Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Leofwine_draca This spellbinding shocker from the man dubbed the "Italian Hitchcock", Mario Bava, shows the director's uncanny ability to manipulate the boundaries of conventional film-making, creating in doing so a totally unique, atmospheric piece of work. Like the other Italian directors, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, visual imagery and beautiful photography are favoured over any semblance of a 'normal' plot; indeed, the viewer must pay attention to every minute that goes by in order to understand all the events which occur. This alone is enough to put off a lot of potential audiences, but perseverance in this case leads to a reward: an atypical, challenging, and powerful film, where nothing is necessarily what it seems and even the most gentle, friendly character may turn out to be the devil in disguise! You can tell by the opening credits that this is going to be something special: a cleverly, partially animated sequence of Telly Savalas turning over tarot cards to reveal the names of the cast and crew. Soon we are in familiar territory for fans of Bava and Argento, where the heroine finds herself trapped in claustrophobic avenues in a seemingly empty city, the high walls imposing and threatening to suffocate her. Lurking around in the shadows is the sinister figure of Telly Savalas himself, usually assigned to playing tough generals in all those Roger Moore war films of the '70s, plus his scene-chewing performance in HORROR EXPRESS, of course. Here he is complete with lollipop (left over from KOJAK, no doubt) and a mannequin under his arm, a symbolical allusion to a mural that Lisa has seen where the devil carries around those doomed to eternal torment.After this intriguing opening which opens up a dozen questions, we move into the familiar 'haunted house' territory, where an assembled group of characters are menaced by bizarre events; things smashing in empty rooms, doors shutting, footsteps, you name it. Also lurking about is a middle-aged moustached man who mistakes Lisa for his wife, even after getting thrown down a flight of steps he still persists. Ignoring his affections, Lisa begins a torrid affair with the youngest son of the family, much to the chagrin of his blind mother. By now we know that this isn't your average suburban family and that plenty of hideous secrets are waiting to be revealed. Sure enough, it's soon revealed that the son has the skeletal body of his previous wife tucked up in bed (THE TOMB OF LIGEIA tackled similar situations), leaving the viewer in no doubt that some disturbing kind of behaviour is going on, perhaps even necrophilia.To make matters even more surreal, Savalas is still going about his business, carrying mannequins into chapels and shoving bodies into coffins by cracking their rigor-mortised ankles (a delightful scene). Now we're about halfway into the film and some long-awaited bloody murders occur, in one seen a cheating woman repeatedly runs over her husband in his own car, the chauffeur has his neck slashed with scissors, others are beaten with candlesticks. These deaths are similar to the intensity that Bava brought to his slasher drama A BAY OF BLOOD, although not quite as graphic. By the end of the film, just about everybody is dead, and there's even a twist in which Lisa boards a plane to escape, but finds it is deserted, with Savalas at the controls! Rarely did Bava get such creative control over a project like this, but he does a great job of making a fascinating film. Elke Sommer is a capable lead, actually being more than just a pretty face, while Savalas puts in an impeccably charismatic performance as a man who might just be the devil, just witness some of his scenes where he moans about having to work all the time, drinks, and talks to himself. He effectively steals every moment he's on film. The rest of the Italian actors are all good too, especially the son, who at one we like and are yet terrified of. The beautiful camera work is complimented by a great score to round things off. LISA AND THE DEVIL might turn out to be just too much hard work for the casual viewer, and I agree that it is a difficult film to watch. Underneath though is a film which contains sometimes startling themes of death and decay, given a stylish appearance by Bava.

Rainey Dawn Telly Savalas - I like this guy! He's always cool (and not just in Kojak). And he's just as cool in this film as ever.What this film is lacking is... a faster pace I think? Better dialogue? A better script? Yea maybe all of that. The casting is fine and the Gothic setting is nice but everything else is drab, dry just dull. I found this film, well, boring generally speaking - it has a few good moments but that's about it. I'm really surprised I wasn't overly crazy about this one - maybe I expected more out of the film. I really wanted to like this film, but I don't.3/10

Thorsten-Krings The film doesn't quite add up to a movie which is mainly because it is actually Bava's Lisa and the devil and additional scenes shot by the producer. Lisa and the Devil had found critical acclaim but no distributor so after the success of The Exorcist the producer, Alfredo Leone, wanted to re-cut the film into a rip off of The Exorcist. For this additional scenes were shot. These were pretty strong and blasphemous so both Bava and Sommer did not participate which clearly shows in the film. The original had interesting elements such as the use of the puppets as symbols but due to the cuts in the original version this adds more the the confusion of the viewer than anything else. The Bava parts of the film were pretty stylish and well made (and yes, we get to see both Elke sommer's and Sylvia Kscina's boobs) but all in all the script has the inherent silliness of most bava movies. Savallas is having a field day reprising Blofeld and introducing us to the lollipop munching Savallas we know from TV. Nice over the tops performances all around which fit with the somewhat baroque style odd the original film. The exorcism scenes in the hospital are pretty over the top with green vomit and frogs, nude temptation and an actress who so very obviously is not Elke Sommer.

