Elke Sommer stars as the title character, a tourist on vacation in Spain who becomes lost and ends up in crazy mansion run by a sinister butler played by Telly Savalas. Savalas happens to look exactly like the image of Satan Sommer saw in a mural, so naturally, she's freaked.
This movie has lots of fun with its eccentric characters, weird flashbacks, creative uses of mannequins and of course Bava's famous slasher scenes and bold colors. Although the movie is basically just a murder mystery about the secrets of the family in the mansion, it plays out like a weird dream or nightmare. It doesn't always make total sense, but there's one thing that saves it and that's Telly Savalas as the creepy butler.
Savalas is so commanding, so conniving, so sneaky and so at home in the movie that it's worth watching just for his performance. There's a running gag where he's not supposed to smoke in the mansion, but is happy to do so as long as no one is looking. In the mean time, he sucks on lollipops to keep his mouth busy. Apparently this was Savalas' own idea, and it's these little quirks that make the movie interesting.
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