Original subtitles

- Hi, everybody.

Welcome to THE OTHER HELL audio commentary.

I'm Federico Caddeo and I'll moderate this commentary

with Director Claudio Fragasso, who is here with me.

- I wrote the script of this movie

and I was basically involved in 80c! c of the filming.

I didn't shoot this scene, though. I wasn't there.

This was shot in Naples in some catacombs.

Federico, I think you know better than me...

- This is the Cimitero delle Fontanelle. (Cemetery of Little Fountains)

- That's it, Cimitero della Fontanelle.

I wasn't there that day. I haven't been to Naples.

The other director was there, Bruno Mattei.

Anyway, the shots of the nun, like these ones,

were done somewhere else.

We shot these scenes in the real convent

where we shot the whole movie, every extreme close up.

They are peculiar. I did them, I'm sure.

The reverse shots... this one...

I think there's a brain inside it.

- Yes, kind of.

- Yeah, that's a brain...

Well, we see a reverse shot...

In Naples, they only shot the reverse shots

because we couldn't find something like that in Rome.

The original idea, Federico, was to shoot it in Via Veneto,

in the cemetery, in the monk's museum,

where there is an ossuary.

But then we changed our minds.

- Yes, and you shot it in this cemetery

where there are 30,000 dead, from an epidemic.

- Oh my!

We saw for a moment those eyes that were behind that window.

Here they are again. It's very scary.

- It's a fake head with two flickering LED lights.

- Yes, that's it.

I don't know who did it,

probably our make-up artist Pino Ferranti.

There's no reason why the nun points the light on her face

and not on the skulls, but it was the only source of light.

- This is another location.

Where did you shoot this exterior?

- We shot this in the courtyard of the convent,

which is now, weirdly enough, just behind us,

just behind my actual house here in Rome.

It's the convent of the Santa Priscilla nuns,

and in the basement there are the catacombs of Santa Priscilla.

- But now there's something else there...

- We shot this in a theatre.

I think it was at De Paolis',

where we shot some short scenes.

This is a movie that we shot in several different places.

I remember this shot.

It's my style.

Moving slowly, showing the stills...

- Ok, let's make something clear.

Bruno Mattei signed this movie

under the alias of Stefan Oblowsky,

but you actually shot most of it.

Why did Mattei sign it, then?

- In that period, it was like this.

And, anyway, Mattei didn't sign it.

Stefan Oblowsky did!

The nun on the left is Paola Montenero.

- Paola Montenero, exactly.

- She was a porn actress but here she played a nun.

And that's Franca Stoppi.

- Paola Montenero was Massimo Pirri's wife.

- Yes, I think so... I hope I didn't make a mistake...

Yes, that's her.

This shot of the courtyard was done in the Santa Priscilla convent.

The guy on the right, the only guy,

is Franco Garofalo aka Frank Garfeeld,

who here plays kind of the gardener of the convent.

Franca Stoppi looks extremely serious.

The other nuns are just extras.

- Franca Stoppi also played...

- Wait, this is Susan Forget, aka Susanna Forgioni.

- I was saying that Franca Stoppi also starred

in the movie you shot at the same time:

LA VERA STORIA DELLA MONACA Dl MONZA.

Let's explain how you shot

two movies at the very same time.

- Garofalo, too, starred in

LA VERA STORIA DELLA MONACA Dl MONZA.

I was shooting in the basement of the convent,

except for this scene, which was shot in a studio.

So, I was shooting underground

while Bruno and the rest of the crew shot in the convent.

I shot in 35mm and he shot in 16mm.

That's weird.

- Anyway, his movie was then blown up to 35mm.

- Yes, they blew it up to 35mm while mine was already like this.

There was a cut splatter scene here,

because we also shot the scene of the scalpel in the flesh.

- Why did you cut it? Was it the producer's choice?

- Yes, because of the producer...

The distributor of this movie was the same one

of THE HOLY MOUNTAIN and EL TOPO.

Bruno's alias in this movie was inspired by Jodorowsky.

That's where Stefan Oblowski came from.

I think I kept my usual alias, right?

- No, it's your real name.

- Claudio Fragasso?

I would have forbidden it if only I knew.

- So you wrote the movie. When did you do that?

Was it something you wrote a long time before the movie was shot,

or you wrote it and you immediately made a movie out of it?

- It's a different story.

It was a bit like it was with Leone

with PER UN PUGNO Dl DOLLARI.

There was a script for LA VERA STORIA DELLA MONACA Dl MONZA

which I changed a little because it didn't work -

and they asked me to write a movie,

which could be shot at the same time.

It was crazy because it was already a 4 or 5 week long movie,

and making another one was a challenge.

So I had to adapt this to the location of the other one.

Brian De Palma's CARRIE had just been released,

so I tried to do something like CARRIE in a convent.

That was the idea and I have to say that they liked it.

I think that those coffins will be opened soon...

- Oh... is that a spoiler? - Don't worry.

- I remember that we had a hard time doing this effect.

Here it is.

- Your make-up artist on the movie was Pino Ferranti.

- Pino Ferranti,

he also did HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD with me.

He was an artisan who had these gore effects

and he placed them where needed.

The acting here is very classy.

- Well, I guess that's what you wanted,

some over the top, exaggerated acting.

- Yes, but you see, this girl was coming from porn movies.

She was acting in a dramatic movie, and of course she did her best.

She was extremely nice and kind.

Now we can't hear the music,

but when this movie was released it was a bit scary.

Now, not really.

- When you shot the two movies,

LA VERA STORIA DELLA MONACA Dl MONZA

was supposed to be the "A-Movie."

- Yes, it was supposed to be,

but in the foreign markets it was THE OTHER HELL

that was considered the "A-Movie."

LA VERA STORIA DELLA MONACA Dl MONZA

was kind of a soft porn movie, an erotic movie.

It had a certain success

but not as much as L'ALTRO INFERNO,

which was distributed in Japan and in many other countries.

I notice an almost erotic fury while she kills.

Looks like an orgasm.

And here are the titles. That's interesting.

We've only seen the prologue so far. - A very long prologue.

- Yes, a very long prologue.

- Anyway, there are different cuts of the movie

and in some of them the prologue is shorter.

- Ah, ok.

- We are seeing the opening credits.

Did you have any influence in the choice of the actors,

or were they already cast?

- We worked together a lot.

My roles as a screenwriter and a second unit director

were important, influential ones.

Those girls we are seeing now are just extras.

I still see them from time to time.

These shots are interesting, aren't they?

- You did them?

- I can't remember. It was such a long time ago...

"Editor Liliana Serra", yes. She was Bruno's wife.

- She often worked on Bruno's movies.

- You know, Bruno started as an editor

and they often worked together.

- When you worked on this movie you were quite young.

Mattei already had some experience, especially as an editor.

How old were you when you did this movie?

26? 27?

- Yes, more or less.

I didn't have much experience,

but I remember I was already a ballbreaker.

I used to impose my ideas. I talked a lot.

I wanted to shoot some sequences my own way.

Bruno was quite absorbed in the other movie

and he let me do things.

He didn't have much time.

