Teenage Exorcist Reviews

Here's another entry from Fred Olen Ray's cheapie team, with the same names in slightly different roles. Associate producer Ray leaves directing credit, such as it is, to Grant Austin Waldman and the writing to actress Brinke Stevens, who is toplined in this flaccid occult spoof as Diane, a young woman who moves into an accursed house and gets possessed. A boyfriend, sister, and her Dagwood Bumstead-style husband recognize the affliction and summon Father McFerrin (Robert Quarry), whose fading memory of Latin incantations ("Tyrannosaurus rex, tempus fugit, per diem ... cave canem!") does little to discomfit the slimy, goat-horned ghost in the cellar who's the cause of it all. McFerrin tries to phone for clergy backup, but he misdials a pizza joint which sends ultra-nerd delivery boy Eddie (Eddie Deezen). Although he's the title character, he does virtually nothing of importance. Instead Diane's beau Jeff (Tom Shell) deep-fries the demon with electricity. Elaine May and Nora Ephron won't be losing any sleep over the screenwriting talents of Stevens (who studied marine biology prior to becoming a Hollywood "Scream Queen"), but the pic at least soft-pedals the gratuitous nudity and gore that are a Ray tradition--even if its leading lady does vamp at length in skimpy dominatrix costumes. Diane is supposed to be demure and mousy before her satanic transformation, but it would take effects-makeup talent far greater than what's on display here to make Brinke Stevens look plain. Other hardworking performers handle the dumb jokes as best they can, with Quarry amusing as the Irish padre who holds an "army" of exactly three zombies at bay with card tricks. Bearing a 1991 copyright, TEENAGE EXORCIST materialized on home video in 1994. (Violence, nudity, sexual situations, profanity.)