La secta

A woman is chosen to bear the son of Satan by a cult headed by a mysterious old traveller.

I find it pretty unfortunate to say the least that Michele Soavi last made a horror film way back in 1994. Unlike most of his Italian peers he seems to have bowed out on a high. With this film along with Stagefright, The Church and Cemetery Man, Soavi has a pretty impressive body of work. He was the premier Italian horror director from the period 1987-94. I can't say definitively why he never returned to the genre but needless to say he is a great loss.

Similar to his earlier movie The Church, The Sect was also produced and co-written by Dario Argento. Soavi was something of a protégé of the great man. This one shows the influence pretty clearly once again. It has stylish direction and inventive cinematography. It also benefits from a good score from Pino Donaggio. So its overall look and feel is pretty good, while it has some well-conceived locations such as the tree and the well. Soavi really comes into his element with the dream sequence and cult ceremony scenes. The dream sequence in particular is a bravura display of cinematic technique. It's surreal, weird and very memorable. It's the highlight of the movie for sure.

It has a decent enough cast that includes Herbert Lom as the mysterious old traveller, cult favourite Giovanni Lombardo Radice as the man who is chased in the underground with the human heart, while Jamie Lee-Curtis's sister Kelly leads the picture in the role of the teacher. It's by no means a faultless film; in fact it's probably the least good of Soavi's quartet of movies. It's probably a bit over long while its ending did seem very rushed and a bit unsatisfying. Nevertheless, it remains one of the very last good Italian horror films and like all Soavi films, is well worth catching.

"La seta", a.k.a. "The Sect" or "The Devil´s Daughter", is a terrible and too long "Rosemary's Baby" rip-off with an incoherent story. The segments in 1970 in California and 1991 in Frankfurt are absolutely unnecessary and do not add any value to the plot. The lead story of the school teacher Miriam Kreisl, performed by Jamie Lee Curtis' older sister Kelly Curtis, who is awfully dubbed in Italian, is full of unnecessary comings and goings. A young woman living alone in a lonely place bringing a lunatic stranger home is something that does not make any sense. Everything the guy does at her place during the night could have been done while she is at school with the exception of the worm in her nose that would have taken a moment during any night by anybody from the satanic cult. The conclusion with the devil´s baby sacrificing to protect Miriam is another absurd in the poor story. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Filha do Demônio" ("The Devil´s Daughter")

The Sect (aKa La Setta, The Devil's Daughter, and Demons 4) is a 1991 Italian horror film co-written and directed by Michele Soavi (Dario Argento's World of Horror, Stage Fright, The Church, and Cemetery Man). It was co-written and produced by Italian legend Dario Argento (Opera, Two Evil Eyes, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o' Nine Tails, Suspiria, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet). Soavi started out as an actor in such films as Alien 2: On Earth, City of the Living Dead, A Blade in the Dark, and Demons. Soon after, he became an assistant/second unit director on Tenebrae, A Blade in the Dark, Blasfighter, Phenomena, Demons, and Opera. After their last collaboration The Church was a success, Soavi and Argento decided to team up again for The Sect. Soavi was destined for greatness in horror after striking gold from 1987 to 1994 in the genre with StageFright, The Church, Cemetery Man, and this all in a row. It's still a mystery why he stopped out of no where when he had so much potential to be the next big horror director in Italy. It's great to see his films get proper high definition treatment. In the 80s and early 90s it was a popular trend to cast family members of the famous actors or actresses in a lower budget productions to draw more attention. Kelly, the older sister of Jamie Lee Curtis. Also the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh was cast as the lead in this!!!!

It starts out in 1970 with a bunch of hippies partying and enjoying life near the water. They are greeted by a drifter named Damon (played by: Tomas Arana from "The Church", "Body Puzzle", "The Last Temptation of Christ", and "Gladiator"). He says he's been on the road for a long time and looking for help. They take him in and treat him as one of their own. Later that night, when everyone is asleep other strangers show up. Damon and his Manson-like cult murder the entire group. Damon goes to a vehicle to talk to his mysterious leader. He is told he needs wait for the orders that the cult has been waiting on and he says it could take years. It's now present day 1991 in Germany. In a homage to "Psycho", Marion Crane is introduced as a possible main character as she is followed by Martin Romero (played by: Giovanni Lombardo Radice from "The Church". "StageFright", "City of the Living Dead", and "Cannibal Ferox"). He has the sudden urge to leave his family to pursue the young lady as she leaves town. He breaks in her place and loses it. The police trap him, he starts talking about some conspiracy. An older man Moebius Kelly (played by: Herbert Lom from "The Dead Zone", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Asylum" and the Pink Panther films) nearly gets hit by Miriam Kreisl (played by: Kelly Curtis from "Trading Places", "The Sentinel", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", and "Magic Sticks") when she's driving towards him. She feels bad so she decides to let hm stay the night with her. When she's asleep, Moebius comes in her room.

He whispers some words which sound like some curse and puts a bug into her nose. She starts to have to nightmares. Miriam wakes up and finds Moebius in bad health. She leaves to find her doctor but she has to get someone else for help. Frank (played by: Michael Adams from "Vater, lieber Vater" and "Ameisenweg") comes over to to see what's going on. They find the old man dead in the basement covered in a white cloth almost like a mask. It's almost like it became his skin as tight it was and it appears to have suffocated him. She goes back to her job as a teacher. One of her students draws a picture of a bug that instantly grabs her attention. Shes finds out it's been extinct. They symbolize fertility and evil. She meets up with her friend Kathryn (played by: Mariangela Giordano from "Burial Ground", "Satan's Baby Doll", "Patrick Still Lives", and "Vampire Killer Barbys"). She's helping her go through some things when the same white cloth as before latches on to her face real tight. Miriam gets a voice recording from Moebius which makes no sense considering the last time she seen him he was dead. Frank joins her for an urgent visit to the hospital. Damon meets up with a familiar face from the hospital. The cult is now in Germany and finally going to carry out their long awaited plan. Miriam goes through a nightmare that won't stop & it leaves you wanting more. Is it reality or just a bad dream????

