IL DEMONIO (1963)

In an Italian village where traditional Catholic belief is closely tied to paganish superstition, Puri is regarded as a slut and a witch, beliefs she is not at pains to dispel. She is obsessed with Antonio who is to marry someone else. Literally throwing herself at him, he rejects her (though there are hints of a past relationship). She spikes his wine with her blood and says he is now cursed. On his wedding night, she stands outside his bedroom and uses a dead cat to curse them with a stillborn child. She runs off and hides with a shepherd who ties her up and rapes her. The next morning on her way back to the village, she chats briefly with a young boy who was deathly ill but is now healthy and bathing by a stream, but in town when she mentions her encounter, she is told the boy died that morning. During a mass outdoor confession ritual, people reveal terrible sins (one man admits that he craves his teenage daughter's body), and Puri says she speaks with the devil. She is handed over to an exorcist (who is not a clergyman) who proceeds to assault her. In bed that night, she undergoes terrifying bodily contortions that she can't control and is given a more traditional exorcism in church, during which she engages in an unsettling backwards spider walk (as in the director's cut of The Exorcist). This is too much for the villagers who want to burn her. She escapes to her family's home but her trials are not over: she undergoes a stoning and goes to a convent where she attacks a nun who prays for her. [Spoiler:] In the end, she entices Antonio, who is suffering from an unexplained rash and dreams of blood, into having sex with her in a nearby field at night, and the next morning, he wakes up and stabs her to death.

This Italian film is not gory or very graphic, but it is almost as intense as The Exorcist, and occasional shots may conjure up Ken Russell's The Devils. The summary above may sound a bit over the top, but it's the performance of Daliah Lavi (pictured) as Puri that carries the movie and overcomes some of its excesses. (Though there is virtually no lightness or humor here, I did chuckle at a scene in which the mother superior is strolling through the convert with some nuns, discussing what to do about Puri; it felt like a "How do you solve a problem like Maria" moment from The Sound of Music.) Lavi throws herself full-bloodedly into the role, her unbridled emotions and fearless physical performance threatening but never quite reaching camp level. Frank Wolff as Antonio is fine, though he vanishes from the main action for long stretches. This is considered an example of the folk horror genre—a name applied retroactively in recent years—along with films like The Blood on Satan's Claw, The Blair Witch Project, and, more recently, Midsommar. Viewers have differed on whether the film should be seen as supernatural or psychological horror. Indeed, the only truly supernatural thing seen here is the manifestation of the dead boy, but as that is not witnessed by anyone else, it could be part of Puri's psychosis. It does not have the typical horror atmosphere: no old dark houses, no gore, and lots of scenes happening outside in broad daylight. Still, the movie is quite punishing to Puri and viewers may feel pummeled by what happens to her. Directed by Brunello Rondi who was a screenwriter for Fellini (8-1/2, Satyricon). [Criterion Channel]