I like a rare restoration of a film on the teetering edge of obscurity, and Severin's Blu-ray release of the 1972 Italian sexploitation thriller BYLETH (THE DEMON OF INCEST) is taken from the only known negative element of the uncensored German version, "Trio Der Lust."
A pre-credits disclaimer asks us to overlook any unavoidable flaws in the otherwise pristine print, which consist of some scratches here and there and an occasional overlay of watercolor-like splotches that I found rather pleasing. As I've said before, I like a print that looks like it's been run through the projector more than a few times.
As for the film itself, spaghetti western veteran Leopoldo Savona (APOCALYPSE JOE, PISTOL PACKIN' PREACHER) has directed a steamy period piece that takes good advantage of old Italian settings, such as an opulent rural villa, to beef up his production values even as his artless hand-held camerawork consistently gives it that low-budget look.
But the real selling point here is the plot and its inherent potential for perverse sex, nudity, violence, and creepy supernatural goings-on. The kicker is an incestuous relationship between darkly handsome Duke Lionello (Mark Damon, BLACK SABBATH, HOUSE OF USHER) and his beautiful sister, Duchess Barbara (the deliciously-named Claudia Gravy).
Barbara, it seems, has moved beyond her childhood dalliance with brother Lionello and, during a year in Venice, married the distinguished Giordano (Aldo Bufi Landi, who looks like a middle-aged Gilbert Roland).
This simultaneously breaks lovelorn Lionello's heart and blows his mind, turning the trio's shared occupation of the family villa into what might be conservatively described as an awkward situation. (Which we, of course, enjoy to its fullest, especially when Lionello's erratic behavior totally drives Giordano to distraction.)
But that's not all--while this is going on, there's a series of messy murders in which the victims are sexually voracious women who've just had some very photogenic carnal trysts which have been voyeuristically observed by both Lionello and us.
Much nudity and simulated intercourse are involved, which, after the male partner has taken his leave, is followed by a mildly gory but enthusiastically enacted murder with a strange tri-pronged stabbing instrument.
This leads to a police investigation that not only implicates the increasingly-strange Lionello (for whom one of the victims worked as a maid) but also brings up the possibility that he has come under the sinister control of an ancient evil spirit known as Byleth.
This sword-wielding wraith pops up several times wearing a black cloak and riding a white horse, although we're never sure if he's real or just a figment of Lionello's fervid imagination until late in the story.
Till then, we're treated to what amounts to a twisted, extra-naughty romantic potboiler doused with madness, murder, and gratuitous sex amidst the scenic backdrop of 19th-century rural Italy.
If it weren't so serious, I might think this weird foray into sexual depravity to be a lost work of sexploitation legend Joe Sarno (VAMPIRE ECSTASY) had he been given a decent budget and a trans-Atlantic plane ticket.
As it is, I found BYLETH (THE DEMON OF INCEST) to be not so much a supernatural shocker as a colorful, engaging study of some deeply disturbed individuals whose twisted sexual urges spin a sticky web of evil and death. To top it off, the ending is almost hilariously abrupt--and, somehow, just right.
Buy it from Severin Films
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