All language subtitles for gvzzvz

- 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.