Review of Satan's Baby Doll (1982) by Dougal S — 05 Oct 2011

What do you do if you accidentally strangle your wife during a heroin fuelled rage? Leave her lying around in the cellar of your castle whilst your butler does black magic rituals and you chase after a nun that lives with you to look after your crippled brother! Well you do if you're in Satan's Baby Doll.

This is a very obscure bit of Italian sleaze that hasn't been seen in anything like it's entirety since it's release in 1982. To be honest that isn't any great loss as it's interminable pacing and complete lack of any real plot means it manages to drag even though it only clocks in at just under 75 minutes. That 75 minutes also includes some new footage salvaged from a rare copy of the XXX version which was believed to be lost forever. (In case anyone's wondering this film was originally intended as an arthouse porno of the type that were popular in the late 70s, odd thrillers or dramas that had half an hour or so of hardcore sex added in for no apparent reason.).

Unfortunately the XXX footage doesn't help much as much of it is the aforementioned nun caressing herself (over and over again for the best part of five minutes) and getting it on with the dead mistress of the house.

In case you were wondering the 'plot' involves a dysfunctional family of aristocrats who all live in a large castle. The wife dies but possesses her young daughter who goes around killing everyone and prompting flashbacks of how they'd all romped with the mistress of the house at some time or other.

I watched the 'Shameless' DVD which has been lovingly restored, including sourcing the formerly lost footage which has been painstakingly replaced and you have to admire their passion for forgotten Italian cinema. It doesn't come with an English soundtrack so it's presented in the original Italian with English subtitles. The transfer is superb considering the base material but you can't help wondering if it was really worth all the effort.

So I gave it two stars just because of the care put into it. If it was just for the film itself I might have stretched to one...