The House of Exorcism

This is an Italian/Spanish co-production , resulting to be an Exorcist's rip-off in which our starring suffers a demonic entity within her , and paced in two different time lines by means of a disconcerting mix here and there . Lisa Reiner (Elke Sommer) is a young woman travelling as a tourist in the Spanish old city named Toledo . Lisa faints on the street and carried at a Hospital , there she shows astonishing signs to be really possessed , so a priest , Father Michael (Robert Alda) , is brought in to perform an exorcism . However, he first attempts to investigate how she became possessed by the devil in the first place . It is blended with the horrific experiences when she's lost and taken by a marriage (Sylva Koscina and Eduardo Fajardo) and their chauffeur (Gabriele Tinti) . When the car is broken down , they find shelter into a luxurious mansion where inhabits a twisted Spanish aristocratic family formed by strange characters , a countess (Alida Valli) , his son (Alessio Orano) and the butler (Telly Savalas) . Every Corner of the Soul is Lost to the Icy Clutch of the Supernatural! Her body helpless! Her soul no longer her own! Warning ! The theater management cannot be held responsible for persons who faint or go berserk while viewing the House of Exorcism ! First, there was "The Exorcist". Then came "The Omen". And now, a sensational new film that dares to go one step beyond... "THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM".

There is a peculiar version from ¨Bava's Lisa and the Devil¨ called ¨House of Exorcism¨ for the American market adding some images about a priest -Robert Alda- , rip off from ¨The exorcist¨ , while making spells , enchantment , exorcisms which result to be embarrassment and absurd . A Sui Generis mingling in which American tourist Lisa is taken to hospital and subsequently she shows disturbing signs of demonic possession, along the way, a troubled priest attempts to exorcise her soul who has been possessed by the Devil after witnessing supernatural events at a Spanish villa where lives a weird family with dark secrets . Despite the fact that her personality has now completely blended together with devil possession , the film fais to deliver interest enough and turning to be embarrasing and really ridiculous.

This is a re-edit of Lisa e il diavolo made by producer Alfred Leone who financed various sub-genres and exploitation movies such as : Fire in the Flesh , Gold of the Amazon Women, Rabid Dogs , How Many Times... That Night , The Torture Chamber of Baron Blood , Holiday Hookers and Joko . While the original film was directed by Mario Bava and belongs to Italian horror genre . Mario Bava along Riccardo Freda (Secret of Dr Hitchcock , Vampires , The spectre) and subsequently Dario Argento (Deep red , Suspira , Inferno) are the fundamental creators of Latin terror genre . Mario Bava directed excellent horror movies (Mask of demon , Black Sunday , Black lace , Planet of vampires) and mediocre (Baron of blood , Bay of Blood , Shock) horror films . These movies are characterized by slick edition , usual zooms , special overblown use of colour in a glimmer red blood and utilization of shock-images . The film gets an attractive and enjoyable casting , a gorgeous Elke Sommer (The prize) , an enticing Sylva Koscina (Miguel Strogoff) , a veteran Alida Valli (The Paradine trial) and a sympathetic devil with lollipop included played by Telly Savalas (Kojak) . Magnificent and colorful cinematography by Cecilio Paniagua with intervention by the same Bava like is habitual in all his movies , as he's usually cameraman . The musical background was composed by Joaquin Rodrigo with his famous 'Concert of Aranjuez' and the score by Carlo Savina . The motion picture will appeal to Exorcist copycats fans .

The House of Exorcism (1975)

** (out of 4)

Mario Bava's dream project was LISA AND THE DEVIL, which many people think is his masterpiece. Unfortuantly, the film couldn't land a distributor so the producer was left with a large cash issue because the film simply wasn't going to make money. After the success of THE EXORCIST the producer, against Bava's wishes, decided to bring back some of the cast members and turn this into a rip-off.

I think a lot of people are afraid to say it fearing they're be attacked for not being "true" fans but I personally found LISA AND THE DEVIL to be rather slow and boring. Yes, it looked beautiful and had a terrific atmosphere but it's pretty easy to see why no one would want to distribute it. With that said, I can understand the producer doing whatever he had to in order to sell the film and I've read that this re-edited version went on to make millions across the globe so here's the perfect example of mainstream people wanting trash and not art.