From time to time he came and said his opinion.

But I was in the basement, shooting this movie,

and I consider it as my own movie.

And, you know, I've always been a horror fan,

so I was very interested in shooting scenes with corpses and zombies.

- This movie is important in your career

because it's your first horror movie,

and it's also the first movie you shot with Mattei,

if we don't consider a Mondo movie that you basically edited,

SESSO PERVERSO MONDO VIOLENTO.

- Oh my...

You've just reminded me of something I tried to forget.

- You removed it from your mind, didn't you? - Oh yes.

We shot for three days to have some scenes to insert into it.

- I don't know if you know it,

but there's also a version of that movie featuring hardcore inserts.

- I wasn't involved.

- No, you weren't, but be aware that it exists.

I was talking about your approach to the movie...

- Look at that puppet!

It makes no sense there, but it's so full of blood

that it almost seems to have a right to be there.

But actually it makes no sense.

- Well, in that period you recycled a lot of things.

- Yes, we used everything we had!

Now she's puzzled.

She doesn't know if she has to open the coffin or not and,

of course, if she opens it she will find... here it is!

The body of Paola Montenero. She's basically dead already.

- Talking about your approach to the movie...

Was there any difference between your youthful enthusiasm

and the experience of Mattei,

who used to do movies like this basically for the money,

while you really wanted to tell a story?

- Oh yes, absolutely!

The energy I brought and my will to do things

was exactly what he needed to make these movies.

I remember that in this scene I got angry...

Well, can I say I was pissed off? - Sure, you can.

- I said "How can this room be so cold and white?"

We were in the actual convent

and I suggested adding some elements,

some paintings, some crucifixes...

This is Filippone, the cat!

- Filippone?

- Yes, the animal wrangler brought him.

I said, "Let's add something"

and they said, "No, let's keep it like this,

sometimes a cheap setting works better."

I was mad because I wanted to do something more particular.

These nuns moving their heads are simple extras.

This guy here is Andrea Aureli.

- Who's credited here as "Andrew Ray."

- He was a Roman actor, a very nice guy.

He specialized in small roles.

He did a movie with me, my first one as a director

DIFENDIMI DALLA NOTTE.

- Franca Stoppi was there, too.

- Yes, I used some elements from this movie.

I did it a year later.

They were very nice people, genuine ones.

He did many movies. He was a good actor.

Franca, too, is a very impressive actress.

- Franca Stoppi is the lead actress and she remembers this movie

and that moment of her life with real pleasure.

How was she on the set?

- She had an incredible energy.

She had great potential,

but that period was more apt for character actors

rather than real actors.

I mean, today there are more actors than character actors but...

Oh wait... I think I did this scene again in another movie.

I have this feeling...

If the winds starts to blow and things start moving...

I think that I did something similar in one of my movies...

- Probably in LA CASA 5. (Beyond Darkness)

- If something weird happens now... like wind or something...

- Let's not forget that you're watching this movie now

- after many years. - Now I think that the lights will explode...

- Ouch, that's another spoiler. - Don't worry. It's an audio commentary.

- Something should explode, yes.

Yes, I probably did something like that in LA CASA 5

because it talks about demonic possession,

which is something I've always been interested in.

And now inside a convent...

Here it is. Fire.

It's one of the elements.

And there's a bible burning or something like that.

There's no wind probably

because we didn't have a wind machine.

Now he reads something...

Yes, I did this in LA CASA 5,

I re-did this and there's nothing wrong with it.

I shot this scene by myself. I remember it perfectly.

I did an homage to myself, then.

- You didn't shoot this owl, did you?

- No, we did!

- No way! You found a white owl there?

- We stayed there in the convent waiting for the owl to arrive.

We wanted a white one...

- Really? I would have bet that it came from some stock shots

you found who knows where...

- Yes, that's it.

It's like you say, Federico, but I didn't want to admit it.

Do you really think that we would have waited for a white owl

in the convent to arrive at the right moment?

These dolls are interesting.

They are the right element in the right moment.

We didn't have time for shooting anything,

how could we waste our time on an owl?

- That's why I was so surprised when you said that!

- And I think it's quite hard to find a white owl in Rome!

- I know! I didn't want to be at odds with you, but...

- Ok, now there should be some special effects.

Here they are!

It took a while for them to happen, but here they are.

The light went off all of a sudden.

It probably would have been better to go off more gradually,

but it's ok.

Anyway, this torment of Andrea Aureli

who had a small role, he wasn't the lead actor,

he's not Max Von Sydow,

who already worked with Bergman before THE EXORCIST,

gives me a certain feeling, a certain nostalgia.

He was such a genuine person.

Oh, you probably won't believe me,

but this bat was made by Sergio Stivaletti.

He did it at the beginning of his career.

- He was very young, so he gave you this mechanical bat?

- Yes, it was the only decent thing he had.

This mechanical one was used for a Dario Argento movie.

Maybe INFERNO?

- I don't know. Stivaletti didn't work on INFERNO.

- Well, you'll ask Sergio. I know you'll see him.

Anyway, I remember it was made by Stivaletti.

Here's the host scene.

I think the best way to show something disturbing

about the religion is doing it through a host.

The host is the most sacred thing because it's the body of Christ.

In front of the body of Christ,

and I say this as a screenwriter and not as a director,

even though I shot this whole scene...

- Is this a real church or a deconsecrated one?

- It's still inside the convent.

Now the nun is screaming and why does she do that?

Because after the Eucharist she feels something wrong.

Because the host gives everything,

but what we are about to see in exactly...

Oh my, this is so slow...

- Very dilated rhythm... - Yes, very much...

It'll happen in a few seconds...

Here comes the blood.

There can't be blood with the host

because blood is the feminine expression for...

- For the sin. - Yes, the sin, the guilt.

- Did you have a Catholic education?

- Yes, and it shows.

- This can be a kind of rebellion for you.

This movie can be considered quite blasphemous.

I mean, setting a demonic horror

in the last place where it should happen,

a convent with nuns and everything, it was quite a strong provocation.

Or maybe it wasn't a real provocation...

- I liked the fact that I was forced to set the movie in a convent

because of LA VERA STORIA DELLA MONACA Dl MONZA

and fill it with several blasphemous acts like the host one.

I think it's interesting.

Look how much I insist.

And this happens in front of an " Igor-like" character.

It's interesting that they are now trying to do a kind of live exorcism.

It's unusual to see nuns doing that. Isn't it?

- Yes.

- Nuns doing an exorcism inside a convent...

I'm not hearing the audio, but I recognize it.

- Yes.

- They are doing a live exorcism.

I don't remember if ALIEN had already been released...

This shot is interesting.

I have to say that I did these shots along with Bruno.

I used to say to him

"Let's do some handheld camera shots, weird ones."

Look how weird they are. They are very peculiar.

- They give an agitated effect.

- They weren't common in that period.

Well, today I would have shot them in an even more agitated way.

Look at this presence.

Don't forget I was still influenced by Belphagor.

So this is a hidden nun who lives in the convent.

Too bad... the idea wasn't bad at all.

