An Angel for Satan.

I was in an odd mood so I watched:

An Angel for Satan (1966).

This Italian Gothic with its terrific title, was directed by veteran Camillo Mastrocinque and stars the amazing Barbara Steele, Anthony Steffen, Claudio Gora, Mario Brega and many more.

The story is this; It is the late 1800's, and artist Roberto Merigi (Anthony Steffen) arrives at a lakeside manor in order to restore a statue from the 1600's that's been retrieved from the lake. The local villagers are terrified as the statue is said to not only be cursed, but also be the likeness of a witch, who was also the local countess. Merigi meets his employer, the Count Montebruno (Claudio Gora) and later on the new owner Countess Harriet Montebruno (Barbara Steele). Harriet, the count's niece has been away in England for her education since being a little girl. In no time, people start dying and Harriet starts to behave very strangely. That the statue retrieved from the lake is the perfect likeness of Harriet can't be a coincidence, right? Ultimately the question becomes, is the curse real, is it all a mundane conspiracy, or maybe both?

An Angel for Satan marks the last of Barbara Steele's seven Italian Gothic movies that started with Mario Bava's wonderful Black Sunday (1960). This movie is not as elegant as Black Sunday, but it is pretty good nevertheless. I find that more often than not, you have to critique a movie within its own genre. Sure, some elements of any film are universal, such as sound, editing, cinematography etc, but I can't compare a movie like An Angel for Satan with The Great Escape (1963). This is a Gothic horror and as such it has to be judged.

The story is serviceable and solid if not terribly original. The “person who might be possessed by an ancestor” trope is old indeed, but it's good when done well. Here it works fairly well, but I question a couple of plot points I don't want to spoil. Essentially this is what makes me question if the presented solution at the end really is the whole story. Like with The Innocents (1961), everyone has to make up their own mind.

Mechanically An Angel for Satan is solid and very competent. Nothing stands out as either superb or subpar, leaving you with a movie that stands firmly in the middle of the road. What really pushes this movie above average is the atmosphere and the actors.

The atmosphere is delightfully Gothic but it doesn't overdo it like Roger Corman had a tendency to do. Sure, if you're going to do it, do it properly and all that, but sometimes a bit of restraint is a good thing.

The actors are first class. Admittedly, the obligatory dubbing was at times so over the top that it detracts a bit from the final result, but that is not on the actors.

So, do I recommend this movie? If you like old Gothic movies, absolutely! Although the start is a bit slow, once things get going you are going to get a really nice movie. There's something about An Angel for Satan that evokes a sense of Giallo, a genre that basically took over once the Gothic era ended. Solid all throughout, I had a very good time, and I may just watch a few more of it's kind in the near future.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!