule of the day at the parties' staged black masses, and when the paranoid Vogel sees one of the events, the paranoid mystic believes it to be real. Thus, he decides to exorcise the demons by running his own personal Inquisition, torturing the home's inhabitants to death. Exorcisme is not entirely successful as horror or pornography, although several different versions exist with varying degrees of both elements, typical of the Eurocine studios' patchwork style. Christine Chireix and David Atta appear in the hardcore version, which replaced important scenes of plot development with more explicit sexual torture sequences. Nadine Pascal, Monica Swinn, Caroline Riviere, and Olivier Mathot co-star in this uneven French-Belgian effort which manages a few surprises despite its shortcomings.