Satan's Baby Doll, has much in common
with Malabimba, which I covered in Tuesday's edition. Both were written and produced by the same person, and
both take place in a castle where the family matriarch has died, and the young daughter becomes possessed. Further, Mariangela Giordano plays a
girl about to become a nursing nun in both films, and both
films have an uncle who is a vegetable.
Marina Hedman has just died, but seems
to come back to life and scares young daughter Jacqueline Dupre. The
rest of the household consists of the daddy, who uses uncle vegetable's
smack and rules everyone with an iron fist and massive ego; a superstitious handyman; and a doctor
who visits frequently. Soon, some unholy combination of the dead
mother and the young daughter start killing everyone who ever had sex with
the mother, which just happens to be everyone in the castle, including
the nun.
I was unimpressed. The
transfer is grainy, unlike the other Severin releases, which have been
almost universally excellent. A perfect transfer could not have saved
it, however, because the story is not at all engaging, and the erotica
is nearly absent. There is some masturbation, but no sex in this film,
and the nudity is nothing special. An IMDb comment alludes to a XXX version lost forever, but I
suspect they were confusing this with Malabimba, especially since the
director, in a newly taped interview, said it was only a 72 minute
script, so he made a 72 minute film. On the plus side,
it is another bit of Eurosleaze that is no longer lost, with points
added for creepy atmosphere and the nunsploitation angle.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