The nuns trying to exorcise the convent

because something serious happened - blood came out from a host.

- There's also another weird analogy about this movie,

but we'll talk about it later.

Anyway, ALIEN was made in 1979.

- Oh! So it was after this movie!

Ridley Scott certainly copied us!

- And soon we will see another scene,

which an important director copied from you!

- She's the nun who ate the host and she's still in a state of shock.

She's Susanna Forgioni.

Her dress has some yellow stains and now she has stigmata, too.

I think this is extremely blasphemous.

- Do you remember how this stigmata effect was made?

I think it was a simple one.

- Yes, the blood dripped only when she opened her hand.

Very simple.

We are still in the convent, another part of it,

to give the impression of...

Hey, the more I see this movie

the more I think it's particular, you know?

It's weird, of course. It's a very slow movie...

- It's been a while since you saw it last, hasn't it?

- Yes, many years.

It's very naive and predictable.

Like Franca Stoppi, who stops there...

The stigmata are now in the feet, too,

and it was very complicated to get that effect.

It took us some time.

And this trembling is interesting...

- Well... Now she... - She overacts a little...

- Yes, but we had to compensate for what we couldn't show

using this kind of exaggeration in the acting.

In Japanese and Chinese cinema we see this, too.

These kinds of things don't belong only to us.

Well, the fact that the shot isn't constantly alternated

with a close-up or this kind of wide shot.

I would never do something like this today.

There's a nun doing the sign of the cross

who can't make it anymore.

I would never do that. I would do much faster scenes.

But in that period, shooting a long take

following her until she reaches for the door

was a directing idea.

- And now we are seeing a very important moment of the movie...

- She's the nun who had stigmata and everything.

And now she looks like... nothing!

- She disappeared.

- Yes, but she'll reappear somewhere else.

- Yes, we'll see her again in the movie.

- Pretty soon, I 'd say. You can't help it.

It's very crazy what we did but in that period it could work.

Franca Stoppi looks toward a certain direction.

Here's a hand...

This is...

Here she is! It was inevitable!

With a red light behind her...

We didn't do a close-up of her face to show who she was

because she could be anyone, a washerwoman or whatever.

- We are at a turning point of the story

because now we know that Franca Stoppi's character

has something to hide,

because she said to Andrea Aureli not to go upstairs

because nothing was there.

So we know that her character is guilty.

We just saw one of the leading actors of the movie...

- Carlo De Mejo.

- Yes, Carlo De Mejo, son of a great actress.

- Yes, his mom was Alida Valli.

In this movie he's the priest called to find a solution

to the mystery inside the convent.

- A priest called inside a convent

to investigate some mysterious deaths.

Does it ring a bell to you? THE NAME OF THE ROSE, maybe...

- Holy shit! - And it came after your movie.

- Too bad I didn't have Sean Connery in my cast, though!

- So this means that Umberto Eco copied you!

- Yes, sure!

He certainly saw this movie and then copied us!

- So Ridley Scott wasn't the only one.

- The two guys here are ignoring each other

because they're about to be summoned by Tom Felleghy.

- Here he is.

- He's the bishop. - Yes, he is.

- And he wants to hear from Aureli,

who had this experience with the nuns.

Then he wants to hear from Carlo De Mejo,

who is more or less a psychiatrist of the church,

and he doesn't believe in demonic possession and stuff like that.

He has that attitude.

- Bruno Mattei said that De Mejo was weird,

because from time to time he used to disappear for a while.

Do you remember him being a bit undisciplined on the set?

- Oh, I thought you meant that he used to disappear

- in a metaphysical way! - Oh no!

It seems that sometimes he was hard to find.

- Well, Carlo became an actor because he was somehow forced to.

There are some sons of great artists who feel the need to do that.

He plays a priest here and it's kind of like a calling.

You can feel it.

Maybe he didn't feel it,

but since he had such an important mother it was inevitable for him.

Anyway, he was a good-looking guy.

He had an interesting face.

But I have to tell the truth.

He didn't seem very enthusiastic about being an actor.

He didn't seem very convinced about what he was doing.

It was something that he had to do, you know.

And that's why he didn't have a real career.

- We are seeing Tom Felleghy,

who is an iconic character actor in Italian cinema.

He's in many movies with several small roles.

How do you remember him?

- He was an elegant guy, quite " British" in his ways,

like his name would suggest... "Tom Felleghy."

He knew his part well. He knew his job perfectly.

He was very shy, very English-like.

He never made a mistake. He was perfect.

I think I did some other movies with him

and we've always had a great relationship.

Carlo in that period was kind of a young rebel,

that's why he tended to disappear.

He wasn't very convinced.

I did another movie with him, BLADE VIOLENT.

- Sure, I VIOLENTI.

- He played a cop.

- Yes, kind of. - He did some shooting scenes, something like that.

He liked it.

Sometimes he couldn't care less about this job,

some other times...

Oh my, so much talking in this movie...

- Well, the rhythm increases as the movie goes on.

You'll see it.

- I remember these kinds of scenes because they were necessary.

In that period, when you talked about an exorcism in a convent,

you had to explain everything for a long time.

I don't remember where I shot this. It was certainly in the same area.

- Every sequence shot in the convent is done in the same location.

- This scene was shot in a real kennel

and we pretended it was the convent's kennel.

A convent with a kennel was something completely crazy,

but Garofalo's character had the hobby of breeding dogs.

So we went to this kennel

and the character was pursued by this real Neapolitan mastiff.

It's a weird sequence.

I did something similar in MONSTER DOG.

- Are you saying that in MONSTER DOG

you remembered this sequence from THE OTHER HELL?

- Not really, I only remembered the dogs.

Oh, here comes Garofalo, who looks very scary!

The dog was supposed to show his tongue at the end

but he showed it immediately.

- Garofalo worked a lot with you.

- Yes.

- What's your memory of him as an actor and as a person?

- Well, I think he was very gifted as an actor.

He could have become one of the greatest Italian character actors.

That period could have been very fruitful for him,

but, unfortunately, he didn't have the look of a lead actor.

I think that in another era, like in the '70s,

he could have become an important character actor.

- Anyway, in movies like HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD

he's not the lead actor, but when he's on the screen

he steals the thunder away from anyone else.

- Yes, he had a huge talent,

but he wasted it because of his troubled life.

He's a tormented man.

Now, I'm sure that he'll decapitate the chicken.

- Exactly, this is a snuff sequence.

Bruno Mattei said that during this sequence we're about to see,

when Garofalo cuts the head off the chicken with a cleaver...

- It was inevitable!

- ...Garofalo didn't want to do it.

The hand that cuts off the head of the chicken

is the hand of the guy who sold it to you.

- Chickens always end up like this.

Garofalo said that he was an animal-rights activist

and he would never do something like that,

but the truth was that he was just disgusted.

But the only thing that mattered was the acting.

- This hand is not his.

- Now we couldn't do such a scene.

- Well, someone still does them.

- We couldn't do it because in the censorship commission

there's always the animal-rights activist

who says that chickens can't be killed.

Now there's this kind of sabbath of the nuns

who destroy everything belonging to the other nun. - To purify the convent.

