Baba Yaga, Devil Witch (1973)

Baba Yaga, Devil Witch (1973), directed by Corrado Farina.

An Italian supernatural thriller adapted from a comic strip: "Valentina" by Guido Crepax.

A fashion photographer falls under the spell of a lesbian witch. Her camera is hexed and a dominatrix devil doll watches her. Must she submit to the carnal desires of Carroll Baker? Yes, she must. We hope a stalwart boyfriend will rescue her. Eventually.

It has some promising bits but is mostly just ridiculous. It starts out kind of whimsical and arty, becoming darker with time. Just as the plot starts to move the characters have to stop and debate racism and revolution. The groovy fashion ambience and precious radical poses are hard to take.

Some nudity. Models! That's the way to do it. No gore, although there is an S&M flogging scene. During erotic encounters they switch to b&w snapshots and ink drawings, which is kind of clever, linking back to the photography plot and comic origins.

Available on Blu-ray from Blue Underground but my thumbnails are from their DVD. It has only a dubbed English track and no subtitles. Dubbing tends to make a movie seem less serious, so the Blu-ray might be a good upgrade for that reason alone.

The extras:

Netflix has the DVD but not the Blu-ray.

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