Lisa and the Devil

As lush and stylish as you'd expect from Bava, and there are some interesting ideas, but the whole thing feels undercooked and is often just plain confusing. Telly was fun but I wish there was more of him.

A very nice-looking film, with well-composed shots and great use of colour. There are some good ideas under the surface as well, and occasionally some atmospheric moments. However, the whole thing is a bit loosely tied together, and is downright confusing at points, to the extent that my attention was wandering. Ol' Telly seems to be having fun at least, and the film does have a certain charm about it, but I'd probably recommend this to Bava completists only.

I watched original version - "Lisa and the Devil" and was very disappointed. It had great potential but it was unexpectedly boring for a Bava film. If you search for something similar but better done, try Robbe-Grillet's "La Belle captive".

There are hints of greatness here, but the story is so confused and uninteresting, with strands of storyline scattered everywhere, that the movie never gels into the intriguing mystery that it could be. It's nicely shot, with Bava's typical flair for colorful style (though he does use the "push in/un-focus" technique too much). And there are some creative death scenes like the great unintentionally hilarious car kill. But ultimately the movie is little more than a pretty looking snooze fest.

Like several other Bava films I've seen, this has impressive style and some neat moments, but it never really comes together in a consistently interesting way. This one is just plain confusing, though.

(Rewatched: 24/02/18): The strength of Bava's cinema is that it generally favoured mood and atmosphere over narrative coherence, and Lisa and The Devil is perhaps the most surreal film in his entire canon. Less a horror film than a tragic gothic romantic fairytale, it's an attractive film with many striking shots, eye pleasing colors and graceful camera movements which compensate for its rickety plot, uneven acting and the overuse of zoom. Savalas steals the show as the sly ambiguous 'butler'.

So many intriguing ideas, buried in a movie that just plods along. Too random to be enjoyable as a mainstream horror/mystery, yet not random enough to be enjoyed as a surrealist fantasy. It seems to be fumbling for plot threads and doesn't ever hook the viewer. The color is nice and vivid, and there's a few good tricks, but otherwise I thought the cinematography didn't stand up to Bava's other work. Somewhere in here is a good movie but I was fighting boredom most of the time.

Bizarre and awesome plot, done in the most boring way possible.

Does Bava care about things like story, dialogue, or characterization? No, but he sure does like the way light reflects on Telly Savalas' head.

After creating his masterpiece (Bay of Blood), Bava pretty much deflated and churned out stuff like this little stinker. On paper it all sounds good- A surreal, nightmarish trip taken by an oblivious woman into a decadent, murderous household, but it plays like slighty more lurid (and infinately better filmed) daytime soap stuff rather than horror. Not even the presence of Valli can class things up. Points are given for Sommers' mammaries and Savalas' carefree performance.

I made the horrible mistake of viewing the 1975 re-edit THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM. In the re-edit, a pointless second story is thrown into the mix, and it's nothing more than a ripoff of THE EXORCIST, pea vomit and all. Also, 20 minutes was deleted from the original edit, which renders the primary story completely incoherent. I was bored to death when I wasn't laughing. No idea why I did this to myself when Bava has so many better looking movies. Oh well. Lesson learned.

The film has an intriguing premise, like something you'd seen in an episode of The Twilight Zone. However the movie tends to drag and gets almost boring in parts. The acting was pretty bad and left much to be desired. The pace finally picked up at around the 55 minute mark but unfortunately it was too little too late. Had they tightened the movie up a bit and trimmed it by about 10-15 minutes the movie would've been much more entertaining. The House of Exorcism version rated 40/100.

This is a true classic of 70's italian gothic horror. It's art-house and abstract (I guess it was Bava's most personal project) and it's very atmospheric. Just make sure that you avoid the re-edited version "La Casa dell'esorcismo" and find the original cut "Lisa e Il Diavolo".

Gotta love those Italian horrors that work as an endless nightmare. Also Telly Savalas as the Devil! Neat!

( Lisa and the Devil-version). Apparently Bava got almost free reign to make this one, but this results in a very unfocused movie in which the plot is all over the place. It does has some atmospheric cinematography to safe the movie a bit.

61.500

Wierd but awesome fillum

Can we be clear here? There is a world of difference between this and House of Exorcism. H of E has one of the funniest commentary tracks I've ever listened to, though it wasn't intentional.

Lisa e il diavolo: 8 // 6 // 6 // 8 // 9 // 6 // 4

Lisa e o diabo estreava há 50 anos no Festival de Avoriaz. Lembro de ter gostado bem mais da primeira vez que vi, ainda louvo a atmosfera, mas me parece que perdeu um pouco do encanto da primeira vez. Box Versátil Obras-primas do Terror volume 2.

56.375