Il Demonio (1963)

What makes this so horrifying and gutwrenching is that mental illness couldn't be diagnosed as it should; at the heart of the film, this is about a woman devoted to a man who wanted to be rid of her. And if she doesn't behave as a society dictates as proper, you can see how she might be treated by ignorant, superstitious people, so clinging to their understanding of worship and religious fervor that they form a mob to "take care of the witch".

Antonio, someone who just used her for cheap sex, sees her as a liability since he wants to marry and have children with someone else. Raped multiple times, shunned by everyone around her from different valleys in the Italian country, Dalia's Purif is incapable of walking any place without folks calling her possessed or cursed. And since she's clearly so mentally damaged -- her father beats her with a belt and when she happens upon a little worship service, those in attendance and a priest also shun her, while Antonio dismisses and discards her as used trash -- watching the locals treat her as a heretic to be exorcised or responsible for whatever happens she has no part in (a boy dying or a thunderstorm) is gruelling.

My favorite Bava film is "The Whip and the Body" starring Dalia, so I know her from there but she is mesmerizing in "Il Demonio". My favorite scene besides the incredible spider walk is Dalia at a river -- after a horrible rape suffered at the hands of a scummy goat farmer -- where she sees the spirit of a boy who had died in the nearby village. It is incredible because it feels so real but could very well be a key moment where we are given the chance to share a delusion (or is it?). She talks to a boy. He talks back to her. And it feels very real. It isn't until she goes back to the village and sees the boy's wake that we are made to realize what she experienced wasn't actually real...or was it? A fascinating scene, I think.

The "failed exorcism" and attack on a nun who wanted her to comply to Catholic rituals she refused to through violence seems as if some demon is strong within her...she even tells nuns offering to help her that she is more powerful than they are.

There never is a time in the film where I don't think the inevitability of Purif's fate is in question. Once a mob believes in something so significantly, the one they consider "evil" must be taken care of. The mob lights their torches and runs about through the town looking to burn a witch, but it is ultimately Antonio, so caught up in his own terror and paranoia that Purif has cursed him, he takes matters into his own hands...after having sex with her, of course. 5/5