BLACKWATER VALLEY EXORCISM

Young Isabelle has serious mental problems; her desperate family, unable to find a cure for the strange disease afflicting their daughter, turns to a young priest who will reveal the demon possessing the girl. With the help of some friends and Isabelle's entire family, Jacob, at his first exorcism, will try to save the girl's soul. The theme of demonic possession and similar topics never stops, although the products periodically presented to us are not exactly masterpieces. After the bad prequel 'The Exorcist: Genesis,' a film with a very troubled production, the anonymous remake of 'The Omen,' and the more successful and interesting 'Signs of Evil,' another product for the home video circuit peeks among the countless so-called 'unreleased' films: 'Blackwater Valley Exorcism.' After a prologue in which the viewer is warned that the film is based on real events and that a bishop even supervised the veracity of the exorcism ceremony, we find ourselves on a farm where young Isabelle begins to show signs of mental imbalance, even going so far as to eat live rabbits. Concerned for their daughter's fate, Isabelle's parents turn to a family friend, the town sheriff, played by a bewildered Jeffrey Combs, who is literally terrified by the demonic girl who begins to worsen further, adding to the string of insults hurled at anyone who approaches her, phrases in Latin and Aramaic with a 'little voice,' as Bill Murray would say (Ghostbusters), of a light soprano. So far, everything remains within the genre's canons, and the story seems quite credible. The farm's stable hand, Miguel, notices the girl's clear symptoms and advises the now desperate parents to turn to a priest. Here comes Jacob, a priest with a more confused than dark past who seems to know the unfortunate family well, and with Miguel's help, he will organize a team that during an 'infernal' night will face the demon with tragic consequences. For half of the film, the script seems to have a logical course, and it seems clear that the real facts end with the arrival of the priest: from that point on, confusion reigns supreme, trying to give explanation and depth to the characters with some flashbacks that only make the story chaotic. The dialogues are absurd at times; in twenty minutes, everything happens without any preludes to the crazy acts of the family members, let alone the acting, which, given the 'surreal' atmosphere, to put it mildly, that reigns in the film, always seems out of sync. Director Ethan Wiley makes an unusual use of the camera, inserting 'Raimi-style' shots in some sequences that are visually detached from the rest of the film. It's clear the homage to 'Evil Dead,' just look at the sheriff's arrival, the chase in the woods, and some obviously over-the-top scenes, but inserting lighthearted stylistically risky shots is not for everyone; there are moments that border on cartoonish comedy, and in what should be a real story, they clash exaggeratedly. The presence of Combs and James Russo, another staple of low-budget productions, is so minimal as to be superfluous and without any appeal. In conclusion, we are faced with yet another poor-quality product that, given the intriguing context of the news story, could have been made more deservingly and resulted in an enjoyable product, but it was not... for the umpteenth time. If you want more enjoyable films on the same theme, we recommend the already mentioned 'Signs of Evil,' an interesting mix of mystic-biblical, 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose,' a solid legal-thriller with a demonic backdrop, and the excellent 'Stigmata,' which approaches possession from a completely new perspective.