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Released by: Twilight Time Releasing
Released on: February 23rd, 2016.
Director: Ferruccio Casapinta
Cast: Erna Schurer, Roland Carey, Aurora Bautista, Ettore Ribotta
Year: 1969
Purchase From Screen Archives
The Movie:
Ferruccio Casapinta's La Bambola Di Satana (also known as The Doll Of Satan) arrives on Blu-ray for the first time thanks to Twilight Time Releasing, now dipping their toes into some vintage Italian genre films (never a bad thing). A blend of gothic horror tropes and giallo style suspense the film may not always work in traditional terms but it is a lot of fun.
The film follows Elizabeth Ball Janon (Erna Schurer), a beautiful young woman who travels to a remote Italian castle to attend the reading of her late uncle's last will and testament. Oddly enough, however, she can't travelled alone - accompanying her from England, where she's been attending school for the last decade or so, are her fiancé Jack Seaton (Roland Carey) and their friends Gerard (Giorgio Gennari) and Blanche (Beverly Fuller) because hey, you can never have too many people at a will reading.
The late uncle's estate is being handled by his secretary, Carol (Lucia Bomez), who insists that Elizabeth do as her uncle requested for he passed - sell the decrepit old castle home but her views contrast big time with those of his lawyer, Mr. Shinton (Domenico Ravenna), who claims that he'd never want to sell the place. Complicating matters further is the presence of a woman named Claudine (Aurora Batista) who appears to be in cahoots with the late uncle's neighbor, Paul Reynauld (Ettore Ribotta). He claims that the man wanted to sell him the place before he kicked the bucket, but Elizabeth isn't having any of it.
Of course, that all changes once Elizabeth starts to have vivid nightmares about ghosts and sex and weird stuff that doesn't wind up making much sense as someone sporting the requisite black gloves goes about killing people… but who would do something so terrible, and why?
This one is a bit of a mess, but it is at least an entertaining mess. The film's biggest problem is that there are frequent and lengthy stretches of dialogue that are there not to further the plot or build character development but to pad the running time. Thankfully these scenes are colorful, they're nicely shot, they often take place in interesting locations and feature some keen late sixties Euro-fashions, but really, they don't offer much to the story itself. The film also suffers from existing in some sort of alternate reality where time doesn't occur in the linear fashion to which we on Earth are accustomed to - a good example of this is the introduction of Gerard and Blanche. They just sort of appear at dinner one night without any proper introduction. We know that they're friendly with Elizabeth and Paul because of the familiarity that exists in their interactions but they don't really have a good reason to show up when and where they do. Other characters are introduced in a similarly haphazard fashion, you just sort of have to roll with it.
Yet, the movie remains entertaining, even when it's clear that nothing is really happening. The cinematography is really solid, the castle location is just plain awesome and the movie offers up just enough sleaze to hold our attention without ever going over the top with it (we get some fleeting nudity and mild violence). The film's most memorable set piece takes place when Elizabeth's sexy fever dreams reach their boiling point and she's whisked away into the dungeon that lies below the castle for a little bit of BDSM courtesy of whatever cultists may or may not be living down there for reasons, again, never properly explained. It's a pretty great sequence that comes at you, like the more interesting parts of this movie, out of left field.
Video/Audio/Extras:
La Bambola Di Satana arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen that generally looks pretty solid. There is some softness here and there that looks like it's inherent in the source but detail is generally decent enough and the colors are very nicely reproduced. We get solid black levels and nice skin tones here too. The image clean, showing very little in the way of any print damage, and there are no issues with compression artifacts to note.
Audio chores are handled by an Italian language DTS-HD Mono track with optional subtitles offered up in English only. Again, the quality here is fine. Levels are properly balanced and the track is free of any audible hiss or distortion. Range is understandably limited by the origins of the single channel mix but everything sounds fine here.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary from David Del Valle and Derek Botelho that is a mix of observations about the film and the giallo cycle in general with some occasional back and forth between the two about the merits of the picture itself. It's a mix of trivia and insight not just into this film specifically but about many of the themes and ideas that seem to be common place in giallo films and gothic thrillers. They also talk about who may or may not have really done what on this production, providing some interesting theories about how the film wound up as messy and wonky as it is. This track occasionally drifts away from the film itself from time to time but even when it does that it remains an interesting listen.
An isolated score is offered in DTS-HD 2.0 format and static menus and chapter selection are also provided. Julie Kirgo once again contributes a set of liner notes included on the accompanying insert booklet that also includes some nice archival images.
The Final Word:
La Bambola Di Satana isn't a high point in either the giallo movement or the Italian gothic horror cycle but it is entertaining enough, if occasionally for the wrong reasons. Twilight Time have done right by the film, giving it a solid HD presentation with an amusing commentary as its primary supplement.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
