Lisa and the Devil (1973)

 

The third entry in the "people trapped in houses where weird shit happens" subgenre I have seen in the past month or so. With Lisa and the Devil, Bava was finally given complete creative control to make whatever film he like, and the result is, well, interesting. This was considered so incomprehensible by the producers that it was brutally re-cut into an Exorcist knock-off for its US release. Lisa and the Devil starts with a young tourist wandering off from her tour group only to spot a man who looks like the devil from a fresco she just saw, so she runs away and gets lost, and winds up hitching a ride with some rich people whose car breaks down outside of a mansion where the devil-guy (played by Telly Savalas) works as a butler. What follows is something that involves life-size dummies, ghosts, reincarnations of ghosts, bloody murders (including a crazy scene where a guy is run over by a car multiple times), a scene straight out of Faulkner's short story A Rose for Emily, chloroform rape (remember kids, never take advantage of someone who is passed out), and a little slapstick comedy. If I sound slightly sarcastic, it is because there really is no explaining this one. To be fair, there are weirder and wilder movies, but something about this one just left me flabbergasted. It really pushes the limits of what one expects from this genre.