- Because they said it was a case of demonic possession.

There are some references, if you want,

to Ken Russel's THE DEVILS. - Yes.

- I was struck by it when I saw it.

- It was released before this movie, so he didn't copy you!

- No, not this time. - It's not like the Umberto Eco case.

- I have to admit that this time I copied Ken Russell.

No, seriously.

I was very impressed by THE DEVILS by Ken Russell.

There's always this idea of placing them in a half circle,

in the courtyard...

but the question is: why keep this wide shot for so long?

But it was like this.

- I'm noticing that watching the movie you're seeing

many things that you would never do this way today.

- Yes, but that's normal.

- Does this come more from your experience

or because of the modern style of moviemaking?

- You know, everything must be contextualized.

Now scenes like this with these looks would have been faster

and the shot would have been a little closer.

It's normal.

I understand that in that period, when I shot this scene this way

I thought I was doing something very modern.

Today, it isn't anymore.

It looks old, but actually I'm surprised

because in that period I wanted to shoot faster scenes.

I was against the classical schemes with wide shots and so on.

I wanted to do close shots but I had to adapt myself to the idea

of following the rules of that period.

Well... "The rules of the period "...

Sergio Leone had already done his trilogy,

so let's be honest;

it was me who was incapable in that period.

- There's another scene with Franca Stoppi

and Carlo De Mejo.

De Mejo said that he remembers hearing about

the chance of doing a sequel to this movie.

Do you remember having written anything about it,

or at least having talked about the possibility

of creating a sequel?

- You know what happens in Italy?

At the end of every movie you say, "There will be a sequel."

Actually the rule is -

if the movie works, there'll be a sequel,

and if it doesn't, there won't be.

When we shot the movie

we felt like we were doing something pretty new.

This idea of a demonic possession in a convent was original.

The exorcism scene, the nuns...

It probably had to be more developed in that direction,

more towards the irrational and not towards the crime movie

like what's happening right now.

- Because there's an investigation going on.

- Yes, the investigation,

because De Mejo's character kills the movie a little bit.

When he starts his investigation the charm of the movie decreases.

It should have gotten crazier.

- De Mejo tries to give a rational mood to the movie,

but the ending is completely irrational, because it's not logical at all.

- Yes, sure, but the mistake we made

is that we should have insisted on irrational situations.

The character of the priest detective is interesting.

- I think this scene is very creepy.

- I shot it myself.

- Well, kudos to you, then.

Because I like when she turns her head and starts laughing.

- This extra is still alive.

I saw her in some recent movie.

- This is Filippone, the cat.

That damn cat. He never showed up!

It was so complicated every time.

The presence of the cat is not very clear.

We know that the woman with the white veil had a cat.

Now there again is the flashlight lighting

more of the actor's face than the scene.

This flashlight follows the demands of the scene.

It's the same old story.

Have you noticed the light from one side of the actor?

It's interesting.

We saw this in many other movies.

Actually, we only had one light.

We made these with a small machine,

these fake spider webs.

- Yes, because there's machinery for creating spider webs.

- Yes, not everyone knows that.

Then you have to get them dirty, but still...

- What kind of equipment did you have for making this movie?

- Look at that puppet... What?

Oh well, we had this spider web machine,

some other very handmade stuff.

- What kind of cameras did you have for the two movies?

You had 3 cameras; two of them were Arri ones.

- Nope, I actually had a Mitchell camera

I used for the more static scenes

and an Arri 2C for these other kinds of shots.

- This is shot with the 2C camera, then? - Yes, absolutely.

When you see the camera moving it is always a handheld 2C.

These scenes are good. The image is quite stable.

The camera guy was Federico Del Zoppo.

- I thought it was Sergio Melaranci.

- Well, Sergio was Federico's assistant.

Now he's a steady cam operator.

He worked with me on PALERMO - MILANO.

There's something not many people notice -

the doll has a kind of harelip.

It's burned.

- We'll see it better later.

- It's the trait of the character.

You see? This anticipates what we'll see later.

I cared about this detail.

Look... This is crazy.

The lamp changed. Now he has another one.

He has a battery-powered lamp.

This kind of lamp can't work without batteries,

so he has the battery in his pocket.

The light now is so intense

that the lamp is actually not necessary.

But it's interesting.

This location is the catacombs of Santa Priscilla,

real catacombs, down under.

The cat is always there.

- This is a lucky shot.

It's hard for a cat to stay still in a certain place.

- We were holding it there. It wasn't luck.

We are back in this location now.

There are the same shots as before,

with some point of views shots that we filmed in Naples.

- In Fontanelle cemetery.

- We shot this in the same place where

we shot the close ups of the nun.

- This cemetery in Naples is called -

I apologize for my bad Neapolitan accent - Capa e Muerto.

- Capa e Muerto.

- Your accent is way better than mine.

- Capa e Muerto, yes. The Head of the Dead.

They were dead because of the plague, I think.

- Yes, there was a huge epidemic, which killed 30,000 people.

And it's quite creepy,

because every skull we're seeing is a real one.

- They're real, yes.

Now there's an awful cheap

and naive scene with this stabbing.

There's even an evisceration scene.

It was quite extreme;

actually, it was very splatter for that period.

If we compare such a sequence to today's it's still a strong one.

So he opened the door

and he saw something which belonged to the past.

It was unusual.

- Were there any problems

with people who tried to boycott the movie

because they found it scandalous?

- I wish!

It would have been a great promotional stunt for us!

- You talk from the business point of view, then?

- Anyway, no one said anything.

These movies had their particular life

from the distribution point of view.

I think that Garofalo is going to die in a bad way, yes.

I feel an evil presence.

This lightning effect that we saw

was actually made with two "carbon lights" put together,

to create such an effect.

Nowadays, no one does this anymore

because we use CGI.

It's a different process.

- So it was the cinematographer who took care of that?

- Yes, he put two lights together in order to have this effect.

- The cinematographer was Giuseppe Berardini.

- No, maybe not in this movie.

- His name is in the credits, though. - Oh ok.

This is a shot I like a lot

because I studied so much to obtain it.

I was disappointed because there was no rain.

Lightning without rain isn't nice.

- Fake rain was too expensive, I suppose. - Yes.

- Do you remember the total budget? - For the effects?

- No, the budget for the movie, more or less.

- It was a total budget for the two movies.

I don't think it was more than 200,000,000 or 300,000,000 lire.

- More or less 150,000 EUR, then?

- Yes, but you have to compare it with the actual value of the money.

Anyway, the two movies made some money.

Now there's a wind effect, I always liked it.

It mixes up the papers

and now she will surely find something amongst them

that will reveal something...

here it is, the cauldron scene.

- I have a silly question. Who did this drawing?

Do you remember who was in charge?

- It was done by a friend of mine, Claudio Bissattini.

He was a childhood friend and he worked as a set dresser.

Here there's a camcorder,

but in that period there weren't any camcorders,

so I came up with the idea

that he could analyze what happened in the convent

and then declare that in front of the camera.

Look at that tape recorder!

This was one of the first video cameras.

It was something new.

