Enter the Devil (1974)
Plot: art student is possessed by a malefic spirit from an olive tree sculpture.
In the early-to-mid seventies a couple of interesting cycles emerged within the Italian exploitation industry. The peplum - and gothic horror revival were in full swing, there was an explosion of both hyper-stylized giallo murder mysteries and raunchy commedia sexy all'Italiana with a variety of leading ladies (in either the la liceale, l’insegnante, or nonna role to sate just about every kink) were about everywhere. If there was something the Italian had proven in the decades prior was that they excelled at imitating American properties on a fraction of the budget and without an ounce of the talent. That a devoutly Catholic country as Italy would become internationally famous for ripping off William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) with almost religious zeal must mean something. Call it a manifestation of Catholic guilt if you will. That those very same Italians started imitating Last House On the Left (1972) around the same time just as intensely probably means something too. As for those The Exorcist (1973) knock-offs, in all likelihood L'Ossessa (or The Sexorcist, released in North America as either The Eerie Midnight Horror Show or the much simpler Enter the Devil) was one of three Italian rip-offs that year preceding Beyond the Door (1974) and The Antichrist (1974) by some two weeks. Enter the Devil has the dubious honors of being the first. We’d be remiss to mention that the Italians did the The Exorcist before even William Peter Blatty did with Brunello Rondi’s monochrome shocker The Demon (1963).
The man behind Enter the Devil was Mario Gariazzo (in one of those rare instances where he didn’t use his usual Anglicised alias of either Robert Paget or Roy Garrett) who by that point was known for the spaghetti western Holy Water Joe (1971) and the poliziottesco The Bloody Hands of the Law (1973). Was this Gariazzo’s first big break? That’s impossible to tell. What is certain is that Gariazzo would shoot himself to cult cinema superstardom with Eyes Behind the Stars (1978), the outrageously terrible sex comedy Very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind (1978), the giallo Play Motel (1979), the surprisingly solid cannibal romp White Slave (1985), the erotic thriller The Attraction (1987) (with French delicatesse Florence Guérin), and the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) knock-off The Brother from Space (1988). He might not have been a versatile specialist as, say, Antonio Margheriti or Sergio Martino – but thankfully he was not a chronically budget deprived workhorse hack as Alfonso Brescia either. From the looks of it Enter the Devil was the kind of movie that the low-key German Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil (1974) and Amando de Ossorio’s well-intended but futile Demon Witch Child (1975) wished it was, or could be. And it stars Stella Carnacina, the prettiest thing this side of Luciana Ottaviani, in her most famous role.
Stella Carnacina wasn’t another starlet. Stella was the daughter of Luigi Carnacina - the greatest Italian gastronomist of the twentieth century and the inventor of nouvelle cuisine in Montecatini - who co-wrote several books with Luigi Veronelli as well as his biography in the culinary arts La grande cucina. La Carnacina started modeling in “carousel” commercials at the tender age of 14. There she was discovered by Duccio Tessari who used his network of industry connections and helped fast-track her career. To arrive at a small decorative role in his gritty poliziottesco Tony Arzenta (Big Guns) (1973) Stella first starred in Giuliano Biagetti’s Ancora una volta prima di lasciarci (1973) and made her debut two years earlier in Summer Affair (1971) from Giorgio Stegani. Stella was the younger sister of Germana Carnacina who had her own brush with international success with Fear Over the City (1975) (with Jean-Paul Belmondo).
Mario Gariazzo was enchanted by Stella, calling her "the new Anna Magnani" for her rebellious streak, and cast her in his Enter the Devil. She spent her evenings with Gianfranco D'Angelo and Giucas Casella in clubs as a stand-up comedian. In May 1975 she was on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy. Naturally a singing career was inevitable and from 1976 to 1985 Stella recorded a handful of 45s, mostly chanson and pop (but also disco, synth, and electro-pop) for a host of different but no less important labels. In October 1977 her daughter Francesca was born. Once it became clear that her singing career wasn’t going anywhere Stella reinvented herself as a television hostess presenting Castrocaro and Azzurro (with Vittorio Salvetti) as well as Discoverde. The last thing she recorded was the theme song to Amare te, written by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (before they adopted the Oliver Onions alias in the 80s). In 1985 Carnacina was faced with a choice: stay in showbusiness or choose stability. Stella chose the latter. In 1985 she retired from showbusiness and launched Carnacina Immobiliare, a boutique real estate firm specializing in luxury country homes in the Olgiata province and the wider Northern Rome region. As a real estate broker Stella looks after the interests of famous Italian industrialists and Italian-English aristocrats.
Daniela (Stella Carnacina) is a promising young art student who after meeting the custodian (Raniero Dorascenzi) of a church deconsecrated in the 17th century is assigned to oversee and act as the team leader in the restoration of a 15th century wooden crucifixion of Christ carved out of an olive tree. Despite her academic prowess and promise the home situation is anything but. Her mother Luisa (Anna Morganti, as Lucretia Love) engages in a steamy affair with her brute lover (Gabriele Tinti) while her architect father Mario (Chris Avram) is either completely oblivious or too impotent to accept or prevent the wholesale disintegration of his marriage. Neither of the two parental units seem to particularly care about the negative effects this can potentially have on impressionable Daniela. Understandably she throws herself headlong into her assigment in company of her boyfriend Carlo (Gianrico Tondinelli). That night back at home Daniela feels the phasmic presence of an unseen diabolic force.
