La diablesse

Going by the title, I expected Enzo G. Castellari's House by the Edge of the Lake to be some kind of trashy Italian Last House on the Left rip-off.

I should be so lucky.

What I actually got was a thoroughly incomprehensible supernatural head-scratcher, a film so packed full of random characters and events that it makes one wonder whether the whole thing was completely made up on the fly.

Although undeniably atmospheric at times, largely thanks to its rural medieval town location, the film made no sense to me whatsoever; in fact, if it hadn't been for the regular bouts of sex featuring the gorgeous Leonora Fani (from sleaze classics Naked Massacre and Giallo a Venezia), I would have ranked this right alongside the very worst efforts of Jess Franco, Jean Rollin and Joe D'amato. Fani being a total babe and regularly stripping off just about makes the film worthwhile. Just about.

I watched this film years ago and then re-watched it recently. I had remembered little about the film's story, but recalled some of the vivid imagery: the film's heroine riding her motorcycle around the village, the black lake surrounding the villa, the sex scene in the graveyard, a Wicker Man style carnival, and of course the climatic cat fight. On second viewing I knew why the story didn't stay with me, it's not that memorable.

A young woman returns to the country château where her mother drowned years ago. There is something haunting about the place, a supernatural ambiance. A wild young woman with a similar name holds the key. Meanwhile, every villager our heroine sleeps with meets a strange accident. Also, why does the heroine have a psychic-sexual link with the wild woman? All is explained by the end, if not satisfyingly. In fact, the entire ending feels rushed and hap-hazard as if the production ran out of money. However, what The House by the Edge of the Lake misses in narrative coherence it more than makes up for with an atmospheric location, a handful of off-kilter scenes, and a fair amount of sex. The storyline seems like something Jess Franco would have written. Since Enzo Castellari is directing the film, House is fun to watch in ways that Franco films usually are not.

When Lilian was a child her mother was pulled into a lake by a strange hand.As a woman Lilian returns on motorcycle to the area.Bizarre things begin to happen:she is attacked with an axe by a robed figure and is spied by a mysterious doppelganger named Lilith whilst having various sexual encounters with locals.After each intercourse Lilian goes into a state resembling coma and as she is having sex we see Lilith masturbating.The symbol ')o(' often appears..."The House by the Edge of the Lake" is one of the most bizarre and incoherent Italian horror movies I have ever seen.It's also pretty erotic and moody with four soft-core sex scenes and some delicious sleaze provided by Leonora Fani of "Giallo a Venezia" fame.Apparently Castellari never seen the finished film,which he basically made while on holiday.7 out of 10.

Italian horror films are generally well known for preferring visual style and atmosphere over logical plotting and realistic dialogue, but in the 1970's these films became increasingly over-the-top stylistically and often downright nonsensical. Of course, they also tended to paper over all the gaping plot holes with copious, and often even ridiculous, amounts of sex and nudity. (But I didn't mind as much here as the latter was all provided by the very lovely Leonora Fani).

A young university student "Lillian" (Fani) returns to her family's country villa near a lake where years earlier had mother drowned. She is supposedly researching a local legend, a witch called Kira and strange symbol associated with her. But she seems to spend a lot less time at the library "researching" than she does flat on her back giving it up to all local guys. Whenever she reaches orgasm, however, she falls into a weird death trance and some horrible fate befalls her sex partner (a car accident, a drowning etc.) Naturally, there's a lot of talk in the town about this strange, slutty girl (but she still never seems to lack for willing sex partners). "Lillian" also seems to have some kind of weird relationship with a local mentally retarded girl name "Lilith", who is always spying on "Lilian" and masturbating whenever she has sex (which makes for quite a rigorous masturbation schedule). Meanwhile, the witch "Kira" (who looks kind of like the Italian fumetti comic-strip villainess "Baba Yagi") also seems to be hanging around. And "Lillian's"own mother, though generally unseen except in the prologue, is referred to by the locals as the "lady in the lake". And if four weird women isn't enough, there's also a little, local blind girl who tears the heads off her dolls and says a lot of cryptic things.

This is not Enzo Castellari's best film by a long-shot (and he claims he didn't actually direct most of it). But any strengths it does have are owing to his visual style. He makes this nonsense as spooky as possible, and despite the numerous sex scenes, he maintains an atmosphere more of Gothic horror than of softcore pornography. With the possible exception of "Pension Paura", this is probably Leanora Fani's classiest film. But this might not be saying much for an actress who starred in a movie with the self-explanatory title "Naked Massacre", in the uber-scummy "Giallo in Venice" (a flick for those who enjoy some very graphic softcore pornography with their bloody dismemberment), in the deranged "Beastialita" (where her love interest is a big dog), and even in some hardcore porn films (although she was not actually a hardcore actress). Fani is actually pretty good here, but Italian-American character actor Vincent Gardenia is completely wasted as a local yokel. This kind of reminded me of the movie version of "Babi Yaga" with Carroll Baker, but it isn't as good as that one. It's not terrible though.

This late mysterious entry in the Spanish giallo sweepstakes shows the giallo-ic side of Castellari - the side we saw in sexy thrillers like Cold Eyes of Fear...a side we'd like to quickly forget. A young child sees her mother drown in a boat by a human hand that appears out of the water. Flash forward to her adult life as she lives in a haunted (?) house and has sex with men that mysteriously die soon after through scary twisted events, one of which includes a telekinetic link with her sister who masturbates frequently (I counted at least five times). The plot makes absolutely NO sense and no explanations are given for anything, not even the @&%# hand which demands an explanation if ever there was one. Lots o' titties bouncin' around, but the gratuitous nudie romps in the hay are wasted in an amateur hour production that rivals the poorest of Italian lakehouse rip-offs. Most of the first act is outright incompetent with basic direction that wouldn't pass a USC intro class let alone grab international distribution. One masturbatory sequence shows the same car explosion in triple(!) split screen, and Castellari gives himself a glorified actor's cameo. Given most great directors' inability to show any signs of screen presence in front of a camera, Castellari looks to have bulked up with steroids and growth hormones for his meaty role. The guy looks like a marriage of John Saxon and Coco the gorilla. Not even recommended for the die-hard Enzo completists.