Ring of Darkness (1979) User Reviews

"You mean having a child with Satan has it's negative aspects?"

[Bezenby · 4/10 · 3 March 2019]

Eh, better just ignore or try not to think about Lara Wendel's date of birth when it comes to this film, which is labelled as an Exorcist rip-off but strikes me more like an Omen rip-off.

I'm not one to look down on people, but when you join up for a Satanic cult that involves a choreographed disco session followed by group sex with the Dark Lord himself, isn't it a bit naive to feel put out when the spawn of such a union turns out to have evil tendencies? What did they expect to happen?

Mother Anne Heywood is concerned that her daughter Lara Wendell is getting a bit lippy and argumentative and a bit too wise in the ways of Satanic rituals that no one's ever told her about, so she goes to see her three mates who also seemingly set up carnal relationships with Lucifer without thinking of the consequences. They also do this kind of South Central LA gang hand signal to each other which was pretty funny. Each of them regrets doing the nasty with the Anti-christ, including Irene Papas who has turned to prostitution to meet men, but fails every single time as Satan shows up scowling disapprovingly every time she's about to get busy. Not the best career choice. Get this though - even though they're all going on about how their children are acting up and being devilly, they still attend these black masses. Where's the commitment?

I'm not quite sure what he had to do with it all, but Ian Bannen shows up to put the moves on Anne Heywood while spouting garbage about 'the black and the light' but he pretty much high tails it once Satan shows up to stop anyone having any fun. While Lara somehow arranges the death of her stepfather (that big goofy looking guy from Cosmos: War of the Planets), Anne tries to stop her going full evil by asking high Priestess Mellisa Mel to get involved.

I know - it's confusing. Surely the intention of the coven or sect or whatever would be do to Lucifer's bidding and bring down society, so why are they getting all arsey when the kids start acting up, stealing dolls, rejecting dolls that are bought, burying finger nails, shouting and throwing stuff around, and killing their classmates for getting fresh? Were they just into it for the long cloaks and the dance sequences?

John Philip Law is brought in as a priest who does some dodgy acting at one point. Lara Wendell gets naked a lot which is quite disturbing due to her age and even has a nude Satan fight with her mum at the end. The whole things lacks gore and even scares, but is so bizarre and non-sensical in every way I couldn't help wonder what they were aiming for.

Yet another Italian Exorcist rip-off

[The_Void · 5/10 · 12 April 2009]

After the release of The Exorcist in 1973; ripping that film off became so popular in Italy that "the Exorcist rip off" almost became a genre. It turns out that Italian filmmakers were still at it six years later and Rings of Darkness is one of the later rip offs. It seems that director Pier Carpi was not happy just to rip off William Friedkin's film, however, and this one also features elements from other Satanic classics such as The Omen and Rosemary's Baby. I have to give the film some credit actually for the plot, as it does feature one of the more interesting ones; although it is rather messy. The basic plot focuses on three women that made a deal with the Devil. However, the Devil has decided to target their young daughters instead; prompting the women to fight back against their master. Unfortunately, it has to be said that this film is something of a missed opportunity and nowhere near as good as it could have been. The atmosphere is really rather good, and while the music is a bit too over the top at times; it does work well. The plot soon becomes indecipherable, however, and unfortunately this means that the film quickly becomes boring. In my experience, most of the Exorcist rip off's are rubbish and this isn't one of the better ones. I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to find a copy.

Little known devil horror

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 26 March 2022]

RING OF DARKNESS (1979, original title Un'ombra nell'ombra, aka SATAN'S WIFE) is an Italian EXORCIST rip-off that I hadn't heard of before finding a copy on Youtube. It's a rather interesting chiller despite the slow moving nature of the story and a budget which spends all the money on the cast rather than much in the way of FX or incident. British actress Anne Heywood plays a member of a devil-worshipping coven who comes to suspect that her own daughter is possessed by the devil.

