Magdalena

Magdalena aka The Devil’s Female (1974) is a West German Exorcist rip-off with added nudity. It is directed by Walter Boos, known for his German sex films dressed up as documentaries.

It begins when a man referred to as Magdalena’s grandfather, or even her uncle (it is never really clear), is crucified to a door on Ash Wednesday. A demonic buzzing leaves his body on the mortuary slab and appears to enter Magdalena. Is Satan an invisible fly? The film never really explains the buzzing, but just go with it.

Dagmar Hedrich plays the put-upon teenage schoolgirl who lives at a boarding school where bottles of wine are handed out by the teachers at parties. Magdalena starts to act very strangely. She becomes very, very sweaty, smashes through a locked door and is tormented by an invisible dog. Her teacher is understandably perplexed: “The girls are terrified of her. I am starting to feel scared myself.”

Magdalena goes hitchhiking in a trance, breaking the arm of a predatory driver, and seemingly levitates furniture, which inexplicably returns to normal the following day. There is even an evil black cat that appears and vanishes into thin air without explanation. Dagmar Hedrich’s performance is certainly lively: ripping off her clothes, writhing around naked and swearing at her concerned teachers and puzzled doctor.

“What’s the matter with Magdalena?” The doctor muses and replies, “I don’t know… it is like she is under some sort of compulsion to use very offensive language, a compulsion to shout obscenities at the top of her lungs.” That is exactly what she does, making “lascivious gestures and bestial motions”. What she says to her priest about communion is a standout among the many great lines dubbed in for Dagmar by the potty-mouthed Magdalena.

She is whisked off for therapy in the care of her consultant psychiatrist and his assistant, Dr Stone. Stone wants to save her for himself, but finds himself on the end of sexual mind games from the possessed girl. He is perplexed when faced with the innocent teen, who has no idea what chaos she is sowing when under the control of the demonic buzzing. She instigates murder among the locals, tempting two men with her naked posturing. “Stick it in me,” she implores, pitching the rivals for her desires into a fight that leaves one dead.

We get to hear her spew more profanities in different voices and escape from a straitjacket. There is no limit to her skills when in full evil mode. In all, it is a fairly decent demonic possession romp.

You never find out who crucified the grandfather or uncle. There is a shady suspect in a trench coat who throws himself over a staircase in the police station, but that doesn’t throw up any clues. The police wonder if the Devil was the murderer, but with no witness it is another mystery unsolved.

Magdalena is seemingly exorcised by her consultant, not the priest. This manifests itself when she vomits up a black snake, which is crushed underfoot by Dr Stone. He and Magdalena walk off arm in arm away from the clinic, now that she is free of the sexual demon. It is not the climactic exorcism I was hoping for, but that doesn’t really matter.

The reason to see this bizarre German satanic sexploitation is Dagmar Hedrich’s performance. I am sure she looked back and pondered, what was I thinking? But I for one am glad she did it. She played the innocent and the evil with enthusiasm and aplomb, and that is what counts when the plot is as thin as this.

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Filed 4 November 2026 by Darren Evanson.