For the second helping of B-Movie Meatloaf I didn't want to choose a genre or a character for the topic, I wanted to focus on the work of a specific horror film actor, the excellent Paul Naschy. You may or may not know who this is, and for those of you out of the loop then allow this Meatloaf to be your introduction to the terrifying Spanish horrors brought to you by the once body-builder, Mr. Naschy. Why did I chose him? Well, I count myself as one of the lucky few who got to meet Paul in one of his rare American convention appearances.

I bought a shirt from the convention, so I remember all the details correctly. It was Midnight Marquee's Classic Film Fest and it took place in Arlington, Virginia between July 28-30th of 2000. Me and my buddy Louie (he's Jorge's brother, who I went with when Jorge was unable to make it) met some really cool people; Roger Corman, Sam "AIP" Arkoff, Janet "Psycho" Leigh, Kevin "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" McCarthy, and the one, the only Paul Naschy. The first sighting of Mr. Naschy was when Louie and I unwittingly caught the same elevator with him. I'd never ridden in an elevator with a Spanish werewolf until then. Then I made the long line to get his autograph and he had a translator there telling him how to spell people's American names. He seemed pleased that my name was one he was familiar with. I shook his hand and told him what an honor it was to meet him and how much I appreciated his work and he smiled wide. The next, and final time, I ran into my old buddy Paul was at a screening of one of his werewolf movies. I believe it was the one that Jorge is reviewing for the Meatloaf. He sat in the back, two rows behind me, and I will never forget his whispering to his friends as he wondered "what the hell is going on in this movie?" It seems even he was mystified by the loose plotting of his films. I will never forget my once-in-a-lifetime meeting with Spain's greatest horror actor, and so I hope that answers the questions as to why I chose him for our sloppy seconds.

The film I chose to review is one of the first Naschy films I saw, so even though it is a blatant rip-off of The Exorcist, it has a special place in my heart. The lovely Leila (played by Grace Mills, who's real name is Mercedes Molina, also appeared in Naschy's multi-titled Horror of the Werewolf) gets in a car accident after practicing some devil worship and awakens from the crash possessed by the devil...or something. Her family begins to worry so they call in Father Adrian (played by badass Mr. Naschy). She doesn't start out by vomiting pea soup or anything, but her character and demeanor start to change as she is slowly rotted from the inside out by the evil entity from within. Then her brother John shows up dead with his head twisted around and we know something is definitely going on. Father Adrian starts investigating and goes to visit Richard, Leila's boyfriend who was with her the night of the accident, and finds him dead.

Later, Leila freaks out at her birthday party, calling everyone "stupid asses". Father Adrian starts working with the police to decipher the murders and suspicion falls on him for a bit, as well. Leila's mother is attacked by an invisible force and Fr. Adrian is called in. He goes to check on Leila, but finds her missing. Her sister leads him to an abandoned castle where she is sure that Leila is participating in a black mass. It turns out that she is not only participating, but laying naked on an altar and having other naked women paw her. The police come in and raid the joint and the killer is revealed as the brutish butler that was obsessed with Leila. This, of course, has nothing to do with possession, until the last ten minutes of the movie. Leila's face melts into a hideous, puss-crusted mask and Fr. Adrian is called in one last time to save her soul. He yells at the demon inside her to leave her alone while Leila writhes around the room. Then a dog shows up out of nowhere and the demon jumps into the German Shepherd. Fr. Adrian beats the shit out of the dog with a fire poker and Leila and her soul are restored to health. The credits quickly roll, leaving the audience with the same thought: "That's it?"

Co-written by Jacinto Molina (which was Naschy's real name) the biggest problem with this exorci-sploitation is that its slow pace drags the movie down and makes it incredibly boring to watch. This was my second go around for this film, and I found myself distracted by other things and losing interest in the picture. The good news was that when I came back around to the movie, nothing had really happened or changed, so I missed nary a thing. This is sold as an exorcism movie, but the title event takes up maybe 5 minutes towards the end. In the meantime the padding is filled with random killing, a detective subplot, lots of religious discussions, psycho-babble and some non-interesting "scare" sequences, which are sparse. Sad to say, but I probably should have picked a better movie because this is one of Naschy's most boring, and uninteresting films. But the word around the old meatloaf water cooler is that everyone else thinks the same about their Naschy films. Sorry Senor Naschy, but I guess we wouldn't call it B-Movie Meatloaf if we were using good films as ingredients.

- Jose Prendes