Exorcism

Spouse beating and sexual abuse are not part of the teachings of a fundamentalist Lumberton Township church, the pastor testified yesterday in the murder trial of a Bordentown Township woman. Margaret Ann Myers, 23, is accused of killing her husband, James Myers, 21, on Nov. 24, 1984, during an argument in the couple's Chesterfield Township home. The defendant in the Burlington County Superior Court trial maintains that her husband repeatedly abused her sexually and physically and claimed the conduct was part of his religion.

Call it The Sexorcist. My Demon Lover, an unfunny comedy of eros, takes as its hero a schlep named Kaz (Family Ties' Scott Valentine) who literally becomes the devil when he gets sexually aroused. This presents many problems for Denny (Michelle Little), the peppy blonde for whom he falls. Admittedly, Denny is something of an emotional doormat where stray dogs and men are concerned; even after her previous beau rips off the contents of her apartment, she still wants to work things out. Denny's fear is that, after the scaly, fanged Kaz has been leaving her bed so as not to hurt her, he has been hitting the streets as "the Manhattan mangler," a serial killer who preys on nubile women.

There are ghosts that move through the life of novelist Larry Heinemann - ghosts of family, ghosts of friends, ghosts of writers and strangers and soldiers. Most of all, there are the ghosts of Dau Tieng and Cu Chi, distant parts of Vietnam, jungle places where thousands died and where some cursed spirit of America remains trapped, haunting memory, history and the life of the present. Heinemann fought there in 1967 and 1968, a grunt in the 25th Infantry, and when his tour was up, he came back to Chicago, where he was born and raised - back to a world of small homes and families, school and jobs, and ghosts.