Is it reality or dreams? This visual nightmare with crafty camera work from cinematographer Raffaele Mertes (Trauma, Blood Delirium, and The Flight of the Innocent) and a haunting score from Pino Donaggio (Carrie, Piranha, Dressed to Kill, The Howling, Trauma, and many others) is truly bizarre. I haven't seen too many movies like this, it stands out from the other films made during the early 90s. The Sect has some great practical special fx during some of the weird moments and the kills in this. It has a solid cast that includes Herbert Lom, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Tomas Arana, Michael Adams, and Kelly Curtis. It was a common practice in the Italian film industry to rip off bigger American pictures and they make their own version on a lower budget. Lots of those projects ended up being so more fun and way more entertaining than it's original influence. It's no a secret or a big surprise that this heavy resembles Rosemary's Baby with a touch of The Innocents. Honestly, I thought this was WAY better than Rosemary's Baby. It had so much more going for it and I found it more interesting to be real. This feature is full of chaotic moments that you won't forget on screen which makes this Italian horror worth checking out or revisiting any time!!!!

Jamie Lee Curtis' older sister Kelly is front and centre here as she plays Miriam Kreisl, an expatriate American schoolteacher working in Frankfurt, Germany. One day she nearly runs down an elderly, weird stranger named Moebius Kelly (genre veteran Herbert Lom, "The Dead Zone"), who passes away after she brings him to her house to recuperate. From there, even nuttier things begin happening, starting with the discovery of a catacombs beneath Miriams' own house. A handsome young doctor named Frank (Michel Adatte) sympathizes with her, and attempts to help her unravel the mysteries now abounding in her life.

Written by director Michele Soavi along with his producer / mentor Dario Argento and Gianni Romoli, "The Sect" is noteworthy for some very slick, stylish, accomplished filmmaking. This is supplemented by a screwy plot where, for a while anyway, you're not exactly sure where all of this is going. The ultimate diabolical plans for Miriam automatically call to mind another horror classic that has clearly inspired "The Sect", but that won't be mentioned here. And this plot is helped along by some genuinely interesting and compelling horror film imagery; viewers may be pleased by the various squirm-inducing (although not necessarily gore-oriented) effects set pieces. Among the elements incorporated are a hallucinogenic insect inserted into a nostril (!), Miriams' sweet but magical pet bunny, who at one point does some channel surfing (!!), and a Manson-type Satanic cult leader named Damon (Tomas Arana, "Gladiator").

The film eventually goes on a little too long to be completely effective. The subplot with Miriams' friend Kathryn (Mariangela Giordano, "Burial Ground"), for example, isn't all that necessary. Still, it's hard to deny the overwhelming, crazed atmosphere of "The Sect", enhanced by an excellent score by always-reliable Pino Donaggio ("Piranha" '78, "Dressed to Kill" '80, "The Howling").

The performances are all reasonably good, with sexy Curtis creating a likeable lead character. Italian film veterans Giovanni Lombardo Radice ("Cannibal Ferox") and Donald O'Brien ("Zombi Holocaust") also appear, but it's the magnetic Lom and the effectively creepy Arana that leave the biggest impact.

Highly recommended to fans of Spaghetti Horror and director Soavi.

Seven out of 10.

You can always count on an inventive and intriguing movie when it comes to anything that Argento has touched, and this Argento-scripted film is just that! The great director has left the directorial duties up to his protégé; Michele Soavi for this movie, and that is somewhat ironic because The Sect easily tops anything that Argento himself directed in the 1990's. Michele Soavi looked pretty promising up until 1994 when he released the astonishing 'Dellamorte Dellamore', and then promptly disappeared off the horror radar. It's a massive shame that the man, up until now, hasn't followed up on his four horror films; as I, and many other horror fans (I'm sure), would agree that if he'd added a few more films to his oeuvre; he could be right up there with the master himself. The plot for this film follows a young woman who almost knocks a man down while driving in her car. She then takes the man home, but due to the events that transpire; it quickly becomes obvious that she didn't take him home purely by chance...

As soon as the movie opens, with America's "Horse With No Name", and then a character quoting lyrics from The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil", you just know that you're going to be in for a great ride; and the rest of the film doesn't disappoint! Soavi succeeds in creating a fabulously foreboding atmosphere throughout the movie, and his direction isn't bad either. The locations are great; the underwater labyrinth underneath the house at the centre of the movie, which echoes Inferno, being the very best in that department! Soavi excels at direction, and this only reinforces my point about the massive shame it is that he hasn't followed up on Dellamorte Dellamore. His camera angles are superb and he really knows how to build tension and suspense! Herbert Lom is the pick of the cast, and the classic horror actor delivers an excellent hammy performance and every moment he's on screen is a delight. The film definitely does have problems, however; the fact that it's about twenty minutes overlong is one of them, and the rather silly ending is another - but on the whole, this is an excellent exhibition of horror and comes with a high recommendation from yours truly!