IMDb > La bimba di Satana (1982) > IMDb user comments

IMDb user comments for
La bimba di Satana (1982) More at IMDbPro »

Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Index 10 comments in total 

6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Hassle in the Castle, Italian Style, 12 April 2007
6/10
Author: Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) from New York, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It has taken me a while to understand this Italian supernatural soap opera from Mario Bianchi, but thanks to a new English subtitled DVD from Kult Films of Germany it all make sense. While it may come off to non-Italian speaking viewers as a somewhat plodding, action deprived Gothic something-or-other, this is a pretty little perverse study in moods & style that deserves a second look by fans of Italian horror.

The plot is deceptively simple: A wealthy dirtbag with a taste for smack throttles his philandering wife in a fit of rage after discovering her illicit lesbian affair with the sexy, shapely nun employed to care for the man's invalid brother. During her funeral she possesses the body of her sexy teenage daughter and over the course of the film compels the girl to bring about the deaths of everyone in the household that the woman had slept with. Which was all of them, at one point or another, including a sinister looking butler who was apparently dabbling in the black arts down in his private little satanic shrine in the catacombs near the family crypt and somehow enabled the woman's allegiance to Lucifer.

Or, something like that. Legends abound that this was originally a full-blown hardcore sex film though the only surviving prints amount to a roughly 72 minute (PAL 25fps: all known versions are PAL transfers) celebration of moods and deviancy that is deceptively tame looking. Lesbianism, necrophilia, voyeurism, incest, drug abuse, and cold-blooded murder from beyond the grave prevail as director Bianchi sets a deliberate, meditative pace that wallows in the film's ornate, Gothic trappings, all of it set to a decidedly melancholy and evocative keyboard/vocal musical score by Nico Catanese that gives it all an air of sadness that is distinctively at odds with the rather high sleaze quotient.

The cement that holds it all together is another standout method performance by Spaghetti Western veteran Aldo Sanbrell as the heroin-shooting, domineering, loyalty obsessed aristocrat who is a living portrait of rage barely controlled. One of Sanbrell's gifts as a genre actor has been to embody the sort of contained violence that is always threatening to spill over and literally murder someone ... Rumors of his tenuous grip on sanity in the real world only heighten the pleasure of watching him with veins popping at his temples & sweat beading on his brow as he shakes with rage. He simply looks like a man who is capable of anything no matter how despicable, and the film's most harrowing segment turns out to be the sequence of ingeniously staged shots of him wheeling his invalid brother into the family crypt to be abandoned to sit there and rot, unable to move or even call out for help. What a guy.

Between weird, bizarrely staged killings there is sex galore, typical of the Italian "male gaze" oriented fantasies typified by interludes of female masturbation that are actually rather erotic for a change without being necessarily graphic. This is one of those Italian horror movies where women walk around completely naked or more modestly clothed in designer lingerie made to display the female body. Even the nun wears thigh high sheer white stockings with platform shoes more fitting for a go-go dancer than a sister of the cloth. And the bulk of the story is either set in the dank, crumbling catacombs or a marvelously ornate castle that for once is spotlessly clean, well lit, and gleaming with wealth & opulence. No cluttered cobwebby Dracula hovel this time.

The one drawback that Americanized viewers may find in the film is it's deliberate and meditative pacing, which to me makes it even more soap opera like, with the widescreen camera angles filled with the trappings of an Italian film producer's idea of the good life. All the while the haunting, melancholy musical score wails on in the background making this a more advanced form of a ghost story than even something like SUSPIRIA. I wish it was even more sad and contemplative, but to each his own.

6/10: Underrated and due for rediscovery, though for my money there probably was no hardcore version. People just wished their was.

Was the above comment useful to you?

7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Sleazy Italian possession flick., 3 December 2007
7/10
Author: TheAgonyOfPlasma from Kokura, Japan

"La Bimba di Satana" by Mario Bianchi is actually a remake of Andrea Bianchi's supremely sleazy "Malabimba". It was shot as a hard core sex feature from the outset. There is plenty of explicit sex, perversity and full-frontal nudity in this lovely piece of Italian smut. The role of the innocent nun who is thrown into nightmare of possession plays again Mariangela Giordano, famous from "Burial Ground" and "Giallo a Venezia". There is also a little bit of zombie action, unfortunately the complete pornographic version of this piece of sleaze is probably lost forever. Still if you enjoyed "Malabimba" you can't go wrong with "La Bimba di Satana". The story of possessed Miria is just so wonderfully murky and sleazy that it truly has to be seen to be believed. She is apparently possessed by her dead mother, or her ghost, using the image of her daughter and is soon erotically enticing everyone in the castle and killing them off one by one.

