Lisa and the Devil (US Import DVD-R)

Finally, after suffering years of humiliation in a debased edited form that comes across as a poor EXORCIST knock-off, LISA AND THE DEVIL has been gloriously restored to its original length. Leave it to Mario Bava--the genius behind HERCULES UNCHAINED and occasional cinematographer for Fellini--to create such a genuinely bizarre film. Lisa, a tourist visiting a remote town in the Italian countryside, is lured into an old villa by its demonic proprietor, brilliantly played by Telly Savalas, lollipop and all. As night falls she is lead through a horrifying labyrinth of perversion and terror, where the boundaries between reality and hallucination cease to exist. The narrative structure occasionally takes a back seat to visual poetics, but the patient viewer will be rewarded by the obsessive care Bava takes in framing this film. A fine choice for fans of David Lynch.