The cast is surprisingly excellent in this film, from former Hollywood starlet Heywood - showing no restraint here - to A-listers like Irene Papas and cult actress Marisa Mell. Frank Finlay plays a priest, Ian Bannen a professor and chess expert, and John Philip Law the exorcist. Perhaps most infamous of all is Lara Wendel as the possessed daughter and yes, there is some underage nudity here, so be warned. The most enjoyable part of the film is the Stelvio Cipriani soundtrack, which riffs heavily on DAWN OF THE DEAD; I loved it so much that it increased my enjoyment of the film as a whole.

It definitely isn't boring

[lazarillo · 11 June 2007]

Many 1970's Italian horror films tried to rip-off Hollywood hits "Rosemary's Baby", "The Exorcist", or "The Omen". Well this one tries to rip-off all three at the same time, and the result is a completely incomprehensible mish-mash. As near as I could follow, the film is about a coven of middle-aged female Satanists who begin to have buyer's remorse over the deal they made with the Dark Prince after he targets their nubile teenage daughters(perhaps this is supposed to be a metaphor for former 60's "flower children" reconsidering what the social changes of that era had wrought by the late 70's?). Three of the women band together to fight back against their infernal master with disastrous results.

This movie has a surprisingly all-star European cast, but only Anne Heywood is in the film for any length of time. Marisa Mell appears suddenly in the middle of the film and disappears so fast you'd think she was just a mirage. John Phillip-Law is pretty much wasted in the role of a defrocked priest, and Irene Papas' character is similarly superfluous. Several other supporting actresses/perennial pieces of tail like Carmen Russo and Dirce Funari show up too in non-speaking (and non-clothes-wearing) roles.

Gratuitous nudity seems to be the main raison d'etre of this one. It ends with a bizarre naked catfight between the decidedly middle-aged Anne Heywood and her obviously teenaged daughter (Lara Wendel). Aside from fulfilling some people's strange sex fantasies though, I have no idea what the point of this particular scene is. The ending does do "The Omen" one better though with the anti-Christ advancing on the Vatican City in a metered taxi-cab. Whatever it is, it definitely isn't boring.

Satanic schlock

[dworldeater · 3/10 · 17 November 2019]

Satan's Wife is an ultra trashy and cheap attempt to cash in on the success of some much better films(Rosemary's Baby, The Omen and to a lesser extent The Exorcist). In the 70's, movies about The Devil made loads of money, so this fairly forgettable, micro budgeted garbage is one of hundreds(possibly thousands) of similar fare. Unless you only want to see nudity and some ridiculous satanic ritual activity(with more nudity), I can't say this has much to offer. Considering this was made on the cheap, I won't bore you in detail on how this film is basically technically inept. The story is lame, the acting is worst. For the most part, Satan's Wife is a real snoozefest. However, there are lots of titties and for the real creepy horror/exploitation fans, underaged titties. That is one factor that made the film disturbing in a way that I did'nt sign up for. So, overall Satan's Wife is worthless trash and is not something I would recommend.

Dull and amateurish.

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 12 February 2013]

I read in the IMDb trivia that this film originally was meant as a knockoff of "The Exorcist" and it was re-edited in order, apparently, to avoid legal difficulties. However, in its final form it bears little similarity to "The Exorcist"...or a movie! Instead, it all seems very randomly edited and pointless. And, occasionally, nudity is tossed into the mix but it manages to be very unsexy and even rather silly.

The film begins with a hilariously bad choreographed dance scene that looks like it belongs in the John Travolta film "Staying Alive". Then, abruptly, the film switches to an annoying child (Daria) and her mother. It seems that years before the mother was part of a coven and now Daria is becoming a nasty little demonic child. Why? Who knows. All I know is that the actress acted really nasty through much of the film until she ultimately tore off all her clothes at the end--which is very disturbing since she was a pubescent girl--and too young legally to do such explicit stuff in the States. Perhaps Italian laws were more liberal. But this part, if it's possible, makes even LESS sense than the rest of the film and it ends.

To say that the film made little sense, was completely amateurish and was stupid would probably be a major understatement. The film is without merit--heck, even the nudity is pretty dull (except for those hoping to see some not-yet legal nudity). A despicable and dumb film with nothing to recommend it. Even for camp value it's pretty worthless.