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
SATAN'S BABY DOLL (Mario Bianchi, 1982) **, 21 November 2007
4/10
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

Some sources (including the afore-mentioned "Stracult") consider this to be a superior film to MALABIMBA – THE MALICIOUS WHORE (1979), of which this is a revamp (and therefore sufficiently different not to qualify as a direct remake) but I certainly disagree. To begin with, there is only a fair amount of nudity but little sex in itself and none of the hardcore variety; in fact, it's rather heavier on horror content compared to the original, even going so far as to include a completely irrelevant (if reasonably eerie) marauding mummy scene!

On the whole, SATAN'S BABY DOLL is a much more somber film and, consequently, a good deal less entertaining than MALABIMBA itself (which, at least, had rampant nudity and campiness to compensate for its other deficiencies). Conversely, the later film is a more compact affair with not only less characters (7 in all) but a much shorter running time at only 74 minutes. Another good score is provided and I thought Mariangela Giordano (who, at 45, certainly looks great in the nude) was better here than she was in MALABIMBA. The lead, Jacqueline Dupre', is quite lovely as well (though I personally preferred Laennec) and, like her predecessor, this was her only movie to date.

Unfortunately, the cons greatly outnumber the pros in this case: the baffling butler characterization (and the resulting hideously hammy performance) is a definite eyesore, as is the sloppy editing (especially during the scene where the paraplegic uncle imagines Giordano writhing passionately in bed). Spaghetti Western regular Aldo Sambrell is curious casting for the unsympathetic vengeful head of the family and his sluttish wife (whose spirit possesses the teenage lead) is not all that attractive either (which did not prevent her from getting it on with the novice while still alive)!

When everything is said and done, I don't think SATAN'S BABY DOLL merited a DVD release of its own and would have been better served as a double-feature with MALABIMBA...not least because such a move would have decreased their collective purchase price and saved shelf space to prospective buyers! Curiously enough, there's no option to watch either film without English subtitles and I had to manually remove them during playback!

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
"That's impossible!", 16 August 2008
5/10
Author: The_Void from Beverley Hills, England

Mario Bianchi's A Girl for Satan is apparently a remake of Andrea Bianchi's Malabimba, and although I can't compare the two having not yet seen Malabimba; this remake is stylish and sexy enough to at least be considered half decent. I've read that Malabimba is a rather more hardcore affair; and it would seem that the director here tried to cut that out, and while this film does feature a fair amount of nudity; there's no hardcore sex scenes, but this does actually benefit the film as it certainly seems a lot more erotic than it would have been were it padded out with a load of sex scenes. The plot is mostly nonsensical but has something to do with demonic possession and some horny naked woman coming back from the dead. Our lead character is a young girl who gets possessed by the spirit of her dead mother; who was murdered by her husband. The mother uses the girl in order to get revenge on a whole range of people that had something to do with it; including the family doctor and her husband's crippled brother.

As is always the case with cheap Italian trash, the script here leaves a lot to be desired and there's far too many scenes in which the characters say 'that's impossible!'. In fact, it happens just about every five minutes or so and naturally it's not long at all before it starts to get very tiresome. The film's main assets belong to Jacqueline Dupré, who is simply stunning and doesn't seem to mind getting her kit off at every given opportunity; and that's no bad thing. The film does look fairly cheap; but some of the set design is nice to look and the lighting is also marginally impressive - which does help the atmosphere of the film. It does get a bit hard to follow at times because the plot line takes so many illogical steps; but the style and the leading lady do at least serve in keeping things mostly interesting. At just seventy minutes, the film is rather short so it doesn't really have to become too boring. Of course, it all turns out to be a big waste of time in the end as the film never goes anywhere and doesn't really do anything; but even so, there's worse trash out there and this does at least have some redeeming elements.

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Guilty Pleasure, 16 February 2008
6/10
Author: thewag777 from Florida

Here we have a sensual, creepy, and sleazy indie horror. Much of it is very erotic, borders on soft core porn, but the horror of the film is too good to pass this off as a hornography. It has it's gore, but it relies heavily on scene setting and subtlety rather than just another boobs and blood. With that said, the various nude scenes and especially the lesbian stuff towards the end clearly degenerate this film, but then, who can deny enjoying that! The baby doll herself, Miria, is beautiful and young, and plays the role well. Just wait till you see her in bed being possessed...get the cold shower ready! Definitely worth seeing! Not a masterpiece by far, but good fun! I rate it 6 of 10.

