The House of Exorcism / Lisa and the Devil (Special Double Feature Edition) (1973)

The story of "Lisa and the Devil" is the stuff of movie legends: riding high after the success of Baron Blood and A Bay of Blood, the iconic horror director Mario Bava was given free reign for his next project: the surreal "Lisa and the Devil". Sadly, "Lisa..." flopped at the box office in Bava's native Italy and desperate to sell it overseas, the film's producer basically butchered the film in an act of cinematic murder. The film's ending was removed, new footage of lead actress Elke Sommer was shot with actor Robert Alda, that basically turned the film into bastardized rip-off of the Exorcist, with the remaining footage recast as an extended flashback sequence about Sommer's characters being possessed.

For decades, the removed footage was considered destroyed until they resurfaced late in the 1990s, at which point the restored "Lisa and the Devil" was resurrected. The film's reputation, having grown over the years due to the butchery done to it in the name of making it more "commercial", was reappraised and it has since been seen as one of Bava's best films.

The Blu-Ray includes both cuts of the film, but trust me when I say you should stick to the original cut and shun "House of Exorcism".

Mario Bava's Lisa and the Devil is, out of the 7 or 8 Bava films I've seen, my favorite. It casts Elke Sommer as a young American tourist who is visiting a busy Spanish town with a friend. After encountering a mysterious man in a shop, who it is suggested is the devil, she suddenly finds the town practically uninhabited. After she hitches a ride with a rich couple and their chauffeur, the car breaks down outside a mansion. After this point, the film becomes increasingly enigmatic; however, it is mysterious in a way I find fascinating and not frustrating. In addition, the film's considerable visual beauty, haunting ending and the charismatic presence of Telly Savalas (as the devil) add to its appeal for me. The Blu-ray looks very good overall, with some speckles I noticed occasionally being the one negative. I haven't watched The House of Exorcism (also on the Blu-ray), which is reportedly a butchering of Lisa and the Devil made to capitalize on the success of the then-popular The Exorcist.

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I gave it three stars because I actually wanted "The House Of Exorcism" after seeing it at the old World Theater in Hollywood back in the day. I guess this also came out as "LIsa and the Devil" as well. They decided to give us both versions of the same movie, but with a different title. It was cheap enough, and I love this ridiculous movie.

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I originally got this on a PD version from Cheezy Films and knew, immediately, that I had to own a good print of it! One of Mario Bava's (BLACK SUNDAY, DANGER: DIABOLIK, PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES) most surreal movies, LISA AND THE DEVIL tells the story of Elke Summer's Lisa, on a guided tour in Italy, who sees a portrait of Satan on the wall of a church then meets a man who looks just like the portrait (Telly Savalas, a year or two before KOJAK) carrying a man tucked under his arm or is it a mannequin that looks like that man? Lisa misses her tour bus, and accepts a ride from the aristocratic Lehar couple in a decrepit touring car which breaks down in front of an old, seemingly deserted mansion and runs into the Satanic man again! He introduces himself as Leandro, the butler to the Countess and her son Maximillian who live there, and invites her and her companions inside. Once inside, it seems everybody mistakes Lisa for Elena a woman it turns out the Countess's late husband and Maximillian had been the lover of! Leandro, meanwhile, provides comically put-up, often snide running commentary of all the goings-on, including Sophia Lehar's affair with George the Chauffeur, Francis Lehar's murder of George and later Sophia and subsequent death, Maxmillian's obsession with Lisa who he insists is Elena, the man Leandro was seen carrying at the start of the film who turns out to be the Countess's late husband who's also obsessed with Elena, and so on. It all ends, either as Lisa's tragic damnation or a sick joke depending on your point of view.

Savalas's Leandro, the butler who may be Satan, is the undoubted highlight of the film. Alternately cunning and downtrodden, obsequiously offering cake "with chocolate sprinkles", trying to sneak a smoke and having to quickly replace it with a lollipop(!) whenever the disapproving Countess comes by, ranting as he stuffs his face in an empty dining room after the meal in a scene both hilarious and chilling, he delivers what should have been a star-making performance a year before his first appearance as Kojak. Nobody else touches him in the acting department, though all are capable enough.

The original film was re-cut with cheap "exorcist" scenes to remake it into HOUSE OF EXORCISM after some unsuccessful screenings in Italy and at Cannes which either was a financial success (according to Producer Alfredo Leone, who'd shot much of the replacement footage) or as big a financial failure as it was a creative one (Wikipedia). I'm not sure why the original did so poorly it's a brilliantly subversive, darkly humorous supernatural thriller that I really think needs to be reassessed as the lost classic it is.

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My purchase of this movie was like an impulse buy of chewing gum at the grocery store. The major difference between this movie and gum; There's a brief moment where I enjoy the chewing gum.

I first watched "Lisa and the Devil" and it was your typical B Movie from the 70's. I then watched "The House of Exorcism", which is pretty much "Lisa and the Devil", with deleted scenes thrown in to make it a tale of exorcism as a post-thought. If you're looking for a thriller that somehow missed MST3K's radar, you're in the right place. I'm giving this movie two-stars, because watching Telly Savalas offer a grown woman a lollipop is one of the creepiest things to come out of the 70's (aside from Pasolini).

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