Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

An Angel for Satan Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 2, 2021

It's maybe just a little hilarious to hear David Del Valle mention in a commentary on this disc that the only reason stars like Carroll Baker and Barbara Steele ever consented to being in various Italian horror opuses is that they were promised the films would never be seen in places like the United Kingdom and/or the United States, something that the home video market if nothing else has put the kibosh on. That probably joking reference aside, Steele seems uniquely proud of her overseas accomplishments, and in terms of her Italian gothic horror phase, An Angel for Satan serves as an appropriately moody swan song. Steele is actually on hand in the commentary with Del Valle (and Severin's David Gregory), and the three discuss Steele's "Italian period", mentioning how this film, which ended that period, can be seen as a kind of mirror image of the first film she did in Italy, Mario Bava's well remembered 1960 opus Black Sunday. There are a number of connections that can be gleaned between the two films, not the least of which is Steele as the putative reincarnation of a witch. Harriet Montebruno (Barbara Steele) is the comely niece of local landed gentry Count Montebruno (Claudio Gora), but she has the misfortune to rather closely resemble a supposedly cursed statue which has just been pulled out of a nearby lake. The local townspeople are convinced the statue is bad luck, something that is only reinforced when the two boatmen who found it then drown, but the Count is having none of this superstitious nonsense, and has hired artisan Roberto Merigi (Anthony Steffen) to restore it. Against a background of Gothic settings and characters, Roberto and Harriet begin to feel the sparks of romance, but a series of misfortunes occurs which seem to point to Harriet as the source.

Steele's kind of angular features seemed to make her especially well suited to play scheming sorts, and one of the interesting conceits underlying An Angel for Satan is that the viewer may be set off balance by how they're supposed to react to the character of Harriet. Is she a helpless pawn caught in some kind of subterfuge which may have a supernatural element? Or is she simply a cold, conniving seductress who may in fact be prone to murder? The film has an almost comical series of revelations in its final few minutes which help to explain the situation, but An Angel for Satan offers another great showcase for Steele's almost patented simmering sexuality, which in this case seems to be "equal opportunity" in terms of either gender.

The probably simultaneously too simple and too overly convoluted plot involves Harriet, who is set to come into a sizable fortune, arriving at the Count's villa, where she is perhaps interrupting a bit of a dalliance between the Count and his maid Illa (Marina Berti). The local townspeople are all up in arms about the recovery of the cursed statue, and they literally lash out at Roberto, while also slowly starting to believe that Harriet may be some kind of witch. A number of corpses accrue (including one patently shocking death very late in the film), but this really isn't a "horror" outing in the same way that some of Steele's other Italian films were. Instead, this is a kind of moody psychological thriller, at least until an almost dazzling array of "Moishe the Explainer" moments in the film's delirious few minutes may provide some unintended comedy relief.

An Angel for Satan Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

An Angel for Satan is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Severin's back cover touts that this is "the first ever authorized American release" of the film which has been "scanned in 2K from the original negative". The results are really lustrous for the most part, with Giusseppe Aquari's often sumptuous black and white cinematography looking great throughout the bulk of this transfer. Detail levels are excellent on a number of intricate patterns on fabrics (as can be seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review), and contrast is generally solid throughout, providing ample support for some impressive blacks and well modulated gray scale. There are occasional minor dings on display, and a few passing moments where clarity falters, but on the whole this is a gorgeous presentation with a commendably organic appearance free of any overt digital tinkering.

An Angel for Satan Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

An Angel for Satan features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks in either English or Italian. Again kind of interestingly, the Steele - Del Valle - Gregory commentary gets into how the film has never really had an English language release before this one (the back cover of this release discloses that the English soundtrack was considered lost until it was recently discovered in a Rome vault). That may account for a somewhat hotter amplitude on the Italian track, though otherwise the tracks have about the same level of fidelity and more or less the same age related wear and tear, which often surfaces as brief pops or clicks, along with some background hiss. Some of the scoring, notably the theme music, comes close to the edge of distortion without ever fully tipping over into it. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English SDH subtitles for the English track and English subtitles for the Italian track are available.

An Angel for Satan Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Actress Barbara Steele & Horror Film Historian David Del Valle also features Severin Films' David Gregory, and is a really fun and informative listen. Kind of interestingly, both Steele and Del Valle mention they had never seen the film before getting ready to do the commentary.


• Audio Commentary with Kat Ellinger, Author of Daughters of Darkness is another well researched analysis by Ellinger, who once again argues a particular film has been under appreciated.


• The Devil Statue (HD; 18:25) is an interview with actor Vassili Karis. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Barbara & Her Furs (HD; 9:27) is a fascinating if bizarre short film by Pierre Andre based on Venus in Furs. The film is in French with English subtitles, but this comes with an optional partial commentary by Steele (and who I'm assuming is David Gregory).


• Trailer (HD; 2:00)


• Extended Trailer (HD; 2:30) is a recently found longer version (as explained in a text intro which lasts 8 seconds, not included in the timing I've listed) which is missing the first 30 seconds or so of the soundtrack. The portion with sound that's left is the same as the shorter Trailer listed directly above.

Packaging also features a rather nice slipcover which is printed on more of a heavy cardstock than the typical glossy finishes that are often offered.

An Angel for Satan Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

An Angel for Satan has been one of the harder films in Barbara Steele's Italian period for fans to find, and this Severin release should be welcome on that count alone. Sweetening the deal, however, are solid technical merits and some very appealing supplements. Recommended.