"Based on true events" and thanking a university ethnology department, Il Demonio (The Demon) prides itself on its authenticity, and it definitely throws its research up on the screen. Daliah Lavi plays a tormented witch in a small and very superstitious Italian town (what interesting locations!) who for the love of a man, casts spells and curses, and is amply punished for it. Striking black and white photography captures her turmoil, as well as the ritualistic practices of the town - marriages, funerals, and other rituals, not just pertaining to those dealing with witchcraft. Cultural authenticity might have been used to make the audience swallow the supernatural, but it's appreciably ambiguous about this. Is witchcraft, demonic possession and attendant ecclesiastical remedies real? As beliefs and practices, absolutely. But the rational mind can usually find a more reasonable explanation for what we see in the film, whether the girl's broken mind (frankly justified) on which the filter of these beliefs has been imposed, or perception, or even coincidence. If you choose to believe, however, the movie doesn't disabuse you of the notion.
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Siskoid
"Based on true events" and thanking a university ethnology department, Il Demonio (The Demon) prides itself on its authenticity, and it definitely throws its research up on the screen. Daliah Lavi plays a tormented witch in a small and very superstitious Italian town (what interesting locations!) who for the love of a man, casts spells and curses, and is amply punished for it. Striking black and white photography captures her turmoil, as well as the ritualistic practices of the town - marriages, funerals, and other rituals, not just pertaining to those dealing with witchcraft. Cultural authenticity might have been used to make the audience swallow the supernatural, but it's appreciably ambiguous about this. Is witchcraft, demonic possession and attendant ecclesiastical remedies real? As beliefs and practices, absolutely. But the rational mind can usually find a more reasonable explanation for what we see in the film, whether the girl's broken mind (frankly justified) on which the filter of these beliefs has been imposed, or perception, or even coincidence. If you choose to believe, however, the movie doesn't disabuse you of the notion.