Seytan

Seytan (1974)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Metin Erksan

Starring: Meral Taygun, Canan Perver, Cihan Unal, Agah Hun, Erol Amac

From: Saner Film

Even by Tubi standards, I can’t believe they have this movie on their platform. After all, this is a Turkish version of The Exorcist that is such an uncredited clone, you hear Michael Oldfield’s Tubular Bells… at least a dozen times. If a movie stealing that song and the soundtrack from The Exorcist wasn’t sketchy enough, the print was obviously from a bootleg DVD, complete w/ subtitles that sometimes were jokey and took the piss out of the original Turkish dialogue! Then again, this is also on Fandor, so I can’t explain any of this.

In addition, I can’t explain how Turksploitation (yes, that’s what it’s colloquially known as) was a thing for awhile and featured films which ripped off famous productions from the West to varying degrees. Heck, the director of this-Metin Erksan-was responsible for actual serious Turkish films, including Dry Summer, which was restored by Scorsese’s World Cinema Project.

Of course, it was via Letterboxd that made me look at Seytan’s page and the subsequent discovery that it was even on Tubi to begin with. It was a priority to check out something I first knew of many moons ago. As for the plot: think of it as a 100 minute version of Friedkin’s classic except that we know less about Turkish Chris MacNeil (albeit, she was portrayed to be a much less likable character) and instead of Father Karras, the character is an author who wrote about Satan… oh yeah, almost forgot: instead of Pazuzu, the demon was Satan.

It was incredibly absurd to see a lo-fi version of perhaps the best horror film of all time. Because they slavishly copied a classic and did not bungle that presentation, for me Seytan was not awful. Rather, mediocre yet stammeringly weird is the term I’ll use instead. Turkish Regan wasn’t bad in her role and they found a scary voice to use while she’s possessed.

Tubi has exploded in popularity; the fact that it received a heavy advertising push this year is a big reason why but the popular films they have for free must be a big reason why when the other services require a monthly fee. Presumably there aren’t that many who use it for all the obscurities they have but that will be my chief usage of that platform.