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Italy
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1974
Directed
by Luigi Batzella
Starring
Rita Calderoni
James
Harris
Stelio Candelli
Color
| 82 Minutes
| Not Rated
Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC)
Redemption USA
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Rita from Redemption (2012)
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5
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5 |
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10
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
Nude
for Satan
presents a conundrum for any reviewer. Or, at least, any reviewer
that hopes to offer up something more than hyperbolic babble
about the how bizarre the stuff on display becomes in this not
quite coherent splay of images. Should this film be called stream
of consciousness gothic fluff? Or perhaps a low budget sleazy
creepfest? Is it maybe just a silly shaggy dog story with a
punch line that lands with a thud instead of a pop? Or maybe
it should simply be noted as a typical 1970s European entry
in the 'hell is a place on earth' camp of EC comics inspired
horror tales? No. While those labels might do for someone with
less interest in this... genre... that will not suffice for
Eccentric Cinema. This movie more accurately falls into a category
I like to call 'Foregone Conclusion Theater'. You've seen these
stories before. The entire movie builds slowly to a final revelation
that sharp viewers have copped to long before the onscreen characters
gasp in reaction to the supposedly amazing information. Except
even that description isn't quite right because both main characters
are openly wondering if they are really dead by the half way
mark of the movie. So what the hell is this thing? Crazy as
a rat trapped in a coffee can, to be perfectly honest. Cinema
delirium! But is it entertaining? Well...
The
story begins simply enough with Doctor Benson (Stelio Candelli)
driving through the night on his way to the Witmore Estate to
make a house call. Unsure of his way, he stops for directions
and is warned that going to the Witmore villa is a bad idea.
He ignores this advice and drives on until a woman dressed in
white looms up out of the dark into the path of his car. The
doctor swerves and misses the woman but as he searches the roadside
for her afterwards there is nothing to be found. Puzzled and
at a loss to explain this he is about to continue his journey
when a second car crashes on the road only a few feet from him.
Just for the record, this is one of the worst faked car crashes
in cinema history. The sound of a skid and crash are heard on
the soundtrack and a lone tire rolls past Benson in the road.
Hysterically, the tire would never have fit the car it's supposed
to have detached from. This was the first indicator of just
how strange things were going to get.
Benson pulls Susan
(the very lovely Rita Calderoni), the only passenger of the
'crashed' car, out and loads her into his own. He recognizes
her and decides it would be best to get her to the estate to
care for her injuries. Once there he has a strange encounter
with a servant who makes odd statements and then disappears
into thin air. Unable to get anyone to answer his knocking he
is about to return to the car when the front door of the castle
opens on its own. Clueless that this is a BAD sign, he
enters and looks around the apparently deserted, dusty and cobwebbed
place. Searching for people he stumbles from room to room and
behind each door there seems to be a new strange sight. There
is a laughing, web-covered corpse, a nude woman being molested
by a man dressed in Victorian clothing, etc. Confused as can
be, Benson is then greeted by the hale & hardy woman he pulled
from the car wreck, wearing a 19th century style dress. She
insists her name is Evelyn, not Susan, and persuades the doctor
to join her to be introduced to the family as her beloved.
From here on in it
becomes increasingly clear that time has no meaning and both
the present day events and 19th century happenings are jumbled
together. The narrative swings back and forth between the modern
day Susan meeting the lord of the Witmore castle and Dr. Benson
trying to figure out his predicament with Evelyn. Susan is ushered
into the house by the mysterious Lord (James Harris) and it
quickly becomes evident that he is some kind of devil or demon
pushing the characters around. Susan acts as if she is under
a spell, never asking his name and blithely going along with
his suggestions. She is shown to a room, given a hot bath and
slips very naturally into a lesbian tryst with the black chambermaid.
She then goes to bed but has a dream of her sexy new female
lover that becomes a nightmare as the servant strangles her.
Awakening out of this she goes wandering around the castle while
a storm rages outside. Following odd sounds, she is horrified
to find the chambermaid being whipped by an older male servant.
Then things get weird. (I know — just bear with me!)
Running away from
the torture scene, Susan stumbles into a room and becomes trapped
in a giant spider's web. And here comes the big hairy spider
right toward its new prey! Okay. Remember earlier when I said
the faked car crash was hysterical? I should have saved that
word to describe the fake spider in this sequence. Seriously!
I have seen some bad fake spiders in my day. The ones Fulci
set next to real ones in The Beyond.
The awful one that leaped onto Rod Taylor in World
Without End. The Volkswagen beetle in The
Giant Spider Invasion. All of these now take a back seat
to the miserable excuse for a spider in Nude
for Satan. But that's
not the funniest part! By this time the separate storylines
are mashed together in such a way that confusion is par for
the course. So when Dr. Benson bursts into the room and shoots
the spider off Susan, all the questions lingering in my mind
about what is actually happening evaporate as I sputter-laugh
at the site of what looks like feathers flying off the
thing. Disregard the madness of shooting at the girl!
The fake spider's ignominious death is a classic.
Anyway, things continue
on like this for a good long while with doppelgangers running
about the place getting naked and more hints that the lord of
the castle is Old Scratch himself — all to little real effect.
The film reaches its nadir with a ten minute chase through the
castle grounds that ends with Benson catching himself. Yeah,
it's that kind of film. It's crazy, nonsensical and mostly silly
but I have to admit I didn't really dislike it. It's not for
every audience and will most likely only please fans of Euro-Trash
or those interested in bizarre cinema in general. Although I
fit both those categories I only think of this as a middling
experience. But as with any movie of this type, your mileage
may vary. It's sleazy, sadistic and displays plenty of perversity
making it a fun experience — if you know what I mean. On the
'Weird-Ass European Cinema' scale it's stranger than Delirium
but not as freaky as Black
Magic Rites (AKA The Reincarnation of Isabel). Take
that for what it's worth. And did I mention that Rita Calderoni
is gorgeous? And nude for a considerable percentage of the running
time? That is well worth mentioning. (Trust me.)
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| This
August 2008 DVD from Redemption presents the film in a nice, if
not perfect, widescreen 16x9 enhanced print. Both the Italian
and English dubbed soundtracks are provided with optional English
subtitles. The film begins with a title card in Italian that seems
to say that this version of the film is a composite of two different
prints. That may be why there is a short section at the beginning
of the movie where the subtitles are forced. I suspect that part
was never dubbed so this was the best option. The DVD case lists
several extras but the most interesting ones are not present on
the disc. A promised documentary about French filmmaker Jean Rollin
is supposed to be here but it and an accompanying filmography
for him is nowhere to be found. I had wondered why these items
would be on this particular DVD as Rollin seems to have nothing
to do with this production and maybe that question came up at
Redemption as well. It's a bit strange to have these listed and
not add them to the disc but there are some other extras to smooth
the disappointment: the original trailer, a still gallery and
trailers for a few other Redemption Euro-Trash releases.
10/18/08 |
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