Naked for Satan

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 13 June 2022]

Ring of Darkness is about four women who made a pact with the Devil a decade ago. Now, Carlotta (Anne Heywood) has lost control of her daughter Daria (Lara Wendel, who so famously died in Tenebre), who has started to develop Satanic powers of her own, casting spells and hurting everyone in her way, including a boy with a crush who submits to her burning touch.

Carlotta and some of her friends enlist the help of a priest (John Phillip Law) to help them rid themselves of the pact that they made with Lucifer all those years ago.

Also known as Satan's Wife, this is a nice Danger: Diabolik reunion as Marissa Mell is in it with Law. And man, nobody does a Satanic movie like Italian Catholics, huh? When interviewed on set in 1977, director and writer Pier Carpi (who also wrote the Diabolik comic book) denied that his screenplay was inspired by The Exorcist and claimed that it was based on his novel Un ombra nell'ombra which he wrote in the 60s and was published in 1974.

You know what I do love about this beyond the Black Mass nude opening? The synth heavy score Stelvio Cipriani! You know who else liked it? Whomever ripped it off for the American edit of Pieces.

I've seen people online critical of this movie and the score. Come on. We should be so lucky to have more Italian takes on American occult movies!

Naked mother versus naked daughter.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 16 April 2010]

"Ring of Darkness" is a pretty controversial Italian horror movie due to Lara Wendel's underage nudity.Lara Wendel starred in 1977 in scandalous "Maladolescenza",so during shooting of Pier Carpi's movie she was no more than thirteen year old.This sleazy Italian "The Exorcist" clone features plenty of full-frontal nudity provided by Carmen Russo,Marisa Mell,Sofia Dionisio,Dirce Funari and Sonia Viviani.There are some memorable scenes in "Ring of Darkness" including the coven rituals,Marisa Mell confronting Lara Wendel,the exorcism and the nude mother-daughter fight.The women defy Lucifer and that's why Lara Wendel's character becomes aggressive and murderous.Satan is using her as his instrument to get revenge on the brides that have betrayed him.7 out of 10.

Sleaze classic

[darksoul71 · 10/10 · 16 November 2002]

Warning,contains spoilers!

This is one of the best Italian sleaze films I've seen.

The plot has a teenage girl who is interested of occultism and has supernatural powers.Her mother is a member of satanist group and is afraid what influences it'll have on the girl.No need to worry, the girl knows just what to do and there's no return,she belongs to Satan..

During the film odd things happen in typical italo way,there's not too much logic,but that's only good thing.It's amazing how entertaining these films are.. On the final battle we see her and her mother fighting each other (nude off course) and doing some mysterious rituals,you might guess who wins... The films final pictures leaves your mouth open and wandering why can't there be more films like this?

There's superb music through the whole film and the actors are quite good,better than usual in these type of films.Specially Anne Heywood looks and acts good.It also has some unusual camera angles and stuff like that, so it's not boring at all.My rating is 10.

Hopefully someone releases this on dvd.

Dirty Demon Daughter

[ferbs54 · 7/10 · 6 February 2013]

Those viewers who believe Patty McCormack's Rhoda Penmark character, in the 1956 classic "The Bad Seed," to be the nastiest, most diabolical little girl ever shown on film might change their mind after seeing the 1979 Italian offering "Satan's Wife." This latter picture was originally released under the title "Un'ombra nell'ombra," or "Ring of Darkness," but for once, I prefer the American appellation, as it is both more memorable and more suitably descriptive. An engrossing though hardly essential example of Eurohorror, the film should certainly prove of interest to the jaded fan of such fare who is looking for something different.

In the film, the viewer meets a very attractive, middle-aged mother named Carlotta Rhodes. Thirteen years earlier, Carlotta and several other women had danced and participated in a Satanic ritual...and even, shades of Rosemary Woodhouse, had sexual congress with ol' Lucifer himself. And now, the result of that union, 13-year-old Daria, is beginning to evince signs of her demonic daddy's, uh, DNA. In several well-done and unsettling sequences, Daria--who I suppose my main gal Ann Wilson would call a "dirty demon daughter"--shows an intimately uncanny knowledge of Charlemagne's sorcerous activities, draws a pentagram on a tennis court, prophesies her estranged father's death, compares the eating habits of "humans" to hyenas, and scorches a young suitor's chest by a mere laying on of the hand. But when the meddlesome adults in Daria's life start to suffer horrible ends, Carlotta comes to realize that a priestly exorcism might be the only hope of rescuing her devilish offspring....