- So there's a priest listening to some audiotapes.

- And he drank a bottle of brandy!

- Yes, he drank a lot!

Is this scene inspired by THE EXORCIST?

There's a disturbing sequence in THE EXORCIST

involving the priest listening to some scary tapes.

- So you are saying that even Friedkin copied me?

- Oh, well... If you want to say so...

but it's actually you who copied from him...

Well, the movies have something in common.

- Well... I have to admit that Friedkin did his movie before me.

- Hmm, yes...

- Friedkin influenced the subconscious of each one of us.

And this tape scene is an influence he had on me.

These dolls were always in Mario Bava movies.

I was supposed to write BAY OF BLOOD 2 for Mario Bava.

- Yes, you told me once.

- And these dolls were something about him,

which struck me.

It struck me so hard,

that that's the reason why there are these dolls.

- Where did you find these dolls? They look quite creepy.

- Yes, I went looking for them

because dolls and puppets always work when they're shown.

I see his breath!

- Yes, it must have been cold! - No! It's a particular effect.

We lowered the temperature to have this effect.

Look at the doll moving.

There was certainly an audio effect but we don't have audio now.

It's interesting because the lead character of the scene

lives an eternal adolescence.

That's why I used the dolls.

- A denied adolescence. - Yes. We had this idea.

Now I'm sure he'll get a spider web on his face.

Oh, he's attacked by another character.

Actually, he's like a homemade Exorcist, a Roman one.

The other one is more psychoanalytical

and he'll probably find the solution.

Now I'm going to show you something

and you will ask me, "How did you do that?"

- Sure, "How did you do that?"

- I'm going to tell you after you see it.

Let's analyze this scene.

We have the character that looks and sees that kind of monster,

then the fire arrives brutally.

It was impossible to do it there.

I shot a nice scene, didn't I?

- Yes, you've been good here.

And I want to ask you; this scene with the character burning

seems to be shot in the same location?

- Yes. - How did you do it?

The movie was shot in the convent.

Wasn't it dangerous to set a stuntman on fire

in a real room with an actual carpet,

an actual library and everything?

- Do you want to hear the truth or some bullshit?

- Let me understand the truth while saying some bullshit.

- The truth is that there was a movie called THE LEGACY

which featured this very nice fire sequence

and so we cut and pasted

the whole sequence of him burning up.

We actually inserted it into the movie.

- I'm sure you had the authorization for doing that. - Of course!

- I had no doubt about it!

- Anyway, even if I've been sincere now

this doesn't stop the scene from working, anyway.

- Of course.

- It's like we did a kind of CGI effect.

- Yes, before its time.

- It's like I did a CGI effect

for something that I could never have done,

because I couldn't do such a scene with fire back then.

But I've inserted it well.

Do you think people understood what I meant?

- I'm sure they did. It's totally understandable.

The sequence with Andrea Aureli and the flames in front of him...

how did you do that?

- With the oldest trick ever;

there was a real fire in front of the camera.

- Was he protected with a glass

in order to separate him from the fire?

- No, it wasn't necessary. - Awesome.

- This is the set of THE TRUE STORY OF THE NUN OF MONZA,

which was the set where I never went

because it was forbidden for me.

- They thought you weren't worthy of that set?

- But it's interesting.

There's this meeting between him and the mother superior

while he's investigating.

- Talking about the fact that you almost never went

on the set upstairs.

I remember that you told me once

that you used to go there sometimes in order to steal reels of film.

- Well, it wasn't a theft.

I just wanted them to give some film to me.

There was never any film stock left for me

and since it was in 35mm and they were shooting in 16mm...

Oh, this is the confessional scene.

I don't know if I stole the idea from someone

or if someone stole it from me.

The idea of the confessional with the priest who is in danger

- reminds me of... - Hitchcock's I CONFESS?

- Yes, that's it.

If I had Montgomery Clift it would have been better, but you know.

De Mejo talks

and he has a light on his face, which is not bad.

I have to admit it.

It gives some emotion and it will lead to the real meaning of this scene.

I've always thought that the confessional was something that...

Oh wait. You see the reverse shot?

It's important to show who's talking because it can be anyone,

the devil itself or the most holy person.

The priest knows and doesn't know, at once,

who's on the other side.

Anyone could be there.

This is interesting in my opinion

because on the right side there's someone else, I think.

This creates suspense.

There's a man trapped inside a claustrophobic place

like the confessional,

where he should absolve someone of his sins,

but he could be killed, too.

You see? Someone tried to stab him.

Maybe it would have been better to show this later, but anyway.

It's not bad. It's interesting.

- And in the confessional the priest does something

almost blasphemous.

Because he's so upset by the things he hears during the confession,

he asks the identity of who's talking,

something that a priest is never supposed to ask,

because the secrecy of the confessional is sacred.

So this could be considered blasphemous.

Another of the many blasphemous acts in the movie.

- Well, Federico...

it shows that we both had a Catholic education.

- Yes, unfortunately!

- We know them all! - Sure, we do!

- When he goes away he says,

"Who could have done such a thing?"

And he looks towards the nuns.

There's this contrast between this handsome tall man with a beard

and the nuns who live in a kind of cloister.

The perversion of what's happening could even have a sexual nature.

The movie plays on these elements,

also with the final revelation, which I don't want to spoil now.

The relationship between him and Franca Stoppi

looks like it's also based on a sexual challenge.

"You don't know me and you don't know my story",

that's what Franca Stoppi says now,

and he looks at her like he was thinking,

"I know there's something hidden in you."

Actually, having Carlo De Mejo on the set,

who had his past with his mother, was interesting.

There's something more than what we see.

At least I think about it sometimes.

Now he's seeing something. It will certainly be a revelation.

It will probably be an upside down crucifix

or something like that.

I'm trying to remember.

This shot was done to make the scene longer,

but no one would ever do something like this today.

There would always be a reverse shot,

but we shot it like this in order not to do a reverse shot.

- There's something we haven't mentioned yet,

the music by Goblin.

- Yes.

- Goblin's music wasn't specifically written for this movie? - Correct.

- They came from other soundtracks, especially Buio Omega? - Yes. She's Sandy...

- That's Sandy Samuel.

- She was a former porn actress.

- There were several in this movie.

- Yes, there was at least another one.

- They did porn movies before this one?

- They were committed to this movie.

Look at her. Look at how she does her best.

What were you saying?

- I was talking about Goblin's music.

It wasn't specifically written for this movie

because many tracks came from the BUIO OMEGA soundtrack

and other tracks came from albums like " Roller"

or " Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark."

How did you decide to use already released music?

- Goblin were very popular in that period.

We felt that the movie was very peculiar

and so we called them and they said,

"If you want some original music

it's going to cost you a certain amount of money.

If you want some already released music

it's going to cost you 10 times less that that."

- And so we chose that. - It totally makes sense.

- That's all. Now he opened the...

What's it called? Ostensory? I don't remember.

- No, wait... It's called the tabernacle.

- Yes, the tabernacle!

And inside there's a severed head. That's awful.

- That's very blasphemous.

- Yes, for a Catholic person this will look extremely brutal.

