Un angelo per Satana (1966)

... aka: Angel for Satan, An
... aka: Ein Engel für den Teufel (An Angel for the Devil)
... aka: Un ange pour Satan

Directed by:
Camillo Mastrocinque

Because of a drought, a lake decreases in water volume and an ancient, heavily-damaged statue of a nude woman is discovered at the bottom. Count Montebruno (Claudio Gora) has the statue fished out and then hires handsome young artist / sculptor Roberto Merigi (Anthony Steffen) to restore it. Roberto arrives in the small Italian village by boat and soon comes to realize that this isn't going to be just any ordinary project. According to local legend, with the statue comes a curse and restoring this particular piece will bring tragedy and death to the entire village. Roberto has no interest in local superstition. He just wants to get to work. But before he can get started, the two men who brought him there; both fisherman and excellent swimmers, drown when their boat mysteriously capsizes. Roberto then realizes his life may be in danger from the enraged locals themselves, who aren't too happy about the statue resurfacing. When Roberto goes to a pub to work on some sketches, he gets roughed up by local brute Carlo (Mario Brega) and his thugs and barely manages to make it out of there in one piece.

The owner of the Montebruno estate isn't the Count, but his orphaned niece Harriet (Barbara Steele). After her parents died when she was just five years old, she was sent away to London to get an education and hasn't been back to the manor since. Now that it's been fifteen yeas and she's hit her 20th birthday, she can finally collect on her inheritance. Upon returning, she meets the staff, which includes butler Julian (Antonio Corevi), cute young maid Rita (Ursula Davis), retired army soldier and now security guard Sergeant Alfonso (Antonio Acqua), governess Illa (“Maureen Melrose” / Marina Berti) and gardener Victor (Aldo Berti), a “slow” neurotic who's been in and out of a nuthouse as of late. Illa is secretly the Count's lover while Rita is secretly dating school teacher Dario Morelli (Vassili “Karamesinis” / Karis); one of the few people in the area who was kind to the new arrival in town because he knows what it's like to be treated as an outsider by the locals. Romance is also in the air for Roberto and Harriet as soon as they lay eyes on each other and fall in love.

As it turns out, the statue is of Harriet's beautiful ancestor Maddalena (also played by Steele), who lived 200 years ago, was desired by all of the men in the area and hired a sculptor (also Steffen) to preserve her beauty in marble. The statue was then placed in the village public square for all to admire. Maddalena's sister Belinda, who wasn't blessed with her sibling's beauty and couldn't find a single man to love her, walked in on her sister and the sculptor (whom she had fallen in love with) in bed. For revenge, Belinda decides to destroy the statue. Unfortunately, when she attempts to push it into the lake, she falls in with it and drowns. Now her restless spirit wants revenge and a second chance at life. Since the face on the statue is damaged and Harriet looks a lot like Maddalena, Roberto convinces her to model for the restoration. That leaves the door open for the vengeful ancestor to possess Harriet and cause all kinds of problems for everyone.

Since Belinda was something of a sadist, the once-sweet Harriet now gets her kicks sinking her claws into all of the menfolk in the area and basically trying to destroy the lives of everyone she comes into contact with. She chastises Roberto for not holding her tightly enough and manages to completely alienate him in just one day. She strips off her clothes in front of the retarded / virginal gardener (“Have you ever seen a naked woman?”) and then whips him with her riding crop for looking at her. After that encounter, the poor guy loses it and goes on a rape / murder spree until he runs into a mob of angry villagers armed with pitchforks. Belinda then works her magic on both Dario the teacher, who she seduces in a greenhouse, and Rita, who she seduces with lesbian passes, expensive gifts and the promise that “We'll have so much fun... making men suffer.” That all ends in a suicide. Belinda even manages to get Carlo the brute so hot and bothered that he not only forsakes his wife and five kids for her but eventually burns them all alive! A twist ending reveals a conspiracy involving hypnosis but that's not really the main selling point of this one.

Though fairly light on the horror, this is a well-made dark fantasy  / melodrama that should please fans of these kind of movies. There's an elegant, romantic musical score from Francesco De Masi, moody black-and-white photography from Giuseppe Aquari and good art direction, costumes and the like. The plot is nothing to write home about but this works well as a showcase for the gorgeous Steele. The British-born actress delivers big time here with an amazingly sensual and sinister performance that pretty much makes the entire film. When she's on screen, all eyes are on her and she completely dominates the proceedings. This is the exact kind of role Ms. Steele excelled at. While she plays the "good" heroine adequately, she really shines being seductive, manipulative and wickedly evil. If you want to see why she's the only actress from this era held in as high regard as male genre superstars like Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, your proof is right here. As far as the rest of the cast is concerned, Steffen makes for a very good, very likable male lead and everyone else does fine. Halina Zalewska  (Snow Devils) and Giovanna Lenzi (Deadly Inheritance) have small roles as peasant girls.

