Directed by: Alberto Sedano
Stars: Richard Harrison, Adolfo Celi, Margaret Lee
Language: English (Partial Spanish) | Subtitles: English (for Spanish Dialogues)
Country: Spain | Imdb Info
Also known as: Clasificado ‘S’ : transgresión en la transición
Description: For decades, Spanish cinema lived under the pressure of censorship, moral restriction, and political control. Then Francisco Franco died, the old rules began to crack, and the screen suddenly became a place where an entire culture could breathe, rage, experiment, and provoke.
Narrated by Iggy Pop and directed by Alberto Sedano, Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of Clasificada “S” explores one of the wildest transitional periods in European film history. As Spain moved toward democracy, the notorious “S” classification became a banner for movies considered too sexually explicit, too violent, too politically uncomfortable, or simply too strange for ordinary categories.
What followed was not one clean genre movement, but a glorious explosion of contradictions: Euro-horror, occult nightmares, social criticism, urban sleaze, political defiance, transgressive comedy, erotic melodrama, and delirious low-budget experimentation. Directors such as Jess Franco, José Ramón Larraz, Eloy de la Iglesia, Ignacio F. Iquino, and many others pushed against the cultural walls that had surrounded Spanish cinema for decades.
Using archival footage, film clips, and interviews with actors, directors, historians, and cult-cinema specialists, Exorcismo treats these films as more than forgotten exploitation curiosities. They were artifacts of a country waking up in public — sometimes elegantly, sometimes crudely, sometimes with complete disregard for good taste.
This is not merely a documentary about scandalous movies.
It is a documentary about what happens when censorship finally loses control.
Legacy Note:
Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of Clasificada “S” belongs beside documentaries such as Not Quite Hollywood, Eurocrime!, and Machete Maidens Unleashed! — deep dives that recover the genre history of a specific country while sending collectors racing toward a fresh list of obscure titles. Its real achievement is showing that Spain’s late-70s and early-80s exploitation boom was not simply a commercial free-for-all. It was a cultural release valve: cinema as rebellion, provocation, and historical aftershock.
Essential Films from the Official Exorcismo Collection (You can watch here!)
- Far from the Trees (Lejos de los árboles, 1972)
- The Bell from Hell (La campana del infierno, 1973)
- Creation of the Damned (El refugio del miedo, 1974)
- The Devil’s Exorcist (El juego del diablo, 1975)
- After… Part One: Can’t You Be Left Alone? (Después de… Primera parte: No se os puede dejar solos?, 1983)
- The People Who Own the Dark (Último deseo, 1976)
- Battered Flesh (Carne apaleada, 1978)
- The Priest (El sacerdote, 1978)
- Sins of a Nympho (Bacanal en directo, 1979)
- Dimorfo (1980)
- Bloody Sex (Sexo sangriento, 1981)
- Morbus (1983)
- Faces (Rostros, 1978)
- Triangle of Lust (Desnuda ante el espejo, 1978)
- That House in the Outskirts (Aquella casa en las afueras, 1980)
- Supernatural (Sobrenatural, 1981)
- Poppers (1984)
- After… Part Two: Tied Up and Tied Up Well (Después de… Segunda parte: Atado y bien atado, 1983)
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