- Yes, because the tabernacle is considered the most holy place.

- Yes, they keep the hosts and everything in there.

- Here's Tom Felleghy again.

- Tom Felleghy now wears a bishop's dress.

He can't take it anymore and he says,

"Oh my God, there's something wrong here."

There's too much white

in the scenic design of the movie, I'm noticing that.

And after something so terrible and tragic

they talk like nothing happened.

It's something that bothers me,

but I have to accept that in that period it was like this.

- Are the costumes in the movie original

or were they created especially for this occasion?

Are the priest and nun dresses real?

- No, we created the dresses for the nuns.

We had the dresses from, THE REAL STORY OF THE NUN OF MONZA

which had an ancient look,

and so we modified them for this movie.

Now he wears a clergyman's suit, which seems ok to me,

in that period they dressed like that.

I remember we called a tailor who worked for the Vatican.

- The tailor of the movie is Elda Chinellato.

- Yes, Elda. She's my tailor.

She also did HERCULES AND THE SEVEN GLADIATORS with me.

Now something awful happened, I'm sure.

- How does it feel for you to watch this movie after a long time?

Does it make you feel nostalgic?

- Oh, well... nostalgic...

These are movies I did when I was still an adolescent

and I put my soul into them.

Looking at them now, they give me a déjà-vu feeling

because I remember something.

But if you think that a director like me, who's in constant evolution,

when they invite me to festivals... no wait!

Is she killing Franco?

- Nope, they had a fight, but they're interrupted.

- You see her, with her hidden face?

- This shot has a peculiar composition.

- Yes, true.

Mel Gibson copied me with THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE.

- We now see De Mejo ransacking the nun's rooms,

looking for their hidden secret.

Normally a priest, a man, wouldn't be allowed there.

- I want to tell you something.

You know how much I love you, Federico,

but actually there are many people who hold on to these things

as if they belonged to them.

This movie is my past,

but I'm a director who's always in evolution -

and that's what I say every time there's a rediscovery

of these movies,

like the kind of job you do, and others do, too.

When I've gone to festivals and people say,

"Because you guys who did these movies..."

I stop them, "Listen, guys. I keep on making movies."

This movie is part of my past,

and maybe when people rediscover me one day

when I'll be gone, they'll say,

"Oh shit! He did that movie, too!"

And it's ok, but I live in the present

and probably in the future, too.

I don't hold on to the past as if it was a part of me.

This is a part of me that I tend to forget.

If one day you add this to the other elements about me

you'll complete a mosaic.

Now this mosaic can't be done yet.

- You know, this movie can have value for me and other people.

- I'm not angry like Umberto Lenzi.

Why is Lenzi always angry?

Because he would like to be what he hasn't been.

I'm in evolution. I keep going.

And the day I stop,

which will probably be the day I stop living,

someone can trace a portrait of me.

Now, it can't be done.

I think there are some positive things in this movie.

There are some positive elements,

but I can't find the real me in this movie.

I probably find the young version of me here.

Here's the drawing again...

- You know what?

For me and for many other people who are the same age,

or even older or younger, this movie has its own value,

because it's the first real movie you did with Mattei

and so it has its indisputable importance.

We are watching the movie and there are things that work well

and other ones that are naive and dated.

These movies should be watched in a certain way.

- Have you seen the dolls? - Yes, they all have the harelip.

- It was something, wasn't it?

- Yes, but only at the end of the movie

will people understand why they have that.

- Yes, but what were you saying? - I was saying that

it's ok to rediscover a certain kind of Italian genre cinema,

but we shouldn't look for diamonds where there aren't any.

Let's consider the movies for what they really are.

THE OTHER HELL is a movie I'm fond of, I can't deny it.

I remember it was one of the movies I rented on VHS

from Il Discolo video store,

which was in front of my house when I was a teenager.

Now that we're watching it we see several dated elements,

several things that don't work very well,

but it's a movie that has its own importance anyway.

We should consider it for what it is.

It's not a masterpiece, and if we consider it for its real qualities

placing it into a precise context and finding its good and bad aspects,

I think it's the right way to approach this genre of cinema.

We don't have to say that every movie we did

during the 60s, the 70s and the 80s was wonderful.

Nope. There's a lot of junk.

- Yes, Federico, that's the problem!

We started this discussion. Let's complete it.

The problem is this.

It makes no sense to conceptualize something

that can't be conceptualized.

We have to analyze this movie like we are doing now -

with today's spirit.

Now I'm watching this movie like...

25 years later?

- Even a little more than that.

- Many years passed by, and in this movie

I honestly find some elements that remind me of things

that some much more important directors than me did after that.

So this means that in this movie there are some serious elements

that should be isolated and remade.

This is a nice scene.

- The faceless nun is a nice character.

- It's interesting that her identity is denied by the mask.

Well, we talked about some conceptual stuff

so let's go back to the movie.

- Yes, but it was necessary to talk about that

in order to get a certain illogical re-appreciation

of Italian genre cinema into perspective.

- Yes, people wrote and said many things about it.

In this scene De Mejo works well.

I'm sure he'll find a removable tile.

- Yes, it's a classic.

- And he's heading towards it.

He will use a crucifix to remove it because it's typical.

Here it is. I didn't remember it, but...

- It was predictable. - Yes, it was.

Well, actually, I remembered it!

- Don't say it!

- He finds some hair.

It's like a voodoo rite. He finds some hair under the tile.

We exaggerated here.

The dead woman lives again now.

- And she strangles him.

- This movie has every quality of the movies of that period.

She cries.

We don't know why, but we actually do,

because she wanted him to save her.

In this scene there's my Catholic education.

- It was useful, it seems.

- Hell, stop strangling him!

Ok, she did what she had to do.

Now there's a sort of orgasm.

Look at this, it's like they made love.

- Yes, there's a strong sexual component here,

and it's not because we try to intellectualize the scene.

It can't be denied here.

- Yes, their position was unmistakable.

He has an interesting face.

Which American actor does he look like?

Let me think... Bruce Dern, maybe.

- Hmm yes, why not?

- Maybe a young Bruce Dern.

Now Garofalo has to die

because his character lived too long, in my opinion.

- Garofalo is a weird guy.

Did he ever cause problems on the set?

Any excesses?

Was he undisciplined?

- No, absolutely not. He was an extremely rigorous actor.

He did what you asked him to do.

His excesses were outside the set, but he was a professional.

We don't see each other anymore.

This cat was supposed to be scary, but he's not creepy at all.

- It's so white. - And it's too cute.

The dogs are actually supposed to be scary.

I have a story about the dogs.

I think that now the dogs will go wild.

It's normal.

I'm scared of big packs of dogs

because once I ended up surrounded by 30 dogs

and they scared me.

I put a similar situation into MONSTER DOG, too.

Here she is again.

- Francesca Carmeno.

- I don't see her anymore.

I don't know whatever happened to her.

He's smiling because he thinks that the dogs

are killing the cat.

- And they are actually doing it.

- No, no, we didn't harm the cat.

- I know, I mean in the movie

I know you didn't let the cat be eaten by the dogs.

