Byleth (Il demone dell'incesto)

"Byleth - Il Demone Dell'Incesto" (1972) is an odd Italian flick that isn't very widely known; while this weird little flick is certainly no highlight of Italian 70s Horror, however, it is definitely a beautifully made film that most of my fellow Italo-Horror buffs should enjoy. "Byleth" is an overall very weird little film, with a somewhat confused storyline which doesn't make a lot of sense. The film makes up for what it lacks in continuity, however, with a very beautiful visual style and intense Gothic atmosphere, a great score, a ravishing female cast (and ravishing female nudity) and a pleasantly bizarre mood. As the title implies, the film has to do with incest, and with an eponymous demon; not wishing to spoil anything, I will not continue with a plot description - but even if I did wish to write a synopsis of the storyline, it would probably take me a long time to do so, as it is so very bizarre and, to put it mildly, doesn't always make perfect sense.

"Byleth" is not the sleazefest one might expect from an Italian 70s film titled "The Demon of Incest". The film is erotic, of course, and features a lot of elegant and tasteful female nudity. The female cast members (all but one redheads) are all very beautiful, and, fortunately for us, none of them are afraid to bare it for the camera. However, apart from the obvious Incest topic, which is never that explicitly depicted, this one's sleaze factor is not far above average for Italian 70s exploitation standards.

Set in 19th century Italy, "Byleth" is a nice blend of atmospheric Gothic Horror and occultism and tasteful eroticism, which also includes some Giallo-elements. Director Leopoldo Savona isn't very renowned, but although this is his only Horror film he definitely succeeded in creating a nice mood here. Regular leading man Mark Damon, who is maybe best known to Horror fans for his roles in Roger Corman's "House of Usher" (1960, starring Vincent Price) and Mario Bava's "I Tre Volti Della Paura" (aka. "Black Sabbath", 1963), fits well in his role here, as a young Duke with a somewhat exaggerated affection to his sister (played by Claudia Gravy). But who could blame him? She's hot! The female cast members are the most ravishing sight of this generally beautifully looking film. "Byleth" is shot in very nice locations, with great set-pieces and accentuated by a truly wonderful score. With such a feast for the eyes, a somewhat lacking plot becomes secondary. Apart from its beauty, the film has some moments that are genuinely creepy, though it never actually becomes scary. Overall, this is certainly a 'style over substance' film, but warmly recommended to my fellow Italian Horror buffs, especially to those who appreciate atmosphere and beauty in a film. 6.5/10

The horror movie "Byleth: Demon of Incest" (1972) is a very strange horror movie and I'm not even sure if it's a horror film at all, this movie has absolutely no horror atmosphere but it has a very great atmosphere of let's call it... Italian... love series... WHAT!

Yes, I know what you're thinking, I'm talking about an Italian love series with an incestuous theme, okay, that's cool, but I really don't know how to describe it, it's a really specific horror movie, I've never seen a similar horror movie in my life, in which 80% of the scenes are nude scenes. I really don't know how to approach it, because it is not a horror movie at all, even though it has a demon motif - an incestuous demon, i.e. The titular Byleth. I don't know, the characters are, let's say, interesting, the main character is married and happy, her brother pretends to be happy but is jealous all the time and watches his sister during sexual intercourse with her husband and feels jealous(?)

We also have her husband Giordano, who is a very interesting character who wants to approach his brother-in-law in a positive way, looking for common interests and so on Well, it's clear that it won't work out, because his (xD) brother-in-law is not his brother-in-law is interested in his wife, ie. His sister Oh boy, but it's really a horror movie after all, because there's a motif of dead people, women with specific marks on their necks woven in, and it's an interesting motif and in part strangely shown, because it's very easy to guess who kills these women at the very beginning of this film.

But the film pretends that you probably don't know yet, you haven't guessed, not when it comes to special effects, remember this is a horror film from the 70's, and I've seen several hundred horror films from the 70's and it's very poorly done, especially since many of the scenes outside are as if the film was damaged, several scenes seem as if they were unfinished, or they were cut out and not the next one, what was in this scene for example, we have the protagonist riding a horse, looking at a building, there is a shot of this building, suddenly there is a cut and we have this protagonist hiding in a closet because he heard something, of course we assume that he heard something, because this part was also cut, I do not know why for a while I thought I had a faulty version, but it turned out that not everywhere, so it is not very good.

