made with
sorry for the mistakes!
Byleth
Byleth, says Wikipedia, is one of the kings of the hell and here, I
have found no other sources about it, becomes a demon of incest, of
which Mark Damon has been a faithful servant since childhood. Mark
Damon, he, a well-known face of genre cinema with a very good
curriculum, is the great name for this film by Leopoldo Savona,
director who came almost at the end of a career spent with satisfaction.
"Byleth" of 1972 would have all the possibilities to be an interesting
horror, seen the director and the cast and seen the tantalizing theme
("the demon of incest" is the subtitle). But there is something wrong
with the screenplay written by a certain Norbert Blake (who knows who
hides behind this name) and in the direction of Savona.
Well, Savona takes a lot of effort, tries to follow the rules of the
thriller/horror, seems a Poe’s fan and looks for elegance in
every frame, with the good cinematography of Giovanni Crisci. And he
puts a lot 'of boobs and naked bodies that come up here and there and
that never are a bad thing.
The problem is that everything is very boring and predictable. Already
after a few minutes we understand who the bad guy is and unfortunately,
the bloody aspect is something on which Savona does not seem to aim a
lot.
We have murders with knives that translate into the classic sketch of
red paint (or tomato), long lines and dead moments with an incessant
music that should raise the suspense but that causes irritation to the
eardrums.
However as mentioned, some ideas of Savona are not bad at all, like the
final fight with the dark half of the protagonist (a bit 'at the Dorian
Gray) and some camera movements.
Mark Damon is the Duke Lionello Shadwell, linked since childhood to his
sister Barbara, played by Claudia Gravy, another known face of genre
cinema, by a morbid relationship. After a year without seeing each
other the two meet again and he discovers that his sister is married to
a certain Giordano (Aldo Bufi Landi). Mad of jealousy, he tries in
every way to split her from her husband. Meanwhile, some "strange"
murders occur and a priest expert in demonology has the good idea to
reveal that it is Lionello, Byleth's servant.
A horror / thriller that if it came out five or six years before, would
have its place in history, but in the seventies it need other types of
damnation.
.
