The Exorcist: Italian Style

Plot

An amulet depicting a small head of Beelzebub is recovered at an archaeological site in Iran. The trinket is lost and later unearthed by a kid during a football match in a small rural town near Rome. The child immediately shows signs of possession, felling a tree with the football and forcing himself on a peasant girl.

The girl's parents demand a reparation marriage, but the boy's father, the town's mayor seeking re-election, dismisses the claims as a setup. After witnessing evidence of the boy's uncontrollable urges, the mayor calls a doctor to no avail and then summons the notorious lay demon-hunter known as the Exorciccio. With his bumbling assistant Satanetto, the Exorciccio exorcises the boy, his sister, and the mayor's wife, who all come into contact with the amulet.

During celebrations for his re-election, the mayor becomes possessed, urinates on bystanders, and performs a satanic rock song. The amulet is lost and found again, briefly turning the mayor's physician Dr. Schnautzer into a Hitler-esque figure, before the Exorciccio swallows it. In the final scene, the mayor complains of diabolical events; the now-possessed Exorciccio rebukes him for doubting the Devil's existence and vanishes in a plume of smoke.

Did You Know?

• The title puns on 'Ciccio,' a hypocorism of Francesco.
• The film is a parody of William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973).