A tad slow moving in parts but always of interest, "Satan's Wife" has been directed by Pier Carpi for maximum freakiness. Utilizing a negative-image dream sequence, echo effects, long stretches with no dialogue and a mesmerizing score consisting of synth, bass and percussion (by Stelvio Cipriani, whose work on the 1978 giallo "The Bloodstained Shadow" had recently impressed me), Carpi manages to engender a decidedly strange, borderline surreal atmosphere. And he is here abetted by the very fine performances of his three leading ladies. English actress Anne Heywood, who many will recall as Sandy Dennis' partner in the 1968 film "The Fox," manages to steal the film as the distraught Carlotta. Heywood, 47 years old in this picture, still looks stunningly beautiful (how appropriate that her name at birth was Violet Pretty!), almost on the order of the middle-aged Jeanne Crain (and those IMDb readers who have perused my reviews for such films as "State Fair" and "Dangerous Crossing" already know what I think of Jeanne Crain's remarkable looks!). Whether dressed in prosaic street clothes or garbed in Satanic robes, Heywood looks simply smashing here, and offers up an effective performance. As her best friend Elena, Valentina Cortese (the former Mrs. Richard Basehart) also offers up a convincingly agonized portrayal. And in the crucial role of Daria, 14-year-old Lara Wendel, from Germany, is quite chilling indeed. Surprisingly, the film requires this young actress to appear topless in its final showdown sequence, as mother and daughter square off for a supernatural battle royale. Those viewers who were bothered by Mariora Goschen's topless appearance on that classic Blind Faith album cover, shot when the young gal was only 11, might be similarly appalled by the spectacle of the topless Wendel here, but I suppose no harm was done, and Wendel continued to enjoy her acting career for over a decade more. Though inevitably reminiscent of "Rosemary's Baby" for a bit of its running time, ultimately, "Satan's Wife" feels more and more like a cousin of "The Omen," as it becomes apparent that our little devilish spawn is virtually unstoppable. Indeed, the film's final image (WARNING: Spoiler ahead!), of Daria approaching St. Peter's Basilica, leaves the viewer with the sure knowledge that a showdown between the Devil and the Church is about to commence; what a sequel this picture could have had, if the filmmakers had chosen to continue! Little Daria vs. the Pope...the mind reels at the possibilities!

Unfortunately for home viewers, "Satan's Wife" today seems to be only available on DVD from an outfit known as Mya. Just recently, I watched another of the company's DVDs, for another Italian horror film from 1979, "Island of the Fishmen," and was pleased with the print quality and adequate dubbing in lieu of subtitling. "Satan's Wife," however, is another matter, with very inadequate dubbing and a print quality that is decidedly fuzzy and scuzzy. Still, I suppose it will have to do until something better comes along. The experience to be had with this DVD incarnation is a marginally watchable one, but the film itself is surely of interest, and, as mentioned, should assuredly find acceptance in the eyes of all fans of 1970s Eurohorror....

They Really Blew It

[steveduff3 · 13 December 2003]

Spoilers ahead.

This abysmal film introduces us to a group of satanist women, all of whom seem to want their daughters to grow up normal. I guess becoming brides of Beelzebub didn't thrill them as much as they'd hoped.

The focus is on one woman, Carlotta, played by Anne Heywood, and her 13 year-old daughter Daria, played by Lara Wendel. As the movie progresses, Daria shows a growing interest in the occult and begins to demonstrate her burgeoning magical powers. Carlotta (remember, a bride of Satan no less) freaks out and seeks ways to prevent her daughter from becoming an evil witch.

It soon becomes apparent that this is nothing more than the tale of a mother trying to deal with a bratty daughter on the road to womanhood. The supernatural stuff is just tacked on. Daria is more or less like any obnoxious teenager seeking independence from a parent. She's rude. She challenges authority. She thinks she knows everything. Sound familiar?

