Nuda per Satana

A man stops at a castle to get help for a woman he just discovered at a car crash. He is greeted at the door by someone who looks exactly like the woman.

Pretty poor, even by the low standards of 70s exploitation-horror. Random, farcical plot. Jumbled direction. Weak performances. Some laughable special effects (the giant spider...). Really has nothing going for it.

Several times while watching 'Nude For Satan' I had to pinch myself. Am I REALLY watching this or has someone spiked my drink?! Dario Argento fans often claim that his PLOTS aren't the most important things in his movies, rather it's his ability to manipulate mood and atmosphere, and his films are best approached as dreams, or better yet, nightmares. Luigi Batzella obviously feels the same way, but comparing him to Argento is over-doing it. Argento meets Ray Dennis Steckler is more like it! 'Nude For Satan' is CHEAP, it doesn't make much sense if you analyse it too much, but it is jam-packed with nudity and bargain-basement surrealism, and to my mind, is classic horror-trash that works on so many levels that your mind will boggle!

Leave your brain at the door (but not your libido!), enter Batzella's house of fun, you're in for an unforgettable time! Be careful of the doppelgangers, spooky paintings that come to life, and a TERRIFYING (well...) giant spider, and maybe you too will end up 'Nuda per Satana'!

Doctor William Benson (Stelio Candelli) is driving to see a patient when he almost runs down a woman, who promptly disappears. While looking for the mysterious lady, he hears a crash. Investigating, he finds a beautiful woman (who we later learn is named Susan) unconscious in her car. The doc goes for help, happening upon a nearby castle, where he runs into several strangers, including a lady (who we later learn is named Evelyn) who is the exact likeness of Susan. Meanwhile, Susan arrives at the castle where she runs into Peter, who is the exact likeness of William. Much confusion follows (for the characters and the viewer). Susan and Evelyn (both played by Rita Calderoni) get naked a lot, as does a mysterious servant girl (Iolanda Mascitti) who pops up to indulge in lesbian sex and be flogged by a butler (Renato Lupi, whose blacked-out 'missing teeth' are not in the slightest bit convincing).

As its title suggests, Euro-horror Nude for Satan features lots of T&A, kicking off immediately with a pre-credits scene in which a naked woman runs in slow motion through a foggy wood. Once William has entered the castle, there's a steady stream of nudity, mostly courtesy of Calderoni, who has a splendid set of breasts and a wild '70s bush. Writer/director Luigi Batzella's trippy story and surreal visuals result in a film that is largely incomprehensible, and not even the copious amount of skin on show can prevent it from being a colossal snoozefest. A bizarre scene where Susan falls into a massive spider web and is terrorised by a pipe-cleaner arachnid is hilariously bad, but outstays its welcome, the spider inching slowly closer and closer to the screaming woman (who does well not to burst into fits of giggles).

For his final act, Batzella gets seriously arty, with lots of slow motion dancing from a couple of scrawny naked chicks and two blokes painted blue on one side. None of it makes a jot of sense. A copout 'It was all a dream, or was it?'-style ending wraps up this sorry mess.

Even though the time since I watched this piece of cinematic history fades away I feel compelled to document my personal experience with the motion picture.

Even though this film is bound by about as much storyline as the ingredients on a packet of Special K, it manages to keep the mild interest of the viewer through a string of scantily clad females, naked dancing and what could only be described as bouts of randomness.

The film starts off with an old fellow heading up to a castle, and I think I pretty much lost the plot from thereafter. It may be a combination of poor scripting or the fact I was rather tired at the point of watching this... in either case, I was unable to twig to the supposed outline of 'A doctor and the Devil battle for the soul of a beautiful woman'.

Another 'glueing' factor of the film is that throughout one feels compelled to keep watching in the event of anticipated intercourse. To the credit (or not) of the director, the nudity remained tasteful throughout the film.

A roller-coaster ride which keeps you coming back for more.

Other than a dim caped figure who is a voyeur and laughs menacingly, there doesn't appear to be a "Satan" in this movie, nor is there that much nudity - although there is a good bit. Actually, this is a gothic italian horror film with alot of style to spare. Granted , it's rather unsubtle style, like slowly rotating the camera from left to right and back to skew the picture and presumably 'unsettle' the viewer. Nonetheless, it's an attempt to truly create an arty film, with lots of colors and striking images. Though the story is slow and confusing for a bit, that's pretty standard for what I have seen of Italian films of this genre. Not to constantly throw out comparisons to Argento just because he is the Italian director I am most familiar with, but this is definitely in that vein, without quite as much directorial talent but a little more acting talent and story cohesion. The print is decent on the DVD, and I think my cheap DVD player switched to dubbed English from the Italian when I restarted the movie after a break (it tends to reset the subtitle choice for some crazy reason), so I got the effect of both - go with the Italian.