Lisa et le Diable

Lisa and the Devil makes me think of Susperia. In fact, I think those sheer curtains with the appliqués that hang around the 4 poster bed were later used in Susperia. I've seen that film so many times I recognize those.

Anyway, Lisa and the Devil is very low on dialog and big on atmosphere. Much like Susperia, we have the strange lighting, gaudy set pieces, beautiful sets and props, many rooms with fancy wainscoting and molding, and acting that is just slightly off. Dubbing that doesn't quite match up in a subtle way and eerie, dreamy music while the actors stare off into the distance or right into the lens of the camera.

Dialog? Striped down to minimum. Story? Simple enough with a woman straying from her tourist group in a foreign city, wandering alone because she has heard some chimes. But what happens to her? She becomes ensconced in a surreal setting with people living in an old, Gothic mansion. But is it all real? Or is it all in her head? Are the murders really happening or did they happen many years ago?

It's up to you to decide what the ending means. You'll probably enjoy the ride but don't expect anything too, too intense or deep here.

Lisa and the Devil features many of Bava's trademarks; a devilish atmosphere, superbly chilling use of lighting and a general foreboding feel to the movie that gives the impression that something bad will happen. However, the movie is also fairly messy; there are too many ideas in the film and all together it comes out more than a little confusingly. The version I saw was the Redemption release of "Lisa and the Devil", which is not to be confused with badly intercepted release, "The House of Exorcism". The plot follows the story of Lisa, a young lady that gets lost in an ancient city in Spain. She then hitches a ride with a couple and their chauffeur, but they end up breaking down and happening on a house inhabited by a blind woman, her strange son and a creepy housekeeper. What follows is a nightmarish and morbid ride that touches on themes such as love, lust and death.

Mario Bava is a master of the horror genre, many of his films have inspired whole areas of cinema, most notably "Bay of Blood", to which slashers owe their existence and "The Girl Who Knew Too much", which is often credited as the first Giallo. But I feel that this is one of his lesser efforts. That's not to say that this is a bad film by any means, it features a lot of nice elements, particularly the spooky sequences with main characters and their dead ex-lovers, which almost touches on necrophilia, and therefore gives the film a very morbid and nasty feel. The actors in the movie are also fairly accomplished; it features Elke Sommer, who also starred in Bava's atmospheric shocker, "Baron Blood", among other films and Telly Savalas, who gives a great turn as the creepy butler of the house. But it seems to have too many ideas going on, and a lot of them aren't really explained, which left me feeling confused.

Overall, Lisa and the Devil is a good horror movie with much to admire, most notably the superb creation of atmosphere from Mario Bava but I feel that if it had concentrated less on putting lots of ideas into it, and more on concentrating on the ones it already had; then it would have been a better film.

It becomes clear almost from the outset that with this film Bava is out to mess with our heads and narrative cohesion isn't a priority, so it's best just to sit back and enjoy the ride, knowing you're in good hands. While viewing a strange fresco in a town on holiday, Lisa becomes distracted by the sound of music and in a small shop off the beaten track finds a music box with some creepy figurines spinning on top. She tries to buy it but learns that it belongs to the shop's only other customer: Telly Savalas, who greatly resembles a figure on the fresco that was described as the devil! Telly for some reason is carrying a life-sized figure of a man and finds it highly amusing when Lisa runs off.

Lisa soon gets lost and after wandering around the strange streets, has to ask someone for directions, and that someone is Telly Savalas! This is where Bava starts really messing with us as the dummy in his hands is obviously actually played by an actor - but only in certain shots. Things get even more confusing when Lisa encounters a live version of the dummy who falls down a flight of stairs and dies. Eventually Lisa ends up getting a lift from a bickering couple (the wife of whom is having an affair with her chauffer) and they all end up at the usual huge mansion/castle inhabited by angry man Maximillian, his blind mother Alida Valli, and chirpy butler Telly Savalas, complete with Kojack lollipop. The house is full of Bava's favourite prop: creepy dolls, and things just get stranger and stranger for here on out.

There's no point in detailing any more of the plot, but it involves murder, mysterious characters locked in rooms surrounded by slices of cake, people becoming dummies and Telly Savalas breaking the ankles of a corpse in order to fit it into a coffin. I was never really sure what was going on at all due to all the mind games Bava was playing. He even has certain characters follow the exact same path through the house using the exact same camera angles which just adds to the surrealism, and through it all Telly Savalas acts like that whole thing is some bizarre comedy. It all works for me though!

He also has the light shine deliberately off of Savalas' head quite often too, films the action from above or below, and uses an awful lot of colour wherever he can. My favourite set was the mock-funeral that is later smashed to pieces by one of the characters. I wasn't expecting the film to be off the wall as much as it was and was nicely surprised.

Perhaps it was this film that Umberto Lenzi and Lucio Fulci had in mind when they directed the House of Doom series in the late Eighties? I was getting a severe House of Clocks vibe from this film.

i asked for "lisa and the devil" as a christmas present because I've always been a huge fan of dario argento, and it is common knowledge that he was in part inspired by the work of mario bava. i was not disappointed! like argento, bava has no concern for realism or complex character development and keeps it to the level of what it is, a horror film. it is hallucinatory, imaginative, intriguing, and also works as suspense, even if a little too campy for that genre. telly savalas does an excellent job as satan, and i loved how he enjoyed his trademark lollipop even during an italian horror film as though to say--"the devil loves ya, baby!" modern horror directors get everything wrong and make the mistake of thinking that meaningless action and excessive gore make an effective and memorable film, when nothing could be further from the truth. bava works with mystery and imagination, the two essential ingredients without which there can be no "horror" worthy of the name. of course, both the dialogue and behavior of the characters are ludicrous and laughably erratic, but you should come in expecting this from anyone who helped to inspire argento's film. "lisa and the devil" ranks up there with "suspiria" and "inferno", hands down. check it out.

Well I finally managed to get to see 'Lisa And The Devil' as Bava originally intended it, rather than the very dodgy 'House Of Exorcism' version I had previously seen, and the original is ten times better! Stripped of the tacked-on possession scenes and Robert Alda's priest role, the movie reveals itself to be a superior, atmospheric and stylish "nightmare on celluloid" movie. It reminded me a little bit of Jean Brismee's 'The Devil's Nightmare' in places, and at other times the work of Jean Rollin, without the overt eroticism. It's surreal touches and foreboding feel with probably appeal to fans of David Lynch or Herk Harvey's 'Carnival Of Souls' more than hardcore horror nuts. The cast are all good, but Telly Savalas gives a standout performance just on the right side of over the top, and Elke Sommer appears much more believable as the confused protagonist of this movie, rather than the unconvincing Linda Blair wanna-be of 'House Of Exorcism'. All in all one of Mario Bava's most original and interesting movies. Recommended.