The Doll of Satan

Better movie than I would have expected. A plot that is all in all decent and decently managed. There has been a bit of action and fear in this mystery story that has what it takes to carve out its niche of fans.

Elisabeth visits the ancestral castle for the reading of her late uncle's will.But the legend of the castle's ghost is only one of her problems-she starts having disturbing erotic nightmares and is abducted by a hooded figure who imprisons her in the torture dungeon.These vivid dreams are in fact nightmares and not a carefully stage-managed reality designed to drive her mad or to her death.Her boyfriend Jack suspects that someone is after her inheritance and begins his own investigation...Very colorful and atmospheric Italian giallo set in a medieval Italian castle with catacombs and torture devices.The killings are very tame and bloodless,there is a black-gloved killer stalking his victims and a little bit of soft eroticism.The wolves howling outside in the dark add a lot to the atmosphere.8 out of 10.

Italian gothic horror/suspense, written and directed by Ferruccio Casapinta (his sole directing credit). Elizabeth (Emma Costantino, here as 'Erna Schürer') inherits a castle in the Italian countryside following the unexpected death of her uncle. When she arrives she meets the house administrator/former assistant to her uncle, Miss Carol (bespectacled hottie Lucie Bomez), who informs her that shortly before his death her uncle had decided to sell the castle, and that Paul Renaud - the owner of a neighbouring villa - had expressed an interest. Miss Carol also tells Elizabeth that the castle is said to be haunted by an ancestor, who can sometimes be heard in the night calling for his lost love - who was also called Elizabeth. Although initially reluctant to sell, a series of seemingly supernatural events - including the ghostly calling of her own name at night - begin to change Elizabeth's mind, as well as cause her to start doubting her own sanity.

Although promoted as a horror, an anonymous, black-gloved killer also hints at the giallo wave to come. The location (actually two real castles near Rome) and sets are fantastically atmospheric, and the supernatural happenings and visions are pretty effective. Some of the dialogue is a bit clumsy, although that may be down to the English subtitles. And the fight choreography is weirdly inconsistent, with one character who's 'ordinary bloke' one minute, suddenly able to fight like a cross between Douglas Fairbanks and Jason Bourne (I was expecting some reveal to explain this, but no). But the cast are pretty good, one death towards the end involving a dog and an implement of ancient warfare is pretty damn awesome, and saying Emma Costantino and Lucie Bomez are easy on the eye is a criminal understatement.

This would make a fun double-bill with The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave. Some topless nudity. 7/10.

As we all know by now, Italy has several million huge castles within its borders and all of them are either filled with soul dead hipsters bent on murdering each other, or incestuous siblings, or men in drag who murder women, or are just plain haunted by either Barbara Steele or someone related to her, or maybe Barbara Steele haunting herself. The Doll of Satan tries to mix up most of these elements to keep things going, but then forgets to add a bit of spice to the mix.

Elizabeth has just been bequeathed one of these huge castles by her late uncle and is heading there with her hipster boyfriend to check out what's going down. The lady in charge there, Claudine, seems to think that Elizabeth's uncle wanted to sell the house, which is all new to Elizabeth. Worse still, Claudine puts the willies up Elizabeth by telling her of the ghost of a past relative, also called Elizabeth, and that the ghost of her lover stills walks the walls of the castle. Oh, and by the way Elizabeth, have you noticed that new torture dungeon downstairs? Claudine got it from Ikea.

Throw in a mysterious lover for Claudine and a ton of dodgy characters up to something (a guy in a bar, a hippy lady who draws pictures in the countryside, a friendly neighbour who stops Elizabeth walking into quicksand (?)), a black gloved killer who doesn't really kill many people at all, some erotic dreams and an insane person kept in a locked room and you're really ticking a lot of boxes here. You're also taking a lot of time throwing all these details in and although the film looks great, it's kind of good but not great too.

The vengeful dog bit was great though! The film needed more eccentric bits like that. No giallo fan is going to hate this film, but then any casual viewers will probably end up wondering what the fuss is all about. If you're going to show you're granny this, as people often do with gialli ("Hey gran - let's watch Iguana with the Tongue of Fire!") DO NOT get this film mixed up with Satan's Baby Doll. That's one you'll want to watch on your own. With some Kleenex.

After inheriting her family's castle, a woman struggles to believe a family legend about her barbaric ancestors coming back to haunt her, which is being played up by her relatives to allow them access to uranium deposits underneath the castle, and must race to stop their plans.

This was a massively dull and barely worthwhile genre effort. Among the few positives to be had here is the film's use of bridging together the kind of storyline that links Gothic horror and giallo together. The central premise here about her returning home only to be confronted with the strange killer provides the kind of setting that brings about glorious Gothic horror shenanigans only utilized too frequently at the start of the decade with the proceedings bringing about family curses, long-held secret relations, a family with a dark, tragic past, and putting the whole thing into a multi-tiered Gothic castle. The first half of this one, with the arrival at the castle and the series of explanations looking at the different aspects of the family legacy coming back to haunt them, makes for a great case, tying into that environment where we get to see the whole thing taking place in a glorious Gothic castle. With some hints along the way that something is targeting her, from the visions of hooded figures trying to kill her or the series of revelations that take place in the finale, it all comes together well enough to have some positives. Outside of that, though, there's just not much here to work with. That's mainly due to the utterly bland and just absolutely lifeless storyline at play here, where it's not geared at all for genre thrills in any regard. The film tends to spend most of the running time explaining what's going on in long, drawn-out conversations around the castle where they tend to spew out the background information on the family curse and how it starts to affect them that are just dull and lifeless to sit through, and the repeated nature of this tactic to explain why she's returned and how everything comes together don't help much. That there's far more of this kind of activity on-screen than any kind of genuine genre shenanigans, whether it be the stalking scenes of the hooded killer looking to keep the whole thing a secret, and there's just nothing interesting happening for so long because of these scenes that it becomes quite difficult to get through. On top of that, with the film suffering from a slew of technical issues that range from lackluster gore, the way-too-bright castle that looks good but zaps the tension, and a series of bad day-for-night shots to show off how cheap it is, these are what hold this down.

Today's Rating/R: Violence, Language, and Brief Nudity.