Ring of Darkness

Original title: Un'ombra nell'ombra

1979
1h 27m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Lara Wendel, Valentina Cortese, and Anne Heywood in Ring of Darkness (1979)

Four women make a pact with the Devil. The 13-year-old daughter of one of them has begun to shown signs of a dark nature which causes preoccupation and somewhat regret on her mother.Four women make a pact with the Devil. The 13-year-old daughter of one of them has begun to shown signs of a dark nature which causes preoccupation and somewhat regret on her mother.Four women make a pact with the Devil. The 13-year-old daughter of one of them has begun to shown signs of a dark nature which causes preoccupation and somewhat regret on her mother.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.6/10

425

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
When interviewed on set in 1977, director Pier Carpi angrily denied that his screenplay was inspired by The Exorcist (1973) and pointed out to the interviewer that he merely adapted his own novel "Un ombra nell'ombra" which he claimed to have written in the sixties but which, in fact, was published first in 1974. However, it is assumed that Carpi's original cut of the movie was considered too much unlike "The Exorcist" by the producers who thus ordered extensive re-cutting and re-shoots.

Connections
Referenced in Pieces (1982)

User reviews12

Review

Featured review

Satan's Wife

Satan's Wife (1979)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

If it's from Italy and features "Satan" or "devil" in the title then you know it must be a rip-off of THE EXORCIST or ROSEMARY'S BABY but here we're in for a treat as this one rips both of those classics. A mother (Anne Heywood) begins to notice something wrong with her teen daughter (Lara Wendel) and sure enough Lucifer (Ezio Miani) is after the young one. Turns out that mommy and two of her friends made a deal with the evil red one years earlier and now he's taking it out on their children but a priest (John Phillip Law) agrees to try and defeat him. I'm really not sure what the point of this film was as it goes off in several directions and in the end it never really seems to know what it wants to do. Apparently this thing sat on the shelf for two years before getting released and you'll see why when you sit through it. The biggest problem is that the film starts off with your typical possession stuff but it does very little with it. There's non-stop nudity to add into the sleaze factor but there's very little else in terms of entertainment. The possession stuff is all mild, any back story is boring and it doesn't help that the film jumps around from one character to another. The cast will feature some familiar faces including previous Oscar-nominees Ian Bannen, Valentina Cortese and Frank Finlay. Wendel will probably be best remembered for a memorable death scene in Argento's TENEBRE but her performance here is pretty weak. The incredibly bad dialogue doesn't help matters nor does her nude scenes and if the DOB on the IMDb is correct then many will want to avoid this film at all costs. Heywood doesn't do any better as she's all over the place and looks confused at what she should do in a film like this. Cult favorite John Phillip Law doesn't get that good of a role either so he's wasted as well. THE EXORCIST-rip should be a genre onto its own as we have dozens and dozens of films that would fall into it but this one here is certainly one of the lesser entries. The film does start off with a near musical number that will have your eyes coming through your skull but things go downhill from there. There's enough nudity that might make Euro-sleaze folks tune in but it's not enough to keep the film moving.