Product Description

A previously lost sleaze masterpiece, chock-a-block with lesbianism, whippings, black magic and dubious dubbing. This is Italian gothic with huge dollops of seventies style. A man who seeks help for an injured woman at a gothic castle finds it inhabited with his and her "darker" halves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52575 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-04-27
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, Dubbed, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.com
Two strangers who wreck their cars on a rural highway during a storm take refuge in a mansion. A doctor (James Harris), who has left an unconscious woman, Susan (the striking Rita Calderoni), in his car walks in to discover depravities behind every door when Susan suddenly appears, dressed in a flowing gown and acting as if they were old friends. The next morning, Susan wakes up in his car and enters the mansion to find a leering aristocrat, his snaggle-toothed servant, and the doctor dressed as a count and acting like a decadent dilettante. It's as if the two exist in parallel universes, confronted with ghost versions of one another in a portal to the past controlled by a devilish hedonist. Director Luigi Batzella deftly combines the weirdly stylized horror and out-and-out exploitation (scenes of bondage, torture, unmotivated sex, and an orgy are sprinkled throughout) for a film dripping in eerie mood and nightmare imagery. The doppleganger story of split psyches doesn't always make sense, and a few clumsily executed scenes are laughably silly (a hoary papier mâché and pipe-cleaner spider is the worst offender), but the handsome production is unexpectedly compelling and unsettling.

The DVD offers both original Italian and dubbed English soundtracks, with optional subtitles. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Weird but fascinating Euro-sleeze horror
The sight of a woman in white gown spread open, running full frontal through the woods has got to be a good sign, coming as it does in Nude For Satan's opening moments.

On his way to a house call, racing down the highway in his VW bug, Doctor William Benson nearly has an accident as he sees the woman in white standing in the middle of the road. As he is recovering from his near miss, he hears a crash behind him. He finds a Mini with the woman inside injured, presumably for the same reason as he. He puts Susan in his car and goes for help. Note: how did he know her name later? He didn't go through her purse or anything that I could see.

He finds a castle and enters. The place is a deserted and decrepit place. He sees a painting of a woman, then finds that woman rushing to greet him. To his surprise, it's none other than the woman he rescued, except she calls him Peter. She's also more carefree and happy, and she ends up seducing him. She also spouts some puzzling words on memory and time: "What is memory but a fraction of time wrapped in the parentheses of the past?" Wow, sounds like dialogue from Dr. Who, Colin Baker era. And also, "The past is not in time anymore, and time is silence. There is no space here for memories--it's always now."

Meanwhile, Susan, apparently recovered, goes to the castle, where she is invited in by a mysterious man in black. He welcomes her in but there's a sinister air about him, as he momentarily undresses her with a glance of his eyes. A hallucination or no? She sees a painting of a man who looks like William, except he's dressed in 19th century clothes. She runs into him, and he not only calls her Evelyn, but acts like a buffoon. What's happening should be kind of obvious by now, adding the woman's mysterious words, and those of a book William finds: "The light is twofold, the way is only one. The essence of life is not in time. He who has made a pact with Him, belongs to Him."

The mysterious stranger says some words about life that are intriguing and true: "... an illusion, like life. We delude ourselves that we live, that we love, that we die. When we see our mistake, we prefer to ignore it. Then, everything becomes a nightmare." A nightmare is exactly what William and Susan go through once they figure out what's going on.

There's whippings, lesbian sex, and enough full frontal nudity. Rita Calderoni (Susan/Evelyn) also played a dual role in The Reincarnation Of Isabel as Laureen/Isabella, and we see more of her here than in Isabel. If this didn't have the skin and violence, this would make a great Dr. Who story. As it is, it's a piece of weird but fascinating Euro-horror, more coherent than The Reincarnation Of Isabel, and with a good puzzle for the viewer to figure out.

Nude, Nude, Nude
With the title of the movie, there is no doubt you will get to see nudity, but this film is much better than that. It is the best non-Jean Rollin film in the DVD Redemption line, and the only one in my collection other than the Rollin films.

Surreal, creepy, the lovely Rita Calderoni, in her most nude role, and all the campy goth and eerie locations and characters that a classic 70's sexploitation horror film should be. A classic.

Atmospheric Italian Horror
By no means is this a classic of horror cinema (apparently it's been locked away in a vault since it's disastrous Italian one-screening release in the 70's), but it is nonetheless a fun and moody descent into euro-erotic atmosphere. There is a creepy feel to the proceedings which is backed by a foreboding musical score, solid acting and stylistic use of lighting and camera movements. It's very low-budget and the narrative is minimal, but the film's shortcomings are redeemed by it's dream-like ambience. Nudity abounds and there's a very fake spider, but this is one small gem that italian horror fans should check out. The DVD lets you watch it in Italian with english subtitles (this is the better choice) or in the English-dubbed version. Also contains the Italian and the English trailers.