The House of Exorcism
by Mario Bava, Mickey Lion
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Actor: Elke Sommer, Robert Alda, Telly SavalasDirector: Mario Bava, Mickey Lion
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: NTSC
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-02-02
Studio: Passion Productions
DVD Reviews of The House of Exorcism
DVD Review: Just Leave Mario Bava Alone!
Summary: 1 Stars
"The House of Exorcism" has a long and tortured history. Starring Telly Savalas and Elke Sommer, it was originally made as "Lisa and the Devil," a psychologically challenging horror film by Italian giallo master Mario Bava. Producer Alfredo Leone (under his directorial alias Mickey Lion) removed huge swaths of the original, completely re-edited the film, and shot new (much more graphic) footage of Sommer with Robert Alda as a priest, which it was thought would improve the film's box office revenue in light of the success of "The Exorcist." The film bombed.
Watching "The House of Exorcism" is like a traumatizing bipolar nightmare. It is clearly two entirely different efforts forced together in unholy celluloid matrimony. The film begins with Elke (as Lisa Reiner) on a European tour, where she sees a scary fresco featuring the devil. She is drawn into a shop where Telly (as Leandro) possesses her while wearing a beret. It's a very creepy and effective beginning to the film, but is quickly ruined by the shift to the sanitarium where Lisa unleashes profanity and vomit on priest Robert Alda and some extreme scenery chewing erupts on both sides of the restraints ("Who are you, you infernal demon!?!") In a nod to commercialism that Bava refused to contribute to, the film amps up the eros with a return of Alda's former strumpet as temptation from the Devil. To say that this doesn't fit the atmosphere so painstakingly crafted by Bava in the original is an understatement.
Back in the creepy and brilliantly atmospheric home of Maximilian (Alessio Orano) and his mother, the blind Contessa (Alida Valli,) Max covets Lisa due to her resemblance to his dead love. This part of the movie is really, really creepy, and the scene involving the skeleton in particular really grossed me out. Confusing violence and murders begin, but not all is as it seems. There are plenty of unnatural mannequin hijinks, body double diversions, and Telly talking to himself nonstop, providing some backstory that doesn't fit this version of the movie well at all. Note also Telly's near-constant use of a lollipop, which he used in real life to help him quit smoking; it would become his trademark on "Kojak" very shortly after this was released. After some truly Oedipal violence, and some more exorcism nonsense from Alda and Sommer, the film comes to an uneasy conclusion. It couldn't come a minute too soon.
The film is like night and day. The original Bava footage is that of a stylish and reserved film full of mental horror, genuine suspense, and subtlety. The added exorcism footage that was spliced in, on the other hand, is profane, gross, derivative junk (Robert Alda even gets to battle flying snakes) that does nothing but ruin the work of a genuine master of the art. While it can be difficult to find, look for a copy of "Lisa and the Devil" in its original form and watch the film the way Mario Bava envisioned it.
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Description of The House of Exorcism
From back cover, "Telly Savalas stars as the Devil who discovers a beautiful tourist staring at a fresco of him. During this encounter, he recognizes in her, the soul of a damned spirit that escaped him generations ago. The Devil possesses her, and she is taken to a local hospital. Father Michael and American priest, accompanies her and tries to exorcise the evil spirit from her soul, but can he discover the mystery of her past identity and the horrors it bore witness to?"Bestsellers in DVD
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