The music in this film is typical romantic music for such Italian films, absolutely not for horror films, although in maybe two moments, i.e. In the murder scenes and in the final scene, this music changes a bit to a more horror tone. It's very strange and peculiar, because you have to get through a lot of scenes with guests. There are a lot of close-up scenes and a lot of buttocks scenes, but somewhere in between these strange things is this horror film, which is very unbudgeted, very poorly shot and very al.... very weak and incomprehensible to me ending, so only watch it if you are mentally able to endure to the end and consider it any kind of horror movie.

Countess Barbara (Claudia Gravy) returns home after a year of gallivanting around Europe, much to the delight of lovestruck Duke Lionello Shandwell (Mark Damon, who looks like a cross between Doug McClure and Martin Landau). A couple of problems: 1) she announces that she has got married, and 2) Lionello is her brother (Barbara is a total babe, but that's no excuse). Jealous Lionello proceeds to spy on his sister and her new husband Giordano (Aldo Bufi Landi), including when the couple are making love; meanwhile, a mysterious figure is killing local women with a three bladed weapon. Giordano comes to suspect that Lionello is possessed by the demon Byleth, who causes its victims to kill and live in incest.

Byleth: The Demon of Incest features plenty of nudity and sex, with some very attractive actresses revealing all for their art, but despite the film's salacious title, it really isn't all that depraved. Shame. With a little more deviancy and a lot more gore (the murders are extremely tame, with just a few trickles of blood), this could have been a classic of Italian sleaze, but as it stand. it's actually surprisingly bland, nothing much of interest happening between the soft-core romps and lacklustre deaths.

The incest angle finally comes into fruition moments before the end, when Lionello gives in to his urges and Barbara willingly obliges (he's possessed by a demon... what's her excuse?), but the sex is only suggested (keeping it 'tasteful'). Lionello wakes to discover Barbara dead, three wounds on her neck, and goes in search of Byleth for revenge, leading to a rather confusing climax in which the demon appears, looking like Lionello in drag-queen make-up. As erotic gothic Euro-horrors go, this one is merely run-of-the-mill, not nearly as controversial or taboo-busting as the title suggests.

I only have a brother, and I hardly ever get the urge to shag him, so the subject of incest is all new to me. Byleth explores the subject by placing it in a more superstitious era, mixing it up with a possible supernatural angle, throwing in a whole load of nudity, and confusing the crap out of me to boot.

Mark Damon has a sister whom he likes. Really likes. He's a Duke and stays in a big castle with loads of staff giving him the glad eye but the film heavily implies that the only thing that gets Mark up and angry is his sister, played by Claudia Gravy. That's a problem, because Claudia has just returned after being away and she's got married during that time. The other problem is the serial killer going around killing red-headed women. The other other problem is that there might be a demon involved, and the other other other other other other problem is that the demon might be possessing Mark! How's he supposed to get into his sisters knickers with all that going on.

That amount of stress would usually kill all the romance dead in the water, but this is a seventies Italian film and therefore everyone's as horny as a Glaswegian lass full of blue WKD. This helps the director pad out the film with endless wriggling sex scenes that look about as natural as Kim Kardashian's arse. Mark does a lot of spying on people as well during this film, and every actress has red hair and looks similar, so things become confusing really quickly.

Is Mark possessed by a demon or is that just an excuse for him to frottage his sister's leg? Who is that guy he keeps seeing on the horse who kind of looks like him but might not be? And what happened at the end?

No really - what happened? It didn't make sense to me.

This is surprisingly watchable due to Mark Damon acting mental. He also played a guy who wanted to boff his sister in Crypt of the Living Dead.

Aug 21

I have just got to see Byleth for only the 2nd time, a few years after the first viewing and i was pleasantly surprised how much i enjoyed it.

Italian gothic type horror starring Mark Damon and Claudia Gravy, well worth finding out.

I was slightly disappointed with the abrupt ending and a couple of times there appeared to be little flashback scenes will no explanation as to why and who the women were supposed to be.

On the whole pretty decent.

7.5 out of 10.