Whether you care for Michele Soavi’s films or not, there is no disputing that he is an incredible director with an impeccable eye for cinema. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise, as he learned his skill first hand from some of the best directors Italian genre cinema has/had to offer, such as Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Prior to his illustrious career as a director he worked as an assistant director on Argento’s TENEBRE and PHENOMENA, as well as 2nd Unit director on OPERA. He also worked under Lamberto Bava, son of the great Mario Bava, as assistant director on A BLADE IN THE DARK, DEMONS, and BLASTFIGHTER (Bava’s 3 best films IMO). Of course Soavi also worked as an actor in many films such as Fulci’s THE GATES OF HELL as the guy that watches his girlfriend puke up her guts only to have his brains squished afterwards. It was during his time as an actor where he was able to study directors like Fulci, D’Amato, Argento and Bava. The knowledge that he learned from those directors shines through in Soavi’s own career as a director. That is not to say that he is a cut and paste artist, rather he was able to learn from those directors and create his own style altogether.
Prior to La Setta (The Sect aka Demons 4), Soavi directed two movies: the excellent giallo/slasher hybrid STAGEFRIGHT and a surreal supernatural mindfuck called THE CHURCH. Both films have their positives and negatives with the latter soaking up more of the negatives with its incredibly loopy storyline, but both films are quite impressive from a technical standpoint. LA SETTA has it’s share of negatives as well (I’ll get to those), but it is apparent that Soavi learned from his mistakes and creates a very lush piece of horrific eye-candy that has not aged a bit. Some will balk at the films storyline that seems to get stranger and stranger as the film goes on---which in the end is just a twisted version of ROSEMARY’S BABY as interpreted by writer/producer Dario Argento’s bizarro imagination (as well Soavi who co-wrote w/Gianni Romoli).
The films starts in 1970 with a hippie commune that gets attacked by some Manson-family-esque bikers that spout Rolling Stone lyrics (Manson was more into The Beatles which already makes this gang cooler) and end up killing the whole commune in the name of ol’ Satan himself. Tomas Orana, who played the lead in THE CHURCH, plays the head biker and I wish he had more screen time because it’s an awesome character. Fast-forward to the 90’s where we see a woman stalked and killed by Giovanni Lombardo Radice, who then kills himself when he is captured by cops (after a pick-pocket pulls out a human heart from Lombardo Radice’s coat pocket on the subway). Elsewhere on a cross-country bus, a sickly old man (Herbert Lom) clutches a mysterious looking package. When the bus makes a pitstop he is almost hit by a car driven by a woman named Miriam (Kelly Curtis, Jamie Lee’s sister). Miriam offers to take the old man to a hospital, but he declines and she offers to taker him to her house (of course, right?). The man continues to act odd and creepy, yet she allows him to sleep on her couch that night. What harm could a sickly old man be? Well he could come into your room while you are sleeping and put a big insect up your nose…and yeah, that’s just what he does and it is quite disturbing.
The film gets even more bizarre as it progresses and somewhere in the middle you may wonder how it is all going to tie up together in the end…and it almost does. If you are looking for a movie with substance over style—well then you must be new to Italian cinema. LA SETTA is all about atmosphere and vibe, with a story about a woman carrying the devil’s baby tossed in for fun. While the story is lacking and full of holes, what we do get is beautifully-shot-nightmarish-imagery and creepy set pieces that will stick with you long after you watch the film. Hell, Soavi even manages to make the inside of a semi-truck trailer look creepy—that is impressive! Another case in point would be a scene that takes place in a hospital morgue, which lets the viewer know instantly that Soavi is painting a nightmarish world that only seems like our own. I ask you, where in any non-third world country does the basement of a fully functioning hospital does a morgue look like this? Nowhere, but in our nightmares is where. Basically the morgue looks like Freddy Krueger’s rumpus room. At this point in the film you should drop any plot expectations and just allow Soavi to take you on a ride. When the ride is over though, you might never look at bunnies and storks in the same way… yup.
Okay so I really liked this movie, but of course it isn’t perfect. Soavi wouldn’t achieve perfection until his next film, DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE (Cemetery Man). Coming in at 10 minutes shy of 2 hours, the film is a tad long with some moments that drag a bit in the middle. Kelly Curtis—as cute as she is, didn’t quite knock the role out of the park, in fact there are some down right painful moments of dialogue delivery that killed a few scenes for me. The character herself is a tad too naïve for her own good. As I mentioned earlier, Tomas Orana’s role is all too brief and his character’s part should have played more of a role in the film—in hindsight it seems like a missed opportunity. Really besides Orana and Lombardo radice, there are not any real standout performances—though I suppose Herbert Lom as Moebius (the old man) is worth a mention. Then of course there’s the whole plot, which is very convoluted and has a head scratcher of ending—which is to be expected I suppose. I can overlook all these things because of the films technical brilliance, but my biggest gripe may be about the blah score by Riccardo Biseo and Manuel De Sica. It is not a bad score, just lacking the correct amount of sonic flair needed to accompany the film’s visual greatness. With the kooky plot, bad acting and all, I feel the score is the films only true flaw, but music is very important to me—others may not care about that aspect at all.
Soavi’s progression as a director from STAGEFRIGHT to CEMETERY MAN is quite an amazing thing to see, which makes the fact that after ’94 he never made a horror movie again all the more disappointing. 5 years later he’d come back to make movies for Italian television, which are great (UNO BIANCA is highly recommended), but far from his horror roots. If Soavi had continued on the path he was treading, I’m sure by now he would be considered as legendary as Argento and Fulci, but it just wasn’t in the cards I guess. Nonetheless I admire his career and enjoy his films tremendously and if the day comes that Soavi honors the world with another horror movie, you can bet you ass I’ll be ready.
