"I want to take communion, father, but not in my mouth. Here in my pussy!" diabolical nymphet Magdalena Winters (Dagmar Hedrich) taunts shocked priest Father Conrad (Rudolf Schundler). Whilst the satanically lewd antics of Linda Blair in The Exorcist (1973) spooked audiences around the world, in Europe producers of cheap exploitation films drew an altogether different idea. Namely, that demonic possession could turn nubile young women into ravenous nymphomaniacs. And lo, the "sexy exorcist" sub-genre was born, spawning such unholy offerings as Beyond the Door (1974), The Antichrist (1974), Demon Witch Child (1975) and The Eerie Midnight Horror Show (1974) a.k.a. what else but, The Sexorcist. West German filmmaker Walter Boos, veteran of the infamous Schoolgirl Report films, threw his hat into the ring with Magdalena Possessed by the Devil wherein the metaphysical conflict conjured by William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty is reduced to an excuse for starlet Dagmar Hedrich to spout choice profanities and expose her private parts at every given opportunity. Frankly, this film is a riot.
It is Ash Wednesday in Munich, Germany and a drunk hooker dressed, inexplicably, like a refugee from The Rocky Horror Picture Show discovers a dead man crucified against the wall. Seedy enough for you? After the lyrical theme tune plays over this grisly sight, a pathologist discerns a strange burn mark on the dead man's head and that the nails were driven through his body with incredible force. The cops discover the late Joseph Winter had a granddaughter: Magdalena, a fun-loving teeny-bopper with a ribbon in her hair who has been living at a girls' school since her parents perished in a car crash. Quicker than you can say Beelzebub, Magdalena suffers a seizure on the floor right in the middle of her swinging birthday bash. In the days that follow, Magdalena's personality flips from pious good girl to potty-mouthed nympho as she seduces strangers, makes furniture fly around the room, befriends a black cat (She likes cats? Burn the witch!) and, oh yes, has wild sex with an invisible demon sporting a gleeful smile on her face.
After refusing to attend her grandfather's funeral ("I despise the dead!"), Magdalena hitches a ride with a sleazeball who tries to rape her until she rips off his arm and is eventually found by her grandpa's grave having a friendly chat. I thought she despised the dead? At this point Professor Falk (Werner Bruhns) and Doctor Stone (Michael Hinz) intervene and drag Magdalena off to their quiet country retreat. Like any good doctor, Doctor Stone leaps at the chance to romance an underage patient, but the syrupy piano ballad scoring their courtship turns into eerie electronica when the malevolent minx goes back to her old tricks. Oh, and there's a subplot about a creepy guy lurking around the crime scene in Munich, but he throws himself down a staircase and we never learn who killed grandpa.
"It is as if Magdalena is under a compulsion to spout obscenities and make lascivious motions", remarks a consulting physician at one point. Yeah doc, she's a teenager. Shot in garish comic book colours, the strange combination of schoolgirl romance, morality tale and satanic soft porn leaves this looking like Bunty meets Penthouse as re-imagined by Dennis Wheatley. Whilst the photography is accomplished, the plot is ludicrous and structured, unsurprisingly enough, just like a porno with our heroine caught in a comprising position every few minutes. To her credit, Dagmar Hedrich commits to her demented role with appreciable mania, although the solutions are even sillier than her satanic symptoms. Schoolteachers slap the naked Magdalena silly. Father Conrad locks her in his study. Professor Falk seemingly reckons some nice fresh air will sort out all her satanic troubles. However, the punchline is almost interesting as Falk combines Catholic prayer with newfangled psychotherapy to expel the demon.
