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Herma's (Sam Bangs) a bit down on her luck, as she's pregnant but has
long fallen out with the baby father, and hasn't got a place to stay on
her own - so she's happy to become housesitter for catholic missionary
Charles (Neil Green) and his family (Marcella Laasch, Chynna Rae Shurts,
Jamie Seagraves) while they're doing "God's work" in the
Bahamas. She also grows quite friendly with the next-door neighbours, dad
Frank (Steve Larkin), mum Debra (Stephanie Leet) and kids Ally (Allegra
Sweeney) and young Peter (Leonard Hoge). Now Peter has a bit of an
over-boarding fantasy from watching a few too many horror movies, but what
he tells Herma about the house she's sitting gets her investigating, and
eventually she discovers the secret basement of the house that looks quite
a bit like a sex dungeon. There she finds a ring which she tries on just
for fun - and then can't get off anymore. And from there on her condition
goes on a decline, with her skin showing grey rashes everywhere until they
cover her whole body, while the pregnancy proceeds at an unnaturally
steady pace. Also she starts to haunt Peter by (unconsciously) entering
his room and creeping up into his bed at night, but nobody believes Peter
when he says so - until after a time Peter discovers she only does so
because she's scared. But he also senses she's in a lot of trouble, so
eventually he gets a young priest (Calvin Morie McCarthy) to help out and
persuades him to give an exorcism, as Herma has periods where she goes
raving mad. Thing is, while the priest performs the exorcism, Herma's
water breaks ...
Now Exorcism in Utero isn't a full-blown comedy - but
to take the film too seriously would be missing the point, basically it's
just a fun genre ride with it's spots of horror but also humour, and a
pretty over-the-top finale that seems to alternate between the horrific,
the grotesque and the downright hilarious, but sure packs a punch. As does
the whole movie really thanks to a nice combination of relatable
characters, its fair share of atmospheric sequences, the occasional jump
scare, and some tongue in cheek moments. And all this together makes for
highly enjoyable genre entertainment.
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