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Toothless remake of "Malabimba", 7 February 2008
Author: lazarillo

Producer Gabriel Crisanti along with his then wife, the sumptuous Mariangela Giordano, produced and sometimes co-wrote a number of horror/sex movies in late 1970's, always displaying an appalling lack of good taste that was sometimes a good thing ("Malabimba" and "Burial Ground")and sometimes not such a good thing ("Giallo Venezia" and "Patrick Lives Again") depending on the relative talents of the director. (The first pair was directed by a somewhat talented hack, Andrea Bianchi, while the second pair was directed by talentless hack, Mario Landi). This movie is unusual in that Crisanto uses a third director, Mario Bianchi, the brother of Andrea, to basically remake his brother's film "Malabimba", and the result, rather than being repellent and unpleasant like the Landi films, is more just toothless and boring.

A woman is murdered by her drug addict husband, and (while still an attractive nude corpse lying on the slab) she manages to possess her nubile young daughter and uses her to get revenge on her husband, her husband's bent doctor (who was also her lover), her husband's crippled brother (who was ALSO a former lover), and the local priest because. . .well, he's a Catholic priest. She doesn't really NEED to possess her daughter though since she also seems to have incredible psychic abilities that among other things allow her to reanimate the dead.

Of course, the name of the game of all these movies is sex, and here this movie is a mixed bag. If you favor mature, voluptuous "madonnas" like Giordano you will not be disappointed with her portrayal of a compulsively naked and self-gratifying nun (the mother is also pretty damn attractive given the considerable handicap of lying dead on a slab for most of the movie). On the other hand, if you prefer the nubile, barely legal "lolitas" the unknown Jacqueline Dupree is a very poor substitute for Catyl Laennac in "Malabimba" in that she fails to masturbate with a teddy bear or fellate her own uncle to death or even get naked below the waist. What will be disappointing to either camp though is that the inter-generational lesbian sex scenes of "Malabimba" that pass for "the exorcism" have been replaced here instead by a strange scene of necrophilia (albeit one that makes necrophilia look pretty attractive). It might have been pointless to remake "Malabimba" to begin with, but this is compounded by the the filmmakers not faithfully imitating the first film nearly enough.

There is also, by the way, a hardcore version of this film out there, but while some may disagree, nowhere in the history of cinema that I know of has hardcore footage ever IMPROVED a movie. Not really recommended. Stick with "Malabimba".

Was the above comment useful to you?

1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Satan's Baby Doll, 28 February 2008
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

Satan's Baby Doll (1982)

** (out of 4)

Remake of Malabimba, The Malicious Whore follows the same storyline pretty much and also cuts out the hardcore sex scenes. This time out it's Jacqueline Dupre playing the young girl who is being possessed and Mariangela Giordano reprises her role as the nun. This is a pretty straight forward remake so if you've seen the original movie then you're not going to have any twists or turns that you don't see coming. It's hard to say which movie is better as both have good and bad things going for them. I think this one works nicely without the hardcore scenes but at the same time this film here isn't nearly as sexy or erotic as the original. This film is also pretty straight forward and doesn't contain as many campy moments, which is the main reason I'd rewatch the original over this one. This one here does have some great cinematography and some nice eye candy in the form of the beautiful naked women but I wouldn't really call this film necessary.

Was the above comment useful to you?

0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Satan's Baby Doll, 2 August 2009
6/10
Author: Scarecrow-88 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The vengeful spirit of a murdered woman(..strangled by her loathsome cretin impotent husband, Antonio Aguilar, played by Aldo Sambrell), Maria(Marina Hedman, naked pretty much the entire film)wreaks havoc on all the inhabitants of an isolated castle on a hill, using the body of her daughter, Miria(Jacqueline Dupré)in order to do so. Those affected include Antonio's paraplegic brother, Ignazio, the family's medical doctor, Juan, their truly deranged "priest" Iridio, and nun Solo(Mariangela Giordano). All, except perhaps the bug-eyed priest, had sexual relations with Maria resulting in Antonio's rage, fueling his desire, after her death, to get revenge on each person involved with the woman.

