The House Of Exorcism (1975)

Tourist Lisa Reiner faints on the street and is taken to hospital. She shows disturbing signs of demonic possession, so a priest, Father Michael, is brought in to perform an exorcism. However, he first tries to investigate how she became possessed by the devil in the first place. Despite the fact that her personality has now completely blended together with the demonic entity within her, she none the less tells him about the horrific experiences she lived through in the mansion of a twisted Spanish aristocratic family with a dark secret and the devil she met there.



Note: Bold but decidedly uncommercial, Lisa and the Devil failed to get picked up for distribution after its Cannes premiere. Leone – looking to recoup his potential losses – then pressured Bava into doing extensive reshoots and re-editing in order to create an alternate movie that would capitalize on the demon possession craze following in the wake of William Friedkin's The Exorcist. The result was House of Exorcism, which ramped up the gore and sexuality and blasphemy to such an extent that Bava – who, despite what his previous output might suggest, did have his limits when it came to adult content – took his name off of the film entirely.