Carlotta goes through various painful (for the viewer) efforts to rid her daughter of the devil, including an exorcism where Lara Wendel appears nude. Wendel was actually 13 or 14 when the film was made and was one of the notorious nude teen stars of the '70s. Not the kind of thing you'd see in an American flick, but an Italian one is something different.

The growing tension between Carlotta and Daria comes to a head when Daria finds her mother standing inside a mystic symbol painted on the floor, nude except for a cape. Daria brags that she is now stronger than her mother and calmly begins disrobing to prepare for the skin-on-skin showdown.

Well, this is probably not the only movie where a girl of 13 or so and a woman in her 40s appeared nude together (Anne Heywood was 47 when this film was released, and looked fabulous), but it may be the only one to feature a nude catfight between them.

Ah, but movie catfights are almost always awful, and this rule goes quintuple for occult films where a clash of magical strength is part of the bargain. I mean, the potential for maybe the greatest movie catfight of all time was right here. Lara Wendel may have been only 13 or 14, but she was as tall as Anne Heywood and her body was slim but very well-developed. A young knockout, to say the least, so with two beautiful actresses playing mother and daughter how can you go wrong?

Well, to start with, you can shoot it mostly in the dark (actually, Anne Heywood's nude scene is mostly darkened, so you don't really see much). Then you can have the only positive physical attack be repulsed by pure magic. Who wants to see that? A catfight should have slapping, hair pulling, punching, scratching, kicking, rolling around. The writer can decree that their magics are equally powerful until the end, when the loser can no longer counter the magic of the winner, and you can have a supernatural coup de grace. Simple. I won't say how they did it in RING OF DARKNESS, but I will say that it's hard to imagine a lamer conclusion. And in this mother/daughter nude catfight, nothing of interest occurs. In fact, it's a stretch to even call it a catfight.

So they had a chance to deliver a truly amazing brawl and instead produced a non-fight. The viewer is thus cheated of the conclusion the whole movie built up to, therefore the movie is odious and awful. The only other points of interest are the nude scenes. Anne Heywood's was darkened, Lara Wendel's were more numerous and had better lighting. 3 stars out of 10.

Satan's Wife

[Michael_Elliott · 24 February 2010]

Satan's Wife (1979)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

If it's from Italy and features "Satan" or "devil" in the title then you know it must be a rip-off of THE EXORCIST or ROSEMARY'S BABY but here we're in for a treat as this one rips both of those classics. A mother (Anne Heywood) begins to notice something wrong with her teen daughter (Lara Wendel) and sure enough Lucifer (Ezio Miani) is after the young one. Turns out that mommy and two of her friends made a deal with the evil red one years earlier and now he's taking it out on their children but a priest (John Phillip Law) agrees to try and defeat him. I'm really not sure what the point of this film was as it goes off in several directions and in the end it never really seems to know what it wants to do. Apparently this thing sat on the shelf for two years before getting released and you'll see why when you sit through it. The biggest problem is that the film starts off with your typical possession stuff but it does very little with it. There's non-stop nudity to add into the sleaze factor but there's very little else in terms of entertainment. The possession stuff is all mild, any back story is boring and it doesn't help that the film jumps around from one character to another. The cast will feature some familiar faces including previous Oscar-nominees Ian Bannen, Valentina Cortese and Frank Finlay. Wendel will probably be best remembered for a memorable death scene in Argento's TENEBRE but her performance here is pretty weak. The incredibly bad dialogue doesn't help matters nor does her nude scenes and if the DOB on the IMDb is correct then many will want to avoid this film at all costs. Heywood doesn't do any better as she's all over the place and looks confused at what she should do in a film like this. Cult favorite John Phillip Law doesn't get that good of a role either so he's wasted as well. THE EXORCIST-rip should be a genre onto its own as we have dozens and dozens of films that would fall into it but this one here is certainly one of the lesser entries. The film does start off with a near musical number that will have your eyes coming through your skull but things go downhill from there. There's enough nudity that might make Euro-sleaze folks tune in but it's not enough to keep the film moving.