- Now she will turn the dogs against him.

I swear this is a fake cat.

- I know. No one doubts it.

Is the scene with the dogs attacking Garofalo

a possible homage to Suspiria?

Flavio Bucci, who worked with you in Teste Rasate,

by the way, is attacked by his own dog.

- No, there was no homage to Suspiria.

We simply had this dog idea...

This scene...

- It's a hallucination with maggots and dirt. - Yes, yes

Look, he has a Band-Aid on his finger

because he cut himself before.

It's crazy to put a Band-Aid like that.

Now he offers his hand to the dog.

- This effect looks good. - Does it really?

- Yes. - You like it?

- Yes, I do. It's still acceptable after all these years.

- Do you want to know how we did it? - Sure!

- There's a fake dog

- Wow, I would have never imagined that.

I thought the dog really bit him!

- Actually, if a dog bit me like that I would immediately run away.

- Look at what happens to him...

- This sequence is done using some stock shots

inserted into our footage.

- It's actually difficult to shoot with animals.

- Well, I did a whole movie about it, MONSTER DOG.

I had 100 dogs and I commanded them all.

You know something incredible about the dogs?

They know who the director is.

When you start directing them, they obey you.

- Oh, so that's why in MONSTER DOG the only dog that turned against

you was the mechanical one that was broken after his first scene?

- Yes, he stopped working immediately because it was very poorly done.

- This scene alternates stock shots and actual footage.

But how did the process of these stock shots work?

You had unlimited access to that?

- Yes, but in that period we did whatever we wanted.

We didn't follow the rules.

- Here's De Mejo with his vintage camcorder.

- He tries to understand what happened in this convent in the past

and what caused this madness.

There's this presence of the faceless nun

and everyone wonders about who she is and why she's like that.

Now he will watch what he recorded

and he will certainly see the past in the screen.

I have to say that this was quite new if you consider when we did it.

- What year was that? - 1979.

- There were no camcorders at all.

I used to shoot in super 8.

I even did a movie called "Passaggi" in super 8.

- I remember you won some awards for that movie

at the Annecy festival, for example.

- Yes. The moving thing is that to make that movie

my wife and I gave up our wedding presents

and we asked our friends to give us the money for the movie instead.

- That's cute.

- Yes. Now he's watching the video.

Guys, this is interesting. Interesting stuff.

He's seeing on the screen what happened years before.

The video is showing him what happened in the past.

It's very modern.

We saw something like that after 2000.

- I found another director who copied you:

Hideo Nakata with THE RING and the cursed VHS.

- Oh yes, absolutely! I am THE RING!

That's my daughter. - Here's Valentina, yes.

In this sequence she's wearing some ancient dress from the 1800s

belonging to your wife Rossella's family.

- Yes, absolutely.

This woman was a famous extra in Italian cinema.

She did many movies.

She had the daughter of sin

and the Mother Superior throws her into the cauldron.

And that's my daughter in the cauldron!

- Of course it's a doll in the boiling water cauldron.

- No, no. We threw my daughter in for real.

- Oh, nice.

- That's my daughter. Now she's older, of course.

- Franca Stoppi told me a story about this scene.

When she held your daughter in her arms

she never stopped crying.

- In the scene we saw before, it wasn't my daughter.

- That's the eye of a doll. - Yes.

- But your daughter's eyes have the same color.

- Yes, but this one is a doll.

- Yes, a "cicciobello."

- I like that we used a cicciobello as a double for my daughter.

When she takes her hand off, my daughter will be there again.

I don't know. She strangled herself.

Looks like SCANNERS.

- It would have been too expensive to make her head explode.

- She strangled herself. It's good anyway.

- And so your daughter was a couple of months old

when you did this movie?

- Yes, 2 or 3 months.

- She cried all the time

and Franca Stoppi couldn't calm her.

Franca was nervous, too,

because she told me that the idea of shooting a scene

where a kid was thrown into the boiling water was unbearable.

- I put great care into this scene

because this is where the madness unleashes.

That's how madness can be expressed, in my opinion.

They are talking normally, he discovered the truth,

and she tries to explain her story, the story of that missed abortion,

because they would have wanted her to get an abortion.

When I wrote this I went a little outside the rules,

because everyone asked me if I was crazy,

but I wanted to shoot it anyway.

Have you seen this sudden change in his expression? - Yes.

- The stabbing occurs in the least predictable moment.

That's interesting.

- Franca Stoppi had a hallucinating look.

She's always great while playing such roles.

- Have you seen the moment of the stabbing?

We saw it while he was talking

and all of a sudden he's been stabbed.

- There's another one who copied you.

The movie THE VILLAGE.

By Indian director M. Night Shyamalan.

I never know how to pronounce his name. - Yes, I remember!

- The sequence where Adrian Brody stabs another person.

- Yes, Joaquin Phoenix.

- Yes, that's the scene.

- I knew that scene reminded me of something!

This scene is really interesting.

This part of the movie is the best, in my opinion;

the relationship between him and the crazy woman.

They told each other everything they needed to say.

He's curious.

He's been stabbed several times

and he should only think of surviving, but he wants to know.

She tells him everything.

- And she tells him something terrible;

the daughter she had is the daughter of Satan.

- Yes, but that's what she thinks.

She actually isn't the daughter of the Devil.

I really shot these scenes with love.

No one can take this away from me.

This final part is completely mine.

- So if one day Bruno Mattei says that he shot the whole movie...

- He'd do better to kill himself instead of saying that.

This scene is completely mine.

It's the most successful part of the movie.

It's a crazy scene, complete madness here.

When she appears like this, it's completely crazy.

- It reminds of the demon scene in THE EXORCIST.

- Pazuzu! - Yes, with the intense light from behind...

It reminds me of it.

- It's intended. It's a Pazuzu homage.

- Here it's a little too accelerated.

- But, you know...

It looks like Pazuzu, even in its simplicity.

Franca Stoppi is not moving because the wind is stopping her.

She doesn't have a relationship with her daughter anymore,

because she overcame the adolescence phase

where she was a victim.

Damn, it really looks like Pazuzu!

- I told you!

- Pazuzu comes down and,

fuck; we should have used some fog.

- There wasn't a fog machine on the set?

- No.

- Was that scene shot somewhere else?

- No, we did it there, too.

- So, now the character of Franca Stoppi's daughter

represents a denied adolescence, a denied childhood.

- Yes, because she was the daughter of sin

and she never wanted to have her.

She has a deformity like in THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE.

- Yes, the Siodmak movie.

- She has a malformation on her mouth.

What does she have?

Looks like a cold sore, an extended one!

- Well, the make-up on the girl is not exactly fantastic.

She should be disfigured because of the hot water.

- Yes, but the hot water gave her an extended cold sore. - Permanent herpes.

- Some Zovirax could have fixed this.

Look at this,

"I want to overcome my adolescent phase through a kiss."

- "I want to be loved." - Yes, "I want to be loved"

and her mom will kill her

because she doesn't want her to change.

- The fury of Franca Stoppi is about to be unleashed.

Franca liked to play such extreme characters.

