Taglines: Abby doesn’t need a man anymore. The Devil is her lover now
Abby movie storyline. Living with her pious pastor husband, and her equally religious mother, the polite Christian marriage counsellor, Abby, is about to have a close encounter with the supernatural, when her archaeologist father-in-law, Bishop Garnet Williams, inadvertently unleashes an ancient spirit. Now, possessed with an unholy Nigerian deity, Abby becomes a violent, obscene, and sexually obsessed vessel of raw evil and nothing can stop her, or the entity that commands her. Can Williams expel the demon inside her?
Abby is a 1974 American blaxploitation horror film about a woman who is possessed by an African sex spirit. The film stars Carol Speed as the title character, William H. Marshall and Terry Carter. It was directed by William Girdler, who co-wrote the film’s story with screenwriter Gordon Cornell Layne.
The film was a financial success, grossing $4 million in a month, but was pulled from theaters after the film’s distributor, American International Pictures, was accused of copyright violation by Warner Bros., which saw the film as being derivative of The Exorcist and filed a lawsuit against AIP. Girdler himself told the Louisville Courier Journal: “Sure, we made Abby to come in on the shirttail of The Exorcist.” The film is also inspired by 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby.
About the Story
The film’s use of the Yoruba religion distinguishes it from being a copy of the Exorcist with a black cast. In the story, Abby is apparently possessed by Eshu, a West African orisha of chaos and whirlwinds. He is also a trickster and the guardian of roads, particularly crossroads.
In the opening scene of the film, Dr. Garrett Williams (William Marshall) explains to his students, “Eshu is the most powerful of all earthly deities. Eshu is a trickster, creator of whirlwinds… chaos.”
While on an archaeological dig in a cave in Nigeria, Dr. Williams finds a small, ebony puzzle box, carved with the symbols of Eshu: the whirlwind, the cock’s comb, and the erect phallus. When Dr. Williams discovers the mechanism to open the box and unlatches it, a tremendous wind blasts out, knocking Dr. Williams and his men against the cave walls and floor.
The spirit released by Dr. Williams crosses the Atlantic to Louisville, Kentucky to the new home of Dr. Williams’ son, Emmett Williams (Terry Carter) and Abby Williams (Carol Speed). Why and how the spirit travels the globe is not explained. After Abby becomes possessed, her behavior becomes exponentially bizarre and dangerous.
In the movie, the dialogue doesn’t specify whether the spirit inside Abby is Eshu. The plot’s final resolution leaves the point unclear. In And You Call Yourself A Scientist, Elizabeth A. Kingsley wrote “from a theological point of view, the final section of Abby is quite fascinating. Toward the end of the film, having spent some time taking the demon’s measure, Garret decides that it is not in fact Eshu, but a rather pathetic Eshu wannabe… who presumably was imprisoned by Eshu.”
Abby (1974)
Directed by: William Girdler
Starring: Carol Speed, William Marshall, Terry Carter, Austin Stoker, Juanita Moore, Charles Kissinger, Elliott Moffitt, Nathan Cook, Nancy Lee Owens, Joann Holcomb, Claude Fulkerson
Screenplay by: G. Cornell Layne
Production Design by: J. Patrick Kelly
Cinematography by: William Asman
Film Editing by: Henry Asman, Corky Ehlers
Art Direction by: Alice Hay
Music by: Robert O. Ragland
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: American International Pictures
Release Date: December 25, 1974
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