Woodyanders Review of Enter the Devil

Enter the Devil (1974)

Freaky "Exorcist"-inspired 70's Italian horror trash

[8/10 · 28 March 2012]

Lovely and innocent young art student Danilla (a fearless performance by foxy brunette Stella Carnacina) is tormented by vivid and disturbing dreams of being nailed to a cross. Things get really strange and intense when the crucifix she's dreaming about comes to life and possesses her body, thus turning sweet Danilla into a shameless raving nympho who masturbates and tries to seduce her staid father Mario (a suitably uptight portrayal by Chris Avram). Director Mario Gariazzo and writer Ambrogio Molteni take the blithely lurid story seriously, do a sound job of creating and maintaining a scuzzy atmosphere, and, of course, deliver a few jolting moments of bloody'n'brutal violence along with a handy helping of kinky sex and yummy female nudity (the set piece with the statue making love to Danilla is quite sizzling and depraved). The solid cast of familiar Eurotrash cinema regulars helps a lot: the luscious Lucretia Love as Danilla's sadomasochistic adulteress mother Luisa, Gabriele Tinti as Luisa's sadistic lover, Luigi Pistilli as the intrepid and determined ace exorcist Father Xeno, and, in a deliciously wicked turn, Ivan Rassimov as a cackling lascivious Satan. Moreover, this flick has an inspired sense of warped lunacy to it: The statue coming to life stuff is weird and original and a sequence in which Danilla attempts to escape from a church is positively hysterical. The groovy music, ghastly 70's fashions, and disco dancing give the picture a certain campy retro charm. Carlo Carlini's cinematography makes effective occasional use of overhead camera shots. Marcello Giombini's wonky shuddery score does the shivery trick. Good sleazy fun.