Jim Benson (Basil Dignam) runs a hostel. Helping him are Dick Alderson (Anthony Ainley) and Janet Tuttle (Suzanne Neve). Benson spent some time in the West Indies and is familiar with some of the islands religious cults. Some of the students that live at the hostel are from Jamaica as well as a handy man, Amizan (Brylo Forde).
One of the students, Danny (John Ashley Hamilton), has a girlfriend, Beverley (Carmen Munroe), who lives in the colored section of the city. Beverley is pregnant. Danny and Beverley want to get married but first Danny must finish school and save enough money to provide for his potential family. To do that, he often delivers packages from a nightclub owner named Lloyd (Dan Jackson).
Lloyd is having a turf war with another club owner, Spadey (Bari Jonson). The packages that Danny delivers contain a talisman to bring about evil to someone else. The talisman, referred to as an obi, is created using, among other things, cockerel feathers and dirt from a freshly dug grave. Spadey thinks that Danny is responsible for some of his gang members being killed via the obis but in reality they are being constructed by Amizan. Danny just delivers them to Lloyd. Danny wants out but Amizan threatens him if he tries to stop. Dick learns that Benson received one of the obis. He destroys it.
Father Goodman (Olaf Pooley) finds gravesites at his church that appear to have been disturbed. Goodman also spent time in the West Indies. He surmises that dirt from some of the graves has been stolen. He also believes that the dirt was used to create the obis. Goodman visits his friend, Benson, and finds that he has received one of the Obis. He also finds that Benson has been suffering from stomach problems recently.
Benson’s health begins to deteriorate further. Then he receives another obi. Dick destroys the second obi. He then finds that Amizan has several obis. Dick destroys them too. By the time the police finally get involved, Benson has been murdered and Dick looks as if he is possessed. Father Goodman is called to perform an exorcism.
“Naked Evil” was released in 1966 and was directed by Stanley Goulder. It is a rather obscure low budget British horror film. In the 70’s or 80’s some new color footage, directed by Steven Jacobson, was added to the film and a television release was done under the title “Exorcism at Midnight”.
Enough changes were made that the new release is a different film altogether. The old footage was tinted and used as flashback sequences and the gang war aspect was removed. I’m not aware of any theatrical release of the updated film. Both films are not well known so information on both is a little sketchy. Eventually a release on DVD was done that featured both films. I believe it was from Image Entertainment. Many believe that the “Exorcism at Midnight” release was to take advantage of the release in 1973 of “The Exorcist”.
A lot of the plot is not all that clear. Plot devices are tossed in to move things along, but explanations of why are not all that obvious. I did like the fact that quite a few actual people of color are in the movie. That’s probably the highlight of the film. Much of it is really slow and can be confusing. The really low budget doesn’t help with visualizing the Voodoo aspects of the film.