Brunello Rondi
Il demonio

1963; Brunello Rondi puts in black and white the dictates that will be revisited, ten years later, by Friedkin in "The Exorcist". The famous "spider walk", present here, is nothing but a reinterpretation of what the character played by the Israeli Daliah Lavi will execute during an exorcism, in the desperate attempt to cure her, and to ward off the aura of misfortune that has descended upon the Sassi of Matera, somewhere in Lucania. The rituals depicted, the formulas pronounced, belong to Southern Italian folklore, and are not made up out of thin air as they might give the impression; the very plot of the film, as reported in the initial caption, is based on events that really happened.

The story is that of Purif (short for Purificata), a desperate peasant because the man she is in love with wants nothing to do with her, and in fact, decides to marry another... but far from accepting the rejection philosophically, the protagonist opts for a spell, which will not have the desired effect (not completely): because of that and her crazy behavior, the young woman will be repudiated by the villagers. Escaping lynching on a couple of occasions, the character thereby gains a dark credibility; reinforced by the representation in the film of rituals such as "The Stone Procession" and "the rain spell", and unfortunately for her, the attempts by the parents to hide her underground will prove futile, as well as those of redemption by the nuns of a convent where Purif will find temporary asylum.
Among the rituals, one that stands out is also the ancient one related to the first wedding night, where a saint is invoked for each corner of the bed, a scythe placed underneath it, and grape berries in the form of a cross placed above: "With the scythe I cut the legs of death. With the scythe the tears cut the voice. With the scythe under the bed from the devil you are protected". During "The Stone Procession", on the other hand, people carry stones (sins) to the edge of a hill, then they lay them on the ground, announcing their sins, including the most obscene ones. And with this, I reconnect to the discussion on credibility; because the film does not follow a simplistic trend, as one might have expected, given the hot topic (at least for the period), but rather takes a steeper path compared to the evil witch who gets the end she deserves: the sins announced after placing the stones, in fact, seem to have more weight than conversing with the demon or one-time visitations by the dead. And outside of this, the protagonist will also suffer sexual violence (suggested and not shown); although then her final attitude as a sacrificial victim balances the scales concerning possible bias of the director.

Moreover, there is still more that sets a precedent, namely the animalistic sensuality which, though diluted, will animate female characters in the years to come; in addition to the ability to describe the inexplicable, and the contradictory union between religion and superstition heightened by a direction that is also on the edge, between the indiscreet and the gentle.