After hearing about her nocturnal encounter Carlo reasonably suggests moving away from home but only with express permission from her parents. That night at home Daniela experiences a hysterical fit engaging in self-mutilation and sexually provokes her father. The following morning she’s taken to a doctor (Giuseppe Addobbati) for a medical exam but he shrugs off the entire incestual episode as the product of acute epilepsy or a related psychosomatic illness rather than anything supernatural or demonic. The next night the crucifix causes her to have hallucinations an all-female congregation performs a strange ritual and the Christ detaches himself from the cross and starts hammering nails in her hands and feet producing stigmata. In the expert opinion of a psychiatrist (Umberto Raho) Daniela suffers from a case of what he describes as, "diabolical possession." Now sufficiently desperate Mario and Luisa seek the counsel of father Antonio (Piero Gerlini) persuades her mother to abandon her philandering ways and set a positive example her adolescent daughter can be proud of.
Daniela is taken to The Convent of Our Lady of Sorrow where Mother Superior (Maria Teresa Piaggio) labors under the delusion that religious doctrine and an ascetic life will correct her wayward behaviour. Instead it has an adverse effect as Daniela fully descends into the spheres of madness. Meanwhile hermit priest and exorcist father Zeno (Luigi Pistilli) has foreseen the coming of Daniela and the plea of her parents and has prepared accordingly. As Daniela slides in and out of possession she either pleads with whorish aplomb for the man of the cloth to desecrate her ("Penetrate me!") when in human form and wants nothing but to disgust and destroy the clergyman as a demon. The blood of Christ might compel her not but she isn’t adverse to the idea of his cock entering and profanating her innermost holiest. Will pious father Zeno be able to resist Daniela’s carnal temptation and expulse the Devil once and for all?
The cast assembled around young miss Carnacina is a combination of up-and-comers and dyed in the wool veterans. On the one side there are Ivan Rassimov, Lucretia Love, and Gabriele Tinti on the other respected pillars such as Chris Avram, Luigi Pistilli, Giuseppe Addobbati, and Umberto Raho. Avram starred in the gialli A Bay Of Blood (1971), So Sweet, So Dead (1972), The Killer Reserved Nine Seats (1974) and via the sexploitationer Emmanuelle in Bangkok (1976) he ended up in legendary sci-fi disasters as Star Odyssey (1979), and Escape From Galaxy III (1981). Lucretia Love could be seen in peplum, gothic horror, spaghetti westerns, and gialli but even then her career amount to not much of anything. She can be seen in, among others, The She Beast (1966), Beautiful Antonia, First a Nun Then a Demon (1972), Battle Of the Amazons (1973), The Killer Reserved Nine Seats (1974), and the Gloria Guida comedy Scandal In the Family (1976). Ivan Rassimov was the consummate leading man who effortlessly crossed genres and could be seen in, among others, The Witch In Love (1966), The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), All the Colors of the Dark (1972), Man From Deep River (1972), Last Cannibal World (1977), The Humanoid (1979), Eaten Alive! (1980), The Raiders Of Atlantis (1983), and the American slasher Body Count (1986). Also present is Gabriele Tinti, the sleaze specialist and husband to Laura Gemser.
Behind the camera there’s special effects man Paolo Ricci, composer Marcello Giombini, and assistant director Ambrogio Molteni. Ricci would turn into one of the more prolific special effects artisans of his time contributing his craft to, among others, Last Cannibal World (1977), Mountain Of the Cannibal God (1978), Eaten Alive! (1980), Murder in an Etruscan Cemetery (1982), Ironmaster (1983), The Throne Of Fire (1983), Hands Of Steel (1986), and Cross Mission (1988). Giombini was a much in-demand composer and he was the usual choice when a production couldn’t afford an actual big name composer. Molteni was the writer of The Giant Of Metropolis (1961), Vulcan, Son Of Jupiter (1962), but also Black Emanuelle (1975) and its Hong Kong Madam Butterfly inspired variant The Sensual World Of Emy Wong (1977). A surprising amount of talent for an unusually animated The Exorcist (1973) rip-off.
The The Exorcist (1973) feeding frenzy would last for the remainder of the decade with the best European offerings coming during the first half. France probably got there first with At the Meeting with Joyous Death (1973) which was more a rip-off of The Haunting (1963), and Rosemary's Baby (1968) although it’s colloquially and more generally considered part of The Exorcist (1973) imitations. In West Germany sex comedy specialist Walter Boos was commissioned to direct Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil (1974) whereas in Spain Amando de Ossorio was slightly more faithful to the source material with Demon Witch Child (1975). In between Türkiye delivered the direct remake and Yeşilçam classic Şeytan (1974) and a few years later Brazil dug in with Seduced By the Demon (1978) that was both a proto-slasher and a devil cult film. Back in Italy Cries and Shadows (1975), and Ring Of Darkness (1979) were memorable and hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Towards the end of the decade the sleaze took over with Gabriele Crisanti abominations as Malabima (1979) and its remake Satan’s Baby Doll (1982) which focused on the incest angle more than anything.
In such illustrious company and strong competition perhaps Enter the Devil is a bit conservative and on the tame side. Any movie that partakes in the wanton profanation and desecration of religious symbols, exposes the clergy for the sanctimonious hypocrites and perverts that they are, and whose early highlight is the immolation of a crucifix gets a plus in our book. Enter the Devil might not be the triumph of blasphemy that Don’t Deliver Us From Evil (1971) or Alucarda (1977) were but it sufficiently scourges the religiously impaired and the Roman Catholic Christian sect in particular. Incest was rife in Italian comedy during this decade and here a throwaway line is used to justify the entre thing ("There's no such thing as incest! It's only the invention of priests!") In more recent years Sister Death (2023) sort of roughly followed the contours of this and also featured the immolation of a crucifix. Clearly Enter the Devil was on to something.
