Byleth

My Kettle Byleth Over

Byleth - The Demon Of Incest
aka Il demone dell'incesto
Italy 1972 Directed by Leopoldo Savona
Severin Blu Ray Zone A/B/C

Warning: Yeah... there will have to be spoilers here as there’s not much else to talk about.

I picked up Byleth - The Demon Of Incest at the London Film & Comic Con five years ago because I liked the cover and I like the company putting it out. Leopoldo Savona is probably best remembered for a fistful of Italian Westerns he made rather than this, relatively obscure movie from late in his very short directing career. I hesitate to call it a horror film because... well let’s look at that provocative title... 

It’s true the main protagonist, Lionello (played by Mark Damon) has, in his past, been cavorting regularly with his sister Barbara (played by Claudia Gravy) in a way which takes things far beyond the realm of brotherly love. However, the plot is just about a string of women who are murdered with a three pronged dagger, which looks more like a garden implement that anything else and the film is more concerned with both these murders and Lionello’s failing mental health than any acts of incest. It’s all just talked about and by the time Lionello is reunited with Barbara in his big estate, she has gotten married and is no longer available so... yeah, no incest on show here other than the odd token kiss and declaration of passion. Which is fine... I didn’t really want to see any anyway... but it’s a bit of a misleading title in that respect. And, also in the respect, that it mentions a demon called Byleth... and this is where we get the big spoilers folks so stay away if you really don’t want to know.

There are no real twists on the plot other than my brief outline above. However I’m pretty sure most people will twig this right after the opening sequence where a local prostitute is murdered by the three pronged instrument thing (let’s just make a name up and call it ‘the mark of Byleth’ shall we?)... an atmospheric moment which is totally shattered by the intrusion of the rather nice opening titles showing old, torture filled and demonic etchings while an upbeat score plays at odds with the subject of the movie... but it’s actually Lionello committing the murders himself. He thinks it’s Byleth the demon, who he even conjures up at one point with a spell, after he can’t perform adequately in his sexual duties with a nice red headed servant girl, to kill her. But, yeah, he’s the only one who ever hears the demon and even in the scene where Barbara’s new husband see the demon himself, he realises it’s just Lionello riding around in different make-up. 

So, yeah... no actual demon in it either... bit of a rubbish title if you ask me.

Okay... so there are a few nice moments in this such as a sequence near the end where Mark can see himself projected as Byleth in the mirrors of the house racing towards him but, honestly, even with a few gratuitous sex scenes thrown in for good measure in its very short running time, the film comes off as a little lame and about as impotent as Lionello’s ability to maintain his enthusiasm for any ladies who are not his sibling. 

I’d like to say the cinematography was at least as striking as the Roger Corman or Mario Bava films this movie seems to be desperately trying to imitate but, yeah, there was nothing that made me sit up and take note at any time and it just seemed a bit pedestrian, to be honest. I mention those two people because Damon starred in one of each director’s important ones... namely The Fall Of The House Of Usher and Black Sabbath... and the film seems to be as dated in its time as it does now. It seems to be trying to harken back to those very early 1960s exercises in sustained gothic atmosphere with a little sex thrown in to attempt to make it more modern but... failing at it, it seems to me. 

The lack of any interesting twist outside the obvious conclusions that... Lionello is not a well person... gives the movie a real anticlimactic feel and even the end moments, when Lionello is stabbed by his alter ego, don’t throw up any supernaturally charged questions because it’s probably just taking place in his head and he’s just dying from the gunshot wounds inflicted on him by his sister’s husband. 

Saying all this, I kinda enjoyed it as an example of someone trying to do a Corman or Bava gothic way past its sell by date and there was an attractive entourage of naked young ladies to catch the eye. Saying that, though, my only real take home on that count was that, in olde worlde gothic era times, it looks like young ladies didn’t bother shaving thier armpits. So, yeah, I guess I learned something there... or at least had it reenforced that this was probably not something which happened in days gone byleth. 

Byleth - The Demon Of Incest is an okay film but I wouldn’t recommend it to most people. Asides from what looks like some water damage in certain scenes, the quality is pretty good for its age. Unusually for Severin, there are absolutely no extras on this thing at all... you just have a choice between the original Italian audio or a German audio track plus English subtitles. Oh... and a wonderful cover of a naked, red headed lady in peril which is easy on the eye. But, yeah, I’m not sure this would appeal to too many people out there.