Naked Evil – 1966 | 85 mins | Horror | B&W/Colour

Plot Synopsis

Naked Evil was based on Jon Manchip White’s play “The Obi”. Produced for Columbia Pictures on a meagre budget of £60,0000, the producers unfortunately insisted the film be shot in black-and-white at a time when the medium had become outdated. In 1973 the film was procured by Sam Sherman and Independent International Pictures, who took the original Columbia negative, added some new colour ‘explanation’ framing scenes with Lawrence Tierney, tinted the original print in the hope of colourising it to a small extent, and retitled the butchered film Exorcism at Midnight. Some describe this atmospheric voodoo yarnas one of the few examples of British blaxploitation cinema, but in truth it’s just a restrained voodoo b-movie.

Two West Indian gangs are tearing apart a Midlands town with their turf war, and now one of them is turning to black magic in the form of an “obi” – a bottle containing a ruthless demon which kills its recipient when opened. Inspector Hollis (Richard Coleman) is put on the case and consults the principal of a hostel for Commonwealth science students, Jim Benson (Basil Digham), with the rumours of witchcraft and desecration at a local graveyard.

Benson tells the police that it is superstitious nonsense, but privately has received an Obi too and is evidently spooked by the voodoo charms. He calls on Father Goodman (Olaf Pooley) to perform an exorcism, but the following morning the professor is found dead. Suspicion falls on the hostel janitor Amizan (Brylo Forde), who is actually a witch doctor practising black magic in the basement of the hostel.