Lisa's life will never be the same when she gets lost in an unfamiliar European city. Eluding a strange man who confuses her with someone else, Lisa(Elke Sommer)bums a ride with Frank and Sophia Lehar(Eduardo Fajardo & Sylva Koscina), an unhappily married wealthy couple. Their vehicle, however, is on the fritz and George(Gabriele Tinti;the Lehar's chauffeur and Sophia's lover)must stop somewhere for repairs. They happen across a blind countess' manor and her son, Maximilian(Alessio Orano)invites them to stay. Lisa gets quite a shock when she realizes that the lolly-pop sucking butler of the manor(Telly Savales chewing scenery with his usual cool) is a spitting image of an artistic rendition of Satan on an old decrepit building wall in the European city she just escaped from. When the unexpected death of George occurs, the group is rocked in fear. Maximilian, like the previous strange gentleman she met in the last city, responds to Lisa as if he knows her. He wishes to passionately embrace Lisa, but she has no idea how to react to all the strange happenings upon her. In a dream sequence, Lisa reminisces a past life where she was embracing the first gentleman who now has a name:Carlo(Espartaco Santoni)..here's the kicker, Carlo is actually Max's mother's husband who had ran off with a woman named Helen who seemed to have been attached to Max. All this drama, with Sophia in deep mourning over her beloved George's death, and how Lisa reminds others of Helena spirals out of control as a sneering Leandro, the butler, looks on in cheeky delight, often mumbling about the situational developments as they occur.Bava, as Gothic as ever, has lots of stylish camera tricks up his sleeve(particularly how he frames reflections of faces using such items as a cigarette case with a mirror, wine spill reflecting Savalas's face, etc). And, his use of the fish-eye lens is astounding. And, that ending, which might dismay many, I felt was a knock-out. Like the fresco containing the devil carrying a dead man, no one can escape fate. Within the film there's a killer on the loose bashing heads in with a cane(with blood splattering like spilled paint on the camera lens)so Bava also lets his grisly side run rampant. Bava injects his film with the sordid history of two families..Max and his mother's and Sophia & Frank. These elements add spice to the proceedings as a victim is run over numerous times by a vehicle and tragic consequences await others at the hands of a very unbalanced Maximilian who will do whatever it takes to not lose Lisa like he *lost* Helena. I really got a kick out of Savales and his behavior towards the mannequins, and just the delight he carries when around potential victims. It seems Bava and Savales both knew how to relate their macabre joy to the viewer, and their collaborative efforts go noticed. They understand what lies within the framework of the story(..these characters and how they are doomed, destined for tragic ends)and have fun with the material, presenting to us in only the grandest way possible from start to finish. These two were made for each other.
House of Exorcism is basically a travesty, an abomination where a co-producer(..this being Alfred Leone)takes a perfectly fine film well visualized by a true master of the macabre and creates instead a ludicrous, unnecessary rehash of The Exorcist, adding material with Robert Alda(..attempting desperately to bring sincerity and dignity to his role as a wounded priest, despite the hilariously profane gibberish coming from a possessed Elke Sommer's mouth), splicing in footage from "Lisa and the Devil" to pad everything out to cash in on another religious shocker's success. Also added that you won't see in Bava's finished product of "Lisa and the Devil", are scenes of Sommer and Koscina's nice breasts being fondled and kissed(..Sommer's by Orano during the notorious lovemaking scene where an unconscious Lisa has been drugged by Maximilian who subsequently disrobes her as his imprisoned former flame, Helena's skeletal corpse lies a few feet away;Koscina's by Tinti during their sordid sex scene while hubby Fajardo is away looking for a tub to bathe in). And one nasty aftermath of Koscina's demise displaying the spiked-end of a cane buried in her skull. But, a great deal of "House of Exorcism" displays the ugly side of a demon inside Lisa causing her to move and convulse her body wildly while saying vulgar comments toward the priest. There's even a scene where the demon takes the shape of the priest's naked wife, who we see dying in a burning car in a haunting flashback. But, all this is quite an embarrassment, especially if you have just finished the elegant, romantic, yet lurid and morbid "Lisa and the Devil". Sommer sure commits to the role of possessed innocent, really piling on the histrionics. Stick with a true artist's vision and watch "House of Exorcism" for laughs if you're really bored. I can't even imagine what it must feel like to have your film butchered in such a way.
House of Exorcism is basically a travesty, an abomination where a co-producer(..this being Alfred Leone)takes a perfectly fine film well visualized by a true master of the macabre and creates instead a ludicrous, unnecessary rehash of The Exorcist, adding material with Robert Alda(..attempting desperately to bring sincerity and dignity to his role as a wounded priest, despite the hilariously profane gibberish coming from a possessed Elke Sommer's mouth), splicing in footage from "Lisa and the Devil" to pad everything out to cash in on another religious shocker's success. Also added that you won't see in Bava's finished product of "Lisa and the Devil", are scenes of Sommer and Koscina's nice breasts being fondled and kissed(..Sommer's by Orano during the notorious lovemaking scene where an unconscious Lisa has been drugged by Maximilian who subsequently disrobes her as his imprisoned former flame, Helena's skeletal corpse lies a few feet away;Koscina's by Tinti during their sordid sex scene while hubby Fajardo is away looking for a tub to bathe in). And one nasty aftermath of Koscina's demise displaying the spiked-end of a cane buried in her skull. But, a great deal of "House of Exorcism" displays the ugly side of a demon inside Lisa causing her to move and convulse her body wildly while saying vulgar comments toward the priest. There's even a scene where the demon takes the shape of the priest's naked wife, who we see dying in a burning car in a haunting flashback. But, all this is quite an embarrassment, especially if you have just finished the elegant, romantic, yet lurid and morbid "Lisa and the Devil". Sommer sure commits to the role of possessed innocent, really piling on the histrionics. Stick with a true artist's vision and watch "House of Exorcism" for laughs if you're really bored. I can't even imagine what it must feel like to have your film butchered in such a way.