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  • Writer's pictureKelly M. Hudson

Incest, Gothic Castles, and Demons! (sort of...)


Barbara (Claudia Gravy) returns to her family estate after being gone for a year, to find her loving brother Lionello (Mark Damon) excited at her arrival. Lionello has an incestuous lust and love for his sister, one she returns but does not act upon. After all, she tells him, they are brother and sister, and it isn’t right. Things get complicated quick when Lionello finds out Barbara married while she was gone, and her husband is there with her. Deeply upset and utterly rejected, Lionello finds himself dabbling in black magic and summoning up the demon Byleth. As he does so, women in the surrounding area start turning up dead, with mysterious three-pronged stab wounds to their necks. Someone is murdering the women. Is it Lionello, the now-deranged and rejected brother, or is it the demon Byleth, summoned from the depths of Hell?

So yeah, this one should have been right up my alley, and in many ways it was. Lots of softcore nudity helped, but there’s only so many scenes of writhing bodies with big bushes carrying out very awkward sex that a man can take before even that starts to get a little boring, too. Billed as a gothic demon-possession movie, with touches of giallo here and there, Byleth the Demon of Incest doesn’t quite live up to those lofty descriptors. Sure, it’s true, there is a lot of gothic flourish to the proceedings, the castle full of rich imagery and deep atmosphere, and yeah, there’s some demon action (mostly just a dark-clad figure riding on a white horse), and yep, some dude if offing hot women while wearing all black and wielding a strange knife/stick thing. But all those don’t really add up to anything very exciting. Most of the movie is composed of histrionic moments between Lionello and Barbara, with Lionello chewing the scenery. His emo suffering would rival that of the great Romantic poets. There’s far too much of this, even if it is interesting at times, and far too less of the violence and demonic possession. This is a film stitched together with lots of nudity, lots of Lionello kvetching, and dibs and dabs of horror.

In short, this is an okay film but doesn’t really live up to its naughty reputation. I supposed the incest bits are somewhat nauseating, but we really don’t see much; it’s mostly just talk and Lionello’s possessive stares. In other words, very bland. There is a tension between them, but it’s never let loose. Anyway, yeah, this is a curiosity and worth a view if you’re trying to fill in your knowledge gaps on strange and weird Italian films, but otherwise, I would say you have better things to do with your time.

★★☆☆


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