Witchfinder General 666 This film is credited as "La Casa dell'exorcismo"/"The House Of Exorcism" here, but Mario Bava's original version is the one called "Lisa e il diavolo"/"Lisa And The Devil". Mario Bava, arguably the greatest Horror director of all-time, created his most bizarre work in 1972 with "Lisa And The Devil". In order to attract a wider audience in the United States, the film was only released in a re-edited form, as "The House Of Exorcism", which added some elements and did not even give full credit to master Bava. Sadly enough, the original Bava cut was not released until after his death. Fortunately enough, it is available now. This is a review of Bava's original version, "Lisa And The Devil".While not one of my absolute favorites by the great Mario Bava, "Lisa And The Devil" is arguably one of his most underrated films. The film does not quite reach the brilliance of earlier Bava masterpieces like "Black Sunday" ("La Maschera Del Demonio", 1960), "The Whip And The Body" ("La Frusta E Il Corpo" (1963), "Blood And Black Lace"("Sei Donne Per L'Assassino", 1964), or "Kill Baby... Kill" ("Operazione Paura", 1966), nor that of his latter day highlight, the stunning Crime Thriller "Rabid Dogs" ("Cani Arrabiati", 1974). Even so, "Lisa And The Devil" is an elegant and mesmerizing Horror film that is absolutely sublime in many aspects. The whole approach of "Lisa And The Devil" is more bizarre, surreal and merely psychological than in his other films, and furthermore uses the Satanic formula which was immensely popular around the time. While "Lisa and The Devil" is a bit slower than his other early 70s efforts, such as his last Gothic Horror film "Baron Blood" ("Gli Orrori Del Castello Di Norimberga", 1972), the film maintains a wonderful atmosphere of insanity and doom.Due to the film's bizarre nature, "Lisa And The Devil" is probably the Bava film that makes a proper plot synopsis most difficult. This is not a bad thing, though, as every Horror fan should experience this film for himself (or herself) anyway. The film begins when tourist Lisa Reiner (sexy Elke Sommer) leaves her tourist group, and is suddenly stuck in a beautiful but eerie city center of Toledo. Unable to find her tourist group, Lisa, as well as a bunch of other people find refuge in an eerie mansion, where an old countess (Alida Valli) lives with her son (Alessio Orano), and a very sinister housekeeper (Telly Salavas)... I do not want to give anything away, but I can assure that "Lisa And The Devil" is a film that creates a hypnotic and nightmarish atmosphere like hardly another. The incredibly sinister Telly Salavas gives this film a cult-status and there is a lot more. The cast includes several familiar faces for Italian Cult buffs. Elke Sommer and Silvya Koschina are lovely to look at and they also are also great in their roles. The great Alida Valli, best known for her roles in two Horror-masterpieces, Dario Argento's "Suspiria" (1977) and Georges Franju's "Eyes Without a Face" ("Les Yeux Sans Visage", 1960), is once again superb as the old countess. The cast also includes Eduardo Fajardo ("Django") and Italian Exploitation regular Gabriele Tinti. The absolute greatest performance (by far) in this film, however, remains that of Telly Salavas who is ghoulish and great beyond comparison. As all Bava films, "Lisa And The Devil" is wonderfully photographed in beautiful yet exceptionally eerie Gothic settings. The city of Toledo is a terrific setting for a film like this, and the eerie mansion is the most uncanny and melancholic setting imaginable. The score by Carlo Savina is great and very eerie, and perfectly emphasizes the mood of a nightmarish fever dream. Aditionally to the nightmarish atmosphere, the film also has several genuinely terrifying shock-moments. As stated above, "Lisa And The Devil" is not one of the absolute greatest films by Mario Bava, but it is definitely a great one. The film is a little more slow-paced than Bava's other work, but its nightmarish atmosphere is exceptional. A mesmerizing film that no Horror fan can afford to miss!