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Film: The House of Exorcism
Year: 1975
Directors: Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava and Alfredo Leone
Writers: Mario Bava, Alberto Cittini and Alfredo Leone
Starring: Elke Sommer, Telly Savalas and Robert Alda
Review:
This was a film that I learned about due to having seen the movie this is edited from. A couple years ago I checked out Lisa and the Devil from Mario Bava for Italian Horror Month. When I got into watching his films that was one that was high on my list. My buddy Tim pointed out that there was this one that was edited from that film, so I was intrigued to see it. I’m now doing it for this year’s Italian Horror Month and doubling as a Voyage through the FiVes.
Synopsis: a troubled priest attempts to exorcise the soul of a tourist who has been possessed by the Devil after witnessing supernatural events at a Spanish villa.
We start in an old Spanish Villa. There is a tour bus letting passengers off. Among them is Lisa (Elke Sommer). Their guide talks about a fresco on the wall of a building, depicting the devil carrying someone away. Lisa hears a tune and follows it to a store. Inside she gets spooked when she sees Leandro (Telly Savalas). He looks eerily similar to the fresco. The shopkeeper is making a life-like dummy for him. She inquiries about buying the music box, but it belongs to Leandro.
It is from here that she can’t find her way back to the square where the bus is. She asks for help and everyone ignores her. That is until she meets Carlo (Esparaco Santoni). He thinks she looks like someone named Elena. He goes to hug her and she pushes him away. This causes him to fall, hitting his head. She continues her search and runs into Leandro. He laughs and directs her where to go.
I’ll then include here that these events we are seeing are the past. Lisa has a fit and an ambulance comes to check on her. They are freaked out as it seems that she is possessed. Lisa is taken to a hospital where they try to figure out what is wrong with her. Father Michael (Robert Alda) comes to check on her. He starts to believe that she is possessed and does what he can to help her. The more they interact, the more that something supernatural is going on is evident. He goes about finding out what caused her to be in this state.
This is where more of the story plays out. Lisa was picked up by a car driven by George (Gabriele Tinti). He is the chauffeur for Sophia (Sylva Koscina) and her husband, Francis (Eduardo Fajardo). They don’t get far before the car breaks down. It does so in front of a villa. Lisa freaks out when Leandro comes out.
The place belongs to a Contessa (Alida Valli). She lives with her son, Max (Alessio Orano). Leandro is their butler. Max falls in love with Lisa at first sight, as she also reminds him of Elena. There is a history between Carlo, Contessa, Max and Elena, which seems to now involve Lisa. The events of this night seem to explain why Lisa is in her condition, to which Father Michael tries to figure out before it is too late.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this is an intriguing piece of cinema to talk about since it is using mostly footage from Lisa and the Devil with a few scenes filmed with Sommer, Alda and Carmen Silva. The trivia that I found was that people found the original film to be confusing so they thought that if they included the elements with the exorcist, it would help explain things. I don’t personally think it was needed, because this ends up becoming a direct ripoff of The Exorcist.
I’ll then direct you to my review of Lisa and the Devil if you want a bit more in-depth breakdown of that film. What I’ll give credit here for is the eerie atmosphere. We have this villa where we have Contessa, Leandro and Max living. There is this surreal element where Lisa sees Max. She thinks he’s dead. Leandro changes his stance where at one point this is a trial run for his funeral, hence the dummy. There is this time loop element and what seems to be purgatory. It is like seeing a nightmare play out, which is something that I appreciate.
Something I’ll give credit here is to be able to get Sommer back to do the role of Lisa. Her pretending to be possessed is good, even if it is derivative and just re-enacting The Exorcist. I’d also include Alda’s performance as Father Michael. There is a subplot where he was in love with Anna (Silva). Something happened. He now blames himself. There is the idea of the loss or battle for faith. This doesn’t add a lot in my opinion, aside from padding out and including more of the new footage.
I’ll then just include what elements from the original footage are still fleshed out here. There is the power of sin and guilt, with what happened between the family who lives in this villa. There is also the idea of destiny and how we can’t escape our fate. You could also see this as reincarnation with Lisa and Elena. The purgatory idea plays with repetition of the past. Lastly would be nightmare logic through questioning what is the reality and how the surreal blurs the lines.
One last story element that is included here is the rational idea of modern medicine for the explanation versus the spirituality of the church. Italian films do this well, since Catholicism is so ingrained in their society. This also does borrow from The Exorcist, just on a small scale.
I’ll then shift this over to explore the filmmaking aspects. For a majority of this I have to credit Bava by saying that his cinematography and framing were great to capture this surreal nightmare. The editing of the footage of Lisa and the Devil to incorporate in the possession aspects for the new cut was good. This doesn’t get overly long with the runtime, so that’s another credit. The problem is that the tone is off for me. The soundtrack and design were good though.
Last thing would just credit the acting performances from the original material, since I’ve given credit to the original cast. Savalas has such an eerie performance. He looks like he’s having a blast. I like Koscina, Valli, Tinti, Santoni and Orano for their roles. The editing does well for the heart of the original film to still show through.
In conclusion, this is a curious cinematic experiment, stitching together the haunting, surreal imagery and narrative themes of Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil with new, more conventional possession-horror footage. Though the original film offered a unique, eerie atmosphere exploring sin and destiny, the added scenes frame it as an Exorcist clone, ultimately harming Bava's vision. Strong performances from Savalas and Sommer anchor the film, and the technical blending of footage is skillful. However, by replacing the original's beautiful ambiguity with a familiar horror plot, this version sacrifices its distinctiveness, making it a fascinating but less satisfying watch than its source material.
My Rating: 6 out of 10