Lisa and the Devil

Lore & Background

Lisa and the Devil was the second film Mario Bava made with producer Alfredo Leone, who gave Bava complete creative control. The story was developed by Giorgio Maulini, Romano Migliorini, Roberto Natale, and Francesca Rusicka, with some dialogue lifted from Dostoyevsky's novel The Demons. Filming took place in Spain from early September to late November 1972 under the working title Il diavolo e i morti. The film was first shown at the Cannes Film Market on 9 May 1973, a screening described as 'disastrous' by film historian Roberto Curti. It was submitted to Italian censors in November 1973 with a runtime of 86 minutes and 25 seconds, and released theatrically in Spain on 25 November 1974. The original cut received a limited theatrical release in Italy in 1975 under the title 'Lisa e il diavolo'.

Reader's Guide

Lisa and the Devil is significant for its surreal, dreamlike narrative and its troubled release history. After a lukewarm reception, producer Alfredo Leone retooled the film into The House of Exorcism, adding newly-filmed exorcism scenes to exploit the popularity of The Exorcist. Mario Bava permitted the new cut but only claimed ownership of the original. Decades later, Bava's original cut was released on home video and received a more positive response. Retrospective reviews praise the original for its lyrical, ambiguous storyline and nightmarish imagery, while noting that the exorcism version is inferior. The film remains a cult object in Bava's filmography, illustrating the tension between artistic vision and commercial pressures in 1970s horror cinema.

Did You Know?

• The film was first released in Spain as El diablo se lleva a los muertos (lit. 'The Devil Takes the Dead').
• Some lines of dialogue were lifted verbatim from Dostoyevsky's novel The Demons.
• The House of Exorcism version added a framing story featuring an exorcist played by Robert Alda.