The House of Exorcism

"Lisa and the Devil" is one of director Mario Bava's best films. It's extremely atmospheric, very scary and has an amazing artistry about it that you just don't expect from a horror film. Sadly, however, some dirt-bags decided to take Bava's excellent film and re-edit it into a new movie! So, they sloppily filmed some new scenes (complete with LOTS of nudity) and pasted it and the original picture together to make it an incoherent mess of a movie. It's terrible in most every way and I am pretty sure Bava must have been ticked about this.

Fortunately, while this movie truly is terrible, it IS available on the DVD with "Lisa and the Devil" so you can compare the two and appreciate the original film. It's really an interesting experience and one you can do (at least in the USA) by streaming both versions of the movie.

If you listen to Alfredo Leone's commentary on House of Exorcism, you'll understand, if not approve, of what Leone did to salvage his investment. His re-edit and added footage accomplished his goal. He avoided taking a huge loss on Lisa and The Devil. Business before art.

Bava of course did not approve of his master work being mutilated and that ultimately led to a split in their business relationship. Leone states in his commentary that his respect for Bava remained. According to Leone, Bava did not care for nudity and swearing and would not stay on the set when those new scenes were shot with Elke and Carmen Silva as the naked temptress incarnation of Elke. I always found this interesting about Bava. He would film the most horrendous violence and gore in perverse scenarios (mainly directed at women like most filmmakers) but balked at cursing and exposed female flesh.

The takeaway from this is that Lisa and The Devil was produced and exists independently and the commercial salvage job called House of Exorcism made money.

This is an Italian/Spanish co-production , resulting to be an Exorcist's rip-off in which our starring suffers a demonic entity within her , and paced in two different time lines by means of a disconcerting mix here and there . Lisa Reiner (Elke Sommer) is a young woman travelling as a tourist in the Spanish old city named Toledo . Lisa faints on the street and carried at a Hospital , there she shows astonishing signs to be really possessed , so a priest , Father Michael (Robert Alda) , is brought in to perform an exorcism . However, he first attempts to investigate how she became possessed by the devil in the first place . It is blended with the horrific experiences when she's lost and taken by a marriage (Sylva Koscina and Eduardo Fajardo) and their chauffeur (Gabriele Tinti) . When the car is broken down , they find shelter into a luxurious mansion where inhabits a twisted Spanish aristocratic family formed by strange characters , a countess (Alida Valli) , his son (Alessio Orano) and the butler (Telly Savalas) . Every Corner of the Soul is Lost to the Icy Clutch of the Supernatural! Her body helpless! Her soul no longer her own! Warning ! The theater management cannot be held responsible for persons who faint or go berserk while viewing the House of Exorcism ! First, there was "The Exorcist". Then came "The Omen". And now, a sensational new film that dares to go one step beyond... "THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM".

There is a peculiar version from ¨Bava's Lisa and the Devil¨ called ¨House of Exorcism¨ for the American market adding some images about a priest -Robert Alda- , rip off from ¨The exorcist¨ , while making spells , enchantment , exorcisms which result to be embarrassment and absurd . A Sui Generis mingling in which American tourist Lisa is taken to hospital and subsequently she shows disturbing signs of demonic possession, along the way, a troubled priest attempts to exorcise her soul who has been possessed by the Devil after witnessing supernatural events at a Spanish villa where lives a weird family with dark secrets . Despite the fact that her personality has now completely blended together with devil possession , the film fais to deliver interest enough and turning to be embarrasing and really ridiculous.

This is a re-edit of Lisa e il diavolo made by producer Alfred Leone who financed various sub-genres and exploitation movies such as : Fire in the Flesh , Gold of the Amazon Women, Rabid Dogs , How Many Times... That Night , The Torture Chamber of Baron Blood , Holiday Hookers and Joko . While the original film was directed by Mario Bava and belongs to Italian horror genre . Mario Bava along Riccardo Freda (Secret of Dr Hitchcock , Vampires , The spectre) and subsequently Dario Argento (Deep red , Suspira , Inferno) are the fundamental creators of Latin terror genre . Mario Bava directed excellent horror movies (Mask of demon , Black Sunday , Black lace , Planet of vampires) and mediocre (Baron of blood , Bay of Blood , Shock) horror films . These movies are characterized by slick edition , usual zooms , special overblown use of colour in a glimmer red blood and utilization of shock-images . The film gets an attractive and enjoyable casting , a gorgeous Elke Sommer (The prize) , an enticing Sylva Koscina (Miguel Strogoff) , a veteran Alida Valli (The Paradine trial) and a sympathetic devil with lollipop included played by Telly Savalas (Kojak) . Magnificent and colorful cinematography by Cecilio Paniagua with intervention by the same Bava like is habitual in all his movies , as he's usually cameraman . The musical background was composed by Joaquin Rodrigo with his famous 'Concert of Aranjuez' and the score by Carlo Savina . The motion picture will appeal to Exorcist copycats fans .

The House of Exorcism (1975)

** (out of 4)

Mario Bava's dream project was LISA AND THE DEVIL, which many people think is his masterpiece. Unfortuantly, the film couldn't land a distributor so the producer was left with a large cash issue because the film simply wasn't going to make money. After the success of THE EXORCIST the producer, against Bava's wishes, decided to bring back some of the cast members and turn this into a rip-off.

I think a lot of people are afraid to say it fearing they're be attacked for not being "true" fans but I personally found LISA AND THE DEVIL to be rather slow and boring. Yes, it looked beautiful and had a terrific atmosphere but it's pretty easy to see why no one would want to distribute it. With that said, I can understand the producer doing whatever he had to in order to sell the film and I've read that this re-edited version went on to make millions across the globe so here's the perfect example of mainstream people wanting trash and not art.

The new scenes here are all rather silly and especially the dialogue, which tries desperately to match THE EXORCIST's profanity laced rants. I'm not going to lie, I found a lot of this trash talking to be rather funny. As you'd expect, there's also a lot of green puke going around and this here even manages to work in some frogs. Some added nudity was also placed in the film just to top off the exploitation. So, is THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM any good? Of course not but it remains an interesting bit of movie history due to the production history. The film is mildly entertaining due to how silly it is and you at least have to give the producer credit because the new footage mixes in quite well with the old.

Okay, so I saw 'House Of Exorcism' the re-edited version of Mario Bava's 'Lisa And The Devil' with the added cash in footage. I've heard great things about the original version, but I haven't yet had an opportunity to view it so I'm sticking with this, the "unauthorized" cut. Bava must have had mixed feelings about it seeing as his name has been removed as director. I can understand why, because I'm a little ambivalent about it myself. This is in many ways a confusing mess of a movie, but overall enjoyable enough and holds the interest until the end. Elke Sommer, who had previously worked with Bava on the uneven 'Baron Blood', plays an American tourist apparently possessed by the Devil. While being exorcised by a priest (Robert Alda), we cut to a series of events involving her being picked up hitch hiking and taken to a mysterious mansion populated by various nuts, not least of which is Leandro, the mysterious lollipop sucking butler (yep, you guessed it, Telly Savalas). This footage (recycled from the original 'Lisa And The Devil') is either hallucination or flashbacks or both, and Leandro may or may not be the Devil. It's all very hard to tell. Frankly, you won't even care. Even so, I enjoyed this movie even if it was incoherent most of the time. It may not be genuine Bava but it's a lot of fun, and I must admit I preferred it to 'Baron Blood'. Take from that what you will.