Powerful

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I was really looking forward to seeing a Protestant exorcism. Had this movie actually been shot as intended that is what would have been displayed. At first blush this movie seems to indicate that the Black Baptist Bishop has a much easier time vanquishing Satan than the Catholic priests did in the original Exorcist movie. The priests in the original Exorcist sweated, bled, questioned their own faith and ultimately one of them died-sacrificing himself to beat Satan. Here William Marshal (Bishop Garnet Williams) did not even break a sweat as he maintained ultimate control from the start of the exorcism to the finish.But in a weird twist it is revealed that Abby is not possessed by the devil but rather by Eshu, a minor God from the Yorba (African) religion. Then it is revealed that Abby is not even possessed by the real Eshu, but rather by an even less significant spirit pretending to be the minor God, Eshu. And "Bishop" Williams does not banish the insignificant spirit in the name of Christ, but rather in the name of the main Yorba God, Allron and ultimately traps the spirit in Eshu's idol with help from Eshu. A rather anticlimactic exorcism.Why was this twist done at all? My research indicates that William Marshall only agreed to do the movie if he had some script control. William Marshall, the actor, was very interested in the Yorba religion and studied it intensely. In fact, William Marshall, the actor, lectured in several universities in the early 1970s about the Yorba religion. It is widely reported that William Marshall was unhappy that promised script revisions were not made. Ultimately, I believe that William Marshal himself ad-libbed the lines about it not being the real Eshu that possessed Abby. I also believe that William Marshal ad- libbed the lines about Allron being of equal power to the Judeo-Christian God and that the exorcism was being performed in Allron's name (later he calls upon the power of Eshu as well). Otherwise, the rest of the script does not make sense. William Marshal, the actor was promised script revisions that were not delivered, so he took matters in his own hands and changed the dialogue on the fly.Lots of gratuitous shots of fried chicken; literally served at every meal. Also bonus points if you can find the Shlitz beer product placement.

I had always heard of this 70s film, since my childhood in the late 80's. I had seen that it was seen on television, always missed it... even in Mexico , I had seen movie posters of it being shown years after its release from the 70s. About two years ago, through Cinefear, I finally got a DVD print of it.I actually had many expectations from it and also considering it low budget history. I had certain expectations upon viewing it as home entertainment. Now, this film back then had caused many problems from Warner Bros. I actually thought it was shame that this film was not allowed to have its official release.It does not compare to the high budget of the "Eexorcist", and riding on its antics belonging to Black exploitative cinema, "Abby" stand on its own and it's main actor, Carol Speed actually delivers although it's a little over the top acting, but she definitely owns the character. For me, its most interesting scene, Abby (Speed) who seems to be choking during a church mass. As the preacher is delivering his ceremony, Abby's choking worsen and causes a distraction in the church. I like it because it seems real, no special effects. I had read of possessions of people during church masses, people reacting to physical conditions.Of course, this film by no means is genius at work, but one can appreciate filmmakers like Girder to produce movies out side of the Hollywood environment. Abby's demonic possession are "ghetto fabulous" creating a climatic situation that would have never happen with Linda Blair.

I recently bought "Abby," more out of nostalgia than the actual film. I was 7 years old when I saw this at a drive-in. The film gave me the creeps and gave me nightmares for over a month.A lot can change over the years, you know. Things that creep you out at 7 may just simply make you howl with laughter at 37.Such is the case with "Abby." Carol Speed plays Abby Williams, the caring and loving wife of Emmett, a minister(Terry Carter), who have just moved into a new home and life seems to be o.k. Until Abby starts foaming at the mouth, and talking about the size of her husband's...parts. Was she the victim of toxic mold in her house, or has she become a druggie? Of course not! She has simply became the new host of a sexual demon, who was accidentally released by her father-in law, Bishop Williams (William Marshall)while he was on an archaeological dig.By today's standards, the film is laughably bad. The storyline has enough holes to resemble a fishing net and a lot of questions remained unanswered (Like, who paid for all the damage during the exorcism at the club?).The people behind the film was sued by Warner Bros. because of the similarities between this film and "The Exorcist," and you can see why they would take action (Levitations, spewing mouth, foul language), but what film HASN"T ripped off "The Exorcist?" ("Beyond The Door" was a rip-off, but they weren't sued. Possible racism issue here? You decided).The DVD quality is not up to snuff (It's a bad copy),but for the die-hard fans of this film and of the genre (Blaxpoitation,horror,or bad cinema), this would have to do.

"The Blackorcist," as this was supposedly nearly called, is actually not as blatant a rip-off of Exorcist, The (1973) as Chi sei? (1975) AKA Beyond the Door, or Seytan (1974) AKA The Turkish Exorcist. The latter in particular steals many scenes shot-for-shot (though not actual footage), but does actually steal same recording of the music "Tubular Bells."Abby is pretty enjoyable. I saw the Cinefear DVD of it, and hopefully some other company will be able to do a proper transfer of the film at some point. Credit to Cinefear for getting it out, though, and even including some extras.Abby is sort of the equivalent of Linda Blair's character in The Exorcist, but Abby is not a young girl but a young married woman; her husband and father-in-law are both priests. I'm not certain what denomination they were. The father dresses like a Catholic priest with black shirt and white collar, but has a wife and son. The son wears a khaki shirt with a white collar.The father unwittingly releases a demon in Africa, which for some reason possesses Abby in the US. The demon causes Abby to swear rather profusely - I was surprised.If a new DVD is ever released, there was some Greek, Hindi, and an African language spoken by the demon and the priest, and it would be interesting to get some optional subtitles for those scenes. The text of the lawsuit against the movie would also be interesting.