The new scenes here are all rather silly and especially the dialogue, which tries desperately to match THE EXORCIST's profanity laced rants. I'm not going to lie, I found a lot of this trash talking to be rather funny. As you'd expect, there's also a lot of green puke going around and this here even manages to work in some frogs. Some added nudity was also placed in the film just to top off the exploitation. So, is THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM any good? Of course not but it remains an interesting bit of movie history due to the production history. The film is mildly entertaining due to how silly it is and you at least have to give the producer credit because the new footage mixes in quite well with the old.

This is the page for "House of Exorcism", but most people have confused this film with the Mario Bava masterpiece, "Lisa & the Devil", which explains the ridiculously high rating for this, "House of exorcism." When "Lisa & the Devil" was shown at film festivals in the early 70's, it was a critical success. Audiences responded well to that gorgeous, Gothic horror film. Unfortunately it was a bit ahead of it's time, and was considered too unusual, and not commercial enough for mass consumption. No distributor would buy it. So producer Alfredo Leone decided to edit 'Lisa', seemingly with a chainsaw, by removing just about half of the original film, and adding new scenes, which he filmed two years after the original product! It is important to note that Bava had little to do with these new, hideous additions, so technically "House of Exorcism" is not a Bava film. The original product is a slow, dreamy, classy production. A few minutes into the film, the viewer is jarred out of this dream world, as suddenly we see Lisa, (two years older, and with a very different haircut), begin to writhe on the ground, making guttural sounds and croaking epitaphs like "suck my co@k", etc. Subtle, huh? And the film continues like this, jumping back and forth between a beautiful, visual film, and a grade Z "Exorcist" rip-off. Leone was trying to incorporate these shock scenes, while keeping some semblance of a story intact. He failed miserably. When the choice was made to basically destroy "Lisa and the devil", Bava himself refused, saying that his film was too beautiful to cut. He was right, and it must have been quite sad for this artist to see all his work destroyed and flushed down the toilet. It was many years before the original "Lisa and the Devil" was seen again, re-surfacing on late night television. I had seen "lisa" long before i saw this new version, and it was downright disturbing to witness one of my favorite films "vandalised" in this way. Worth seeing only for curiosity sake. Otherwise avoid this insidious disaster like the plague.

Mario Bava is my personal favorite director of all times. And not just via photo-finish, but literally with miles ahead of my second favorite director, which is Lucio Fulci. Back when I started to develop an interest for Bava's work, in 2004 or so, I vividly remember that "Lisa and the Devil" was difficult to find, while "The House of Exorcism" was the more easily available version for purchase. Via an obscure French label, however, I found Bava's original masterpiece (in an awesome boxset together with "Baron Blood" and "Hatchet for the Honeymoon"), so I never bothered to search for the much hacked-up version that the great Bava dissociated himself from.

Now, since it's more than 15 years later and time for an urgent re-watch, I figured to give "The House of Exorcism" a shot. The story behind both film versions is actually a very sad and tragic one, especially if you're an avid admirer of Italy's most visionary director. With "Lisa and the Devil", Mario Bava finally received complete freedom - artistically as well as financially - to make the film he wanted to make, but for some incomprehensible reason, the critics and audiences weren't enthusiast. Shame, because the film truly remains a superbly atmospheric and fascinating piece of gothic horror. Producer, and former friend, Alfredo Leone understandably wanted to recuperate a part of his unsuccessful investment, and since "The Exorcist" rip-offs were trending massively at the time, Leone directed some additional footage and re-released the film. Suddenly, as a result of her encounters in the strange mansion, Lisa is possessed with the devil (who may or not be Telly Savalas in the flesh) and Robert Alda joins the cast as the priest charged with the exorcism.

"The House of Exorcism" is a rehash, pure and simple. The original footage of "Lisa and the Devil" is still brilliant, but less powerful and a lot more incoherent. The additional footage represents everything what Bava despises: unoriginal plot, stolen ideas, gratuitous nudity and unnecessary profanity. A clash of styles is what this is.

The House of Exorcism (1973) is an interesting patch work film. After the disappointing attendance figures for LISA AND THE DEVIL, Producer Alfredo Leone re-shot and incorporated new footage into LISA AND THE DEVIL making the movie into an Exorcist knockoff. The ploy worked and Leone made his money back plus a profit. HOUSE OF EXORCISM is about a Bavarian woman named Lisa who's possessed by a restless spirit. The things that the spirit does and says puts Pazul/Linda Blair to shame.

The spirit has a very foul mouth and uses creative dialog to motivate the priest into helping her. The movie is nowhere near the classic as LISA AND THE DEVIL but it's quite entertaining. However, the two movies are very different and they don't match together very well. One of the better Exorcist wannabes.

Highly recommended for camp value.