Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil (1974)

aka Beyond the Darkness /The Devil's Female
Original title: Magdalena, vom Teufel Besessen





I watched the German THE EXORCIST ripoff MAGDALENA, VOM TEUFEL BESESSEN tonight. It was the second time I watched the film; the first time was about 7 or 8 months ago and the version I watched back then was the English dubbed print under the title THE DEVIL'S FEMALE.

Tonight I watched the original German language version and to my surprise there were a few differences! I originally just bought the German version (on VHS, the film hasn't been released officially on DVD anywhere, although there is at least one factory pressed reg. 1 bootleg DVD of the English dubbed version, which btw comes with RUBY, the blaxpoitation EXORCIST ripoff!!). However, I noticed that the English dubbed version is engulfed in a green light through out the entire movie! The German tape has the colours look normal. I bet the green was boosted to make it look more like the evil bedroom scene in THE EXORCIST! But when you compare the two versions the green light version just looks annoying!

And also, I noticed at least one nude scene in the dubbed version that had been toned down (i.e. alternative footage has been used, so when you read about a bootlegger offering an "uncut" version of the English dubbed print, pffft to that!!). I'll make a proper comparison at some stage. I also noticed an entire scene with a dog that was missing from the dubbed print!

Anyway, the film as such is awesome! It's both quite scary and it is by far the most sleazy EXORCIST ripoff there is! Whereas the possessed girl in the original film is an under-age girl the girl in this German ripoff is a teenage girl who spends half of the film being possessed - in the nude! And doing fornication movements with an invisible demon! xD!! If the bloody IMDb is right the actress who plays the teenage girl, Dagmar Hedrich, was actually around 40 y.o. when she did the film! She doesn't look 40 though. Anyway, MAGDALENA, POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL is highly recommended! Here's a handful of screen grabs from the German tape.

[intro text card from the German tape]
[from the English dubbed tape]
[title card in the German version]
[crappy title card in the English dubbed version. I doubt the dubbed print was originally released this way which makes me suspect the original English title wasn't The Devil's Female but probably a direct translation of the German title, "Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil"]




[notice the green "glow" in the English dubbed print]

Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil (1974)

Original German title: MAGDALENA, VOM TEUFEL BESESSEN
aka In der Gewalt des Bösen / Magdalena – Kein Platz für die Hure / Beyond the Darkness / Devil’s Female



Ahhh, look at that German VHS cover. Awesome, ay! YES IT IS!!!
xD xD xD.

MAGDALENA, POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL (or Devil's Female as the English dubbed bootleg DVD I bought last year is re-titled) is an enjoyable and trashy German ripoff of THE EXORCIST!! I haven't bothered to find out which English dubbed VHS versions are available (or not available, I believe any version is pretty rare) cos I've got said boot DVD from Trash Palace, a boot which is fine enough when you consider I find the English dubbing pretty atrocious! Haha.

And because of that uuugly dubbing I've been on the lookout for the original German language version for quite a while. I never actually thought I'd find it but, well, lo and behold, tonight I commented on someone's scan of the same film on Cinehound (actually the scan I'm using here) and one fine Swedish collector mentioned he had another copy of the tape and that he would let go of it. Well, for a handful of shiny coins natürlich. Ahhh. Did I mention it's not released on DVD anywhere (you can find an English dubbed DVD on Amazon but it's a bootleg). Ahh, the joys of EXORCIST ripoffs.