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.

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.