Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

The Devil's Lover Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 10, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's Danza Macabra: Volume Two — The Italian Gothic Collection.

Severin released Danza Macabra: Volume One — The Italian Gothic Collection in 2023, and as I mentioned in our Danza Macabra: Volume One — The Italian Gothic Collection Blu-ray review, it was maybe just a little strange that the collection did not include the film from which it culled its very title. That situation has been rectified with this "new, improved" Volume Two, which includes not just the two alternate versions of Danza Macabra / Castle of Blood, both offered in 4K UHD and 1080 presentations, but three other somewhat later Italian gothic offerings (in 1080) as well. As usual, Severin has aggregated some really appealing supplements to help sweeten the pot (cauldron?).

While my hunch is most interested in this odd film will be coming to it to gaze longingly at the incredibly gorgeous Rosalba Neri, some more jaded trivia buffs will nonetheless probably be asking, "This is what became of Edmund Purdom?" The Devil's Lover is a supposed time traveling exercise that features Neri as a woman named Helga, who, along with two of her equally gorgeous female friends, decides to spend the night at a supposedly haunted castle which may be owned by that evil horned dude himself. When Helga sees a painting of a witch who bears a rather striking resemblance to her, the story then segues back a few centuries to document her story. To jokingly play on a line from another film featuring Satan and a human "partner", namely Rosemary's Baby, this most definitely is a dream, despite fitful attempts to pretend otherwise.

Despite the "scenery", The Devil's Lover is probably the "slog-iest" film in Severin's set, which is really kind of amazing, considering the subtext and the obvious attempts to get the women into compromising positions, often with their clothes either close to or completely falling off. The kind of sad career path of Edmund Purdom, who more or less started at the top with The Egyptian, and then fell rather precipitously relatively quickly, ending up in a bunch of Italian low budget fare toward the end of his movie life, is probably nowhere better typified than his role in this outing.

The Devil's Lover Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Devil's Lover is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release states this was "scanned uncut in 2K from the vault negative for the first time ever in America". A prefatory text card offers a bit more information (which is somewhat variant from the back cover), as follows:

The following presentation of The Devil's Love is a new 4K scan from the 35mm original camera negative, within which were 12 frames of black around the hour mark. After consultation with several Euro-gothic historians and archivists, it was agreed that it would be best to retain the film's integrity by maintaing this anomaly with in the new master.

First things first: my hunch is based on the beautiful detail levels present here, that this was indeed a 4K scan (as always, anyone with authoritative verifiable information is encouraged to private message me, and I'll happily update things here). The brief moment of black occurred circal 59:27 according to my timecode, and it is best they didn't remove anything, as the underscore continues through it for the brief second or so (probably less) it's on screen. Otherwise, this is a pretty ravishing looking presentation of a little remembered cult item. The palette is almost always nicely suffused, and primaries in particular pop extremely well, notably virtually all of the reds. Detail levels are also excellent throughout, aided by the repeated use of close-ups. Grain resolves naturally. My score is 4.75.

The Devil's Lover Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Devil's Lover features another nicely full bodied DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track which is generally in line with the other audio offerings in this set. This film has some rather enjoyable underscoring by Elvio Monti (also offered on a bonus soundtrack CD included with the Blu-ray disc), and that sounds nicely bright (with no brashness or stridency) and full bodied. A lot of the outdoor material has at least fitful placement of ambient environmental effects in the background. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Devil's Lover Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Annie Rose Malamet, Film Scholar and Host of Girls, Guts, Giallo


• The Lady of the Night: The Feminism of Rosalba Neri (HD; 16:44) is a video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, whose makes the case that Neri was a feminist despite being eye candy in any number of films.


• Out of the Woods (HD; 25:21) is an interview with actor Robert Woods.


• Bonus Soundtrack CD offers Elvio Monti's enjoyable score.

The Devil's Lover Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Neri in any movie is probably a potent selling point for some, and she's, um, front(al?) and center here, as gorgeous as ever, but she's simply not served by story that is really remarkably dull considering its set up. Purdom also is given very little to do, also kind of weird considering the "character" he's playing. On the plus side, this release offers sterling technical merits for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.