Lisa and The Devil (ITALY. 1973)

Over a long and varied career famed Director Mario Bava has delivered films in every single genre imaginable, from Sci-Fi (Planet of the Vampires) to Euro Sex Comedy (Four Times that Night) with a dash of comic book action on the side (Danger Diabolic). Lisa and The Devil has been called his most personal and at the same time more complex films of his career.

An intoxicating mixture of the sumptuous gothic horror and murders from his giallos squeezed through the unexplainable terror of a dream you can’t wake up from. The story follows the Alice in Wonderland style adventure of a young woman trapped in a mansion with a gaggle of odd, soon to be slaughtered, guests. This includes a rich couple with deadly secrets, the blind house owner, her handsome son and the Devil Himself (Terry Savalas) who happens to have a soft spot for life-size wax dolls.

Playing fast and loose with cinematic rules like a linear logic and realism, Lisa should be approached strictly as an emotional and visual ride instead of a plot driven film. It starts out with a story, with a seemingly logical murder mystery introduced, but it quickly falls completely apart and goes mad before the end credits roll. It’s not all doom and gloom either, because Bava happy to throw sly humours winks in the middle of all the creepiness. Bava doesn’t seem care if you’re enthralled with the ride. He’s more interested in catching your eye and stirring the heart with his fantastic use of colours and composition. The meanings and depth behind the imagery (Interestingly deconstructed by Bava biographer in Tim Luca’s in the DVD commentary) ranks it high above the logic-free escapes from most other Italian genre auteur’s (Argento and Fulci being prime perpetrators) I highly recommend Lisa as something to be savoured but regret to inform fans of Bava’s gore-fest Bay of Blood that you’re not going to find that here. Instead, get ready for a visually evocative piece of art that isn’t easy to digest but is a nice chew none the less.

NOTE: The DVD version released by Starz media also includes the much more seen Producer's cut "House of Exorcism" which trims out an hour and fills it with blood and nudity shot by Lamberto Bava to "appease" the international audiences and the wishes of producer.