This was the ninth and final Italian horror vehicle for Steele. The others were BLACK SUNDAY (1960), The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962), The Ghost (1963), Castle of Blood (1964), THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH (1964), Nightmare Castle (1965), TERROR-CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE (1965) and THE SHE BEAST (1966). If you count the Roger Corman-directed American production The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), that's an impressive ten horror films in just six years for the actress. Director / co-writer / production manager Mastrocinque (who passed away in 1969, just three years after this was released) also made Crypt of the Vampires (1964), an early adaptation of Le Fanu's Carmilla starring Lee and also featuring Ursula Davis.

Angel was the rarest Steele film for decades and remains one of the actress' least-watched films. Italian-language bootlegs in really bad shape were all that was available for the longest time. In 2009, Midnight Choir / Ryko released a restored French-dubbed cut of the film with English subtitles (for the first time ever). Their release also comes with Long Hair of Death.

★★★

Guzoo: Kami ni misuterareshi mono - Part I (1986)

... aka: Girl Trap
... aka: Gu*Zoo
... aka: Guzoo
... aka: Guzoo: The Thing Abandoned By God
... aka: Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken By God – Part 1
... aka: Guzû: Kami ni misuterareshi mono
... aka: Life After Dead

Directed by:
Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu

Four giggly teenage girls; professor's daughter Minako (Yumiko Ishikawa), whiny and immature “crybaby” Yuka (Naomi Kajitani), mystery buff Katsuko (Kyôko Komiyama) and shy Mayumi (Tomoko Maruyama), go on vacation to the Muikamacha Hot Springs. After a rousing game of Old Maid, they head off to a country boarding house where they meet Tomoko Kujô (Hidemi Maruyama). Tomoko, a researcher and archaeologist who claims to know Minako's father, is managing the place for the owners in exchange for using their basement to conduct some kind of research she's very vague about. Katsuko, who fancies herself a sleuth, sneaks downstairs to investigate a strange smell and runs right into Tomoko, who tells her the stench is a powerful solvent she uses to clean up fossils. She makes Katsuko promise never to go in the basement before sending her on her way. While the girls are out enjoying the scenery, Tomoko then sneaks into their room, opens all their bags and smashes the mirrors in each of their compacts.

It isn't long before some monster starts attacking. While they're playing volleyball in the pool, Yuka is attacked and scratched by something Tomoko calls a kamaitachi; an “invisible weasel” (!) with sickle claws that lives in whirlwinds. Later that night, Yuka is attacked again in the kitchen by a tentacle that emerges from a mirror and attempts to pull her inside. Tomoko, who is also spotted by one of the girls carrying around a tub of raw maggoty meat, claims it must have been a “nocturnal animal” that somehow got inside. The lady researcher has a silly or vague answer for pretty much everything, including what she's up to in the basement. She claims to be on the verge of discovering an ultra-advanced ancient civilization and leaves it at that.

The creature in question is called a guzoo. A parasitic being, the guzoo have been around since the beginning of time and have followed a completely different evolutionary path than any other species. As a result, they can assume the shape of both humans and any animal of its choosing. At least that's what the opening narration tells us. What we actually see in the film itself is essentially a large creature that looks quite a bit like Audrey II with a huge mouth full of fangs, loads of razor tentacles and a rude habit of making obnoxious flatulent noises. It can be controlled by playing a special flute and seems to live in another parallel dimension. The shape-shifting abilities of the creature are not explored at all and only come into play at the very end and this sets up a formula where it can only access our world via mirrors but then breaks its own rules whenever its convenient. Knowing all she knows, why Tomoko would take the time to destroy the teen's little makeup mirrors and not the multiple other mirrors in the house (or at least attempt to hide them for the time being) is just one of many things that don't make a lick of sense. Actually you're best off not thinking about the plot or the creature mythology all that much since neither is very well developed.

In a nutshell, this shot-on-video effort was made to showcase a bit of gore for the Japanese home video market and that's pretty much it. There's one excellent scene where the creature thrusts a tentacle into a girl's mouth and her chest erupts with a bunch of smaller tentacles and a couple of other OK bloody moments (like a head being bitten off) plus some fun monster effects. A number of similar and near plotless gore films emerged in Japan at around the same time in the 80s. Some were videotaped, some were shot on film and a good number ran around an hour or less. This one's only 40 minutes long and was released in Japan on VHS through Vzone Video; a short-lived arm of the Japanese zine Vzone Magazine. Considering this is called “Part 1,” Vzone Video probably would have also released “Part 2” had one actually been made.

Director Komizu started as an assistant on films like the Richard Speck-inspired pinku VIOLATED ANGELS (1967) and went on to write many soft core “roman porno” films for Nikkatsu. He is probably best known however for the utterly tasteless yet not very good “Guts” horror / gore / rape fetish trilogy, which includes the films ENTRAILS OF A VIRGIN (1986), ENTRAILS OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (1986) and Rusted Body: Guts of a Virgin III aka Female Inquisitor (1987). His Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay (1991) also received a DVD release here in America.

★★