Sunday, October 26, 2008

Lisa and the Devil

(1973) ***

Lisa goes on tour to an ancient city. Shortly after viewing a wall with the image of Satan painted on it she goes into an antique shop and sees a man who looks much like the image. The man is holding a mannequin and chatting with the shopkeeper.

When she leaves the store the city is strangely barren. She walks through the maze of streets finding no one until the man with the mannequin shows up again. She asks him for directions and he helps but a strange encounter with a live version of his mannequin gets her running again. A couple and their chauffeur pick her up.

When the car breaks down they all end up at an old mansion where our mannequin toting friend appears again as the butler. Things are a bit off in ye olde mansion. It is occupied solely by a Mother & son and of course, the butler. Lisa begins seeing the man version of the mannequin again this time lurking outside her window and then speaking with her outside, he keeps calling her Elena. The evening then takes a tragic turn when the guests begin getting murdered one by one.

Mario Bava and Alfred Leone collaboratively direct this film. Lisa & the Devil is only one side of the story. It wasn’t until I watched The House of Exorcism that I had a better understanding of the evening’s events.

I’m not sure if both movies were released simultaneously or if only one version was released originally. This movie was a bit confusing and left a lot of unanswered questions.

The whole film has a dream sequence type of feeling to it. I will elaborate more in my review of The House of Exorcism.

3 comments:

50PageMcGee said...

big telly savalas week for you, looks like.

Catfreeek said...

50page, do you remember what color lollipop he always had in Kojak?

50PageMcGee said...

never watched it, but i remember he was bald in on her majesty's secret service. and that buddy, the best friend from charles in charge once got an autographed picture from telly savalas signed "who loves ya, baby?"

Malevolent

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