Plenty of wicked deviant behavior and warped shenanigans in Mario Bianchi's answer to his brother's superior Malabimba, the Malicious Whore. Jacqueline Dupré is little more than a blank puppet whose eyes are soulless and lost, but she has a magnificent, gorgeously tanned naked body, seen mostly throughout the film moving around the castle in a gown confronting those in the castle as her mother seeks lives. Aldo Sambrell is a really despicable sleazoid creep, often attempting to ravage Giordana's Sol...Antonio is also an addict, using his brother's pain medication, injecting it in his arm. There's plenty of bizarre hi-jinx including the red-suited priest's tearing into the neck of a rooster, blood drenched teeth, bug-eyed lunacy, chanting over the mummified corpse of an Aguilar ancestor attempting to woo Maria's spirit from Miria's body, and generally wailing away on the concrete floor inside the bowels of the castle. The mummy is really an inspired moment in the film, a blast from the past finding it's way into this very strange possession thriller. Where Satan was supposed to be is never quite elaborated..that or how Maria was able to enter her daughter's body(..was she a practicing witch?). Mariangela Giordano essentially reprises a similar character to the nun protector in Malabimba, except her role as Sol is a little more naughty. Giordano has quite an effective striptease as she removes her habit, those long white stockings, letting her hair fall, with Antonio's brother peeping in on her, through the crack of the door, fantasizing about her masturbating and fondling herself. Mario Bianchi's camera work is quite good as is the atmospheric castle itself an effective setting. Short running time of 75 minutes with little padding, with the story moving along rather quickly. While the film doesn't quite match Malabimba in overall erotic power or twisted audacity, Satan's Baby Doll certainly still contains it's share of gratuitous elements. Like so many other films, Satan's Baby Doll just can not live up to it's alluring, macabre poster cover art.

Was the above comment useful to you?

1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Nonsensical Euro-smut at its most lurid and ... stylish?!?, 21 January 2008
5/10
Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

I don't quite know what to make of "Satan's Baby Doll", to be honest. As the title suggests, it's another cheap, wicked-minded and umpteenth excuse for Italian producers to come up with sleaze and satanic nonsense – and it is – but on the other hand it's a surprisingly stylish and well-made film. Yes, really! Well, talking in terms of early 80's exploitation standards and in comparison with the other titles on director Mario Bianchi's repertoire, that is. It even has a plot that is slightly above average, competent acting performances (I'm not kidding!) and genuine young beauty that sadly only ever appeared in this one film. Oh Jacqueline Dupré, what an angel you are. The sinister events all take place inside the walls of an ancient family castle atop a hillside. This location is always filmed from underneath in the valley, just to make really sure the viewer knows we're dealing with a very isolated setting here. The lady of the house just died, but she was involved with black magic rites and Satanism, so her malignant spirit attempts to return from the afterlife. She finds the perfect host inside the ravishing body of her young daughter Myra and commands her to kill all the remaining dirt bags in the castle. So what we have here, basically, is an Italian variation on "The Exorcist" (another one), but with a Gothic setting and buckets full of gratuitous nudity. Also living in the castle is a masturbating nun, a Peeping Tom in a wheelchair, a sleazy lawyer, a crazy voodoo-obsessed servant and the sickly jealous and tyrant patriarch. There are quite a lot of senseless dialogs and boring parts you unfortunately have to struggle yourself through, but the death scenes are fairly imaginative and Dupré beauty & sex-appeal brightens up the screen with every appearance she makes. The other female leads are filled in by Mariangela Giordano (yes, THE woman whose nipple gets bitten off by her creep son in "Burial Ground") as the household nun and by adult movie starlet Marina Hedman as the undead but still very horny Maria. This is bizarre early 80's exploitation, to say the least , but it's worth seeing if only for the imaginative choreography, the uncanny set pieces, the ominous musical guidance (courtesy of Nico Catanese) and the naked body of Jacqueline Dupré. Shallow? You bet!

Was the above comment useful to you?

4 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
What a waste of time, 11 April 2001
1/10
Author: mglory67 from USA

I got this print from Video Search of Miami, not really knowing for sure what I was in for. I was under the impression that this was a possession movie, and it is, sort of. Unfortunately, all of the characters are so boring that after a while you stop caring who's doing what to whom. The basic plotline is this: young girl becomes possessed by the spirit of her dead mother while left in the care of her tyrannical father. There are a number of other people living in the house, but it isn't really explained what they're doing there. In fact, there isn't much in the way of a plot either. There a few really sleazy moments which I won't give away for you exploitation fans. Ultimately, this one is for diehard fans of the genre only.

Was the above comment useful to you?

Add another comment

Related Links

Plot summary Ratings External reviews
Plot keywords Main details Your user comments
Your vote history