Everyone remembers her in BUIO OMEGA

where she had a similar role.

- She's killing her daughter because she thinks,

"Why did you kiss him?

I want to have a relationship with him."

Now she will turn around and she will say "Mom"

and this is something I borrowed from CARRIE.

Look, now she will say "Mommy."

- What language was the movie shot in?

In Italian, I suppose?

- Yes, half Italian, half English,

which was necessary for the foreign sales.

- For this kind of movie there's no "original language."

Many actors spoke different languages in that period.

- Yes, but here the actors are all Italians.

- Yes, but you made the movie thinking about foreign markets, too.

- Yes, but in that period

there wasn't a real interest for an English version.

We were just Italian guys trying to make movies.

- Again, the strong white light behind her.

- Yes, there was a white cloth there.

This scene was entirely done by me.

It's interesting.

The ending is probably the best part of the movie.

- It's a crescendo after the slow sequences

with too much dialogue.

Nice expression on Carlo De Mejo here.

- Yes, he outdid himself with this scream.

- Carlo De Mejo, anyway, did a good job in this movie.

- Yes, he starts as a detective and he ends up being a victim.

I don't know if we will see him again later.

Since she has the power,

she tries to settle the score with her mother.

"Mom, you created me. You left me alone."

You forbade me to grow up.

You killed me when I gave my first kiss...

- "You have to die, Mom." - Not a very nice mother.

- These scenes remind me of Aristide (Massaccesi aka Joe D'Amato)

Because he taught me some fundamental things.

- But when you did this movie you hadn't worked with Aristide yet? - No, not yet.

- You'd already worked with Antonio Margheriti

in the editing room in that period.

- Yes, I knew Aristide later and he never saw this movie.

We're showing the skulls again.

This is killing me,

we keep on showing the bits shot in the cemetery.

Aristide did BUIO OMEGA with Franca Stoppi

and other movies like that.

I think there's a connection with this movie.

There's an attempt to follow the genre

through these images in a revisited way, using our experience.

In that period, it wasn't common to do movies like this one,

so everything was original.

Now we're back in the kingdom of the dead,

the living dead.

- You kind of invented the zombie nuns.

I think it was probably the first time.

I can't think of other zombie nuns before.

- Yes, it was peculiar.

I would do it again today. Zombie nuns... That's cool.

- It's quite a strong thing.

- Yes, because it's blasphemous.

Look at him, Franco Garofalo zombie.

There's writing saying, "Ex morte" on the set.

He has to die.

This ending is interesting. It's so cathartic.

- It's irrational.

- That's why it's interesting.

- The presence of De Mejo

tried to bring some rationality to the story, but in the end...

- Who is crazier? De Mejo or the daughter?

- Where did you shoot this scene?

- In the same location where we shot the other deaths.

We reconstructed the interior of the real convent.

The cold sore is growing!

- It's a rampant one.

- The Zovirax isn't working.

- There's some wind in this scene.

This girl was gifted.

Now there will be zombies, opening coffins...

- Yes, it's inevitable.

This sequence with Franca Stoppi announces it.

- Question, was Zemeckis' movie already released?

- I don't know which movie you're talking about...

- Look, near her hand

you can see that the coffin is already broken. - Yes, there it is.

- I remember that we wanted to use naive elements

in such a particular story.

Here's some dead nuns,

now some zombies

and now there's Carrie.

Her mother condemned her.

- And just like Carrie's mom, she deserved to be punished.

- Sure, a terrible punishment.

She almost died crucified, didn't she?

- Yes, kind of. It's more a Saint Sebastian like martyrdom,

with knives all over her.

A different ending compared to the novel.

You haven't seen Franca recently, right?

- No, after this movie I did DIFENDIMI DALLA NOTTE

with her and she had an intellectual role,

but it was similar to this one.

It's incredible the way we alternate the close up of this girl

and these very naive scenes with the dead.

- The dead just move inside their coffins,

but they don't seem too dangerous.

- She stabs her again.

- Franca Stoppi, I say this for those who don't know,

doesn't work as an actress anymore, in movies and theatre.

She lives in Umbria,

in a big house with many cats and she takes care of them.

She became an animal rights activist

and she happily lives there.

I visited her not too long ago in Umbria

and she's busy with her cats.

- I'm happy for her. That means she found her way.

- And she remembers with pleasure the moment in her life

when she did these movies.

- Look at Garofalo. It's a typical zombie scene.

She notices him later and he strangles her.

I remember this.

- The movement of Garofalo rising up,

doing a sit-up, is quite a classic.

He strangles her without enthusiasm,

but she suffers anyway and she drools.

- We gave her an aspirin.

- You really used some effervescent aspirin to make her drool?

- Yes. And now Garofalo dies again, as it was supposed to be.

- We lost another important character in the movie.

Now we see a scene that we already saw at the beginning.

- Yes, the opening scene.

- The bell is tolling and we see the exterior of the convent.

- Just like if the convent went back to its normal life.

- Everything continues.

- It's interesting to put the deaths and the zombies in the convent.

And now there will be the real ending.

- I think the ending is a bit forced.

- I don't remember it.

- You are going to see it soon.

A new priest arrives where all the deaths happened.

- Who's this actor? - I haven't identified him.

I was hoping you could shed some light on that.

- I don't know who he is.

- Me neither. I can't find his name.

I've identified everyone else but him.

In this final sequence this priest does a recap

and explains what happened,

just like it happens in many American movies.

There's a new nun here.

We're about to see this ending, which I consider quite predictable.

- Have you expected it?

- Yes, because it reminded me of the ending of BUIO OMEGA,

another Franca Stoppi movie, which I always found gratuitous.

There was a twist that I never considered necessary.

But it's just my way of seeing things.

We're not capable of identifying this actor.

I haven't recognized him.

- I should have played his role. It would have been better.

But I remember this guy.

- You did some cameo appearances in your movies, sometimes.

- Yes, from time to time.

Not in this movie because I had too many things to do.

I believed in these movies. I was deeply involved.

Now I'm sure that something will happen,

the coffins will open and the dead will come out.

- Exactly. Now that we are at the end of the movie,

do you want to do an evaluation of it?

After many years, what's your judgment of this movie?

- Well... there are interesting elements in the movie,

if you consider when we shot it.

It's a very naive movie; of course,

I would do it in a completely different way

if I had to shoot it today.

But I can't say this now.

- Anyway, it's a movie that you consider yours.

- It's mine because I put my ideas from that time into it.

I was young.

There's my daughter, the nuns...

There's something belonging to me

and to the other horror movies I did after that.

There's a personal dimension in it.

- Does it bother you that Mattei signed it?

- Not at all. We're so connected.

We did so many things together...

- Here come the famous red LED lights again.

- Yes. There are no hard feelings.

Me and Bruno were so close in that period,

we did everything together.

I can't help but have a connection with him.

- Ok, the movie is over.

Thank you, Claudio, for doing this audio commentary with me.

I thank everyone who listened to us.

So, what do we do, Claudio?

We drink one more glass and then we go?

- One more glass? We drank everything! Ok...

- Thanks, everybody.