An Angel for Satan, 1966.

More Barbara Steele? I’ll take it. Like both Black Sunday and Long Hair of Death, she plays a double role in this as the niece of some sort of baron or viscount or some such position, and as one of the familial ancestors, cursed in years long past. The director, Camillo Mastrocinque also directed Christopher Lee in an adaptation of Carmilla which has led me to discover Blood and Roses, another Carmilla adaptation but directed by Roger Vadim of Barbarella fame. Adding that one to the list.

We dive right into a proper haunting – an old statue is pulled up from the lake, people start dying, locals think that someone making a sketch of them will steal their soul, and a goth cutie rolls into town. Everyone in the town thinks the statue is cursed and there’s an excellent feeling of anxiety and tension in the village. We even get the creepy kid that likes witches and ghosts kind of like a Tommy Jarvis type. Mrs Steele’s resemblance to the statue lead her and the art-restorer who’s fixing it to fall in love which gives us everything we need: ancient curse, spooky romance, black and white film to help pick up on Mrs Steele’s hair-skin-eye make-up combo, talking paintings, and a class divide between the proud nobility and superstitious peasants. How is it that we’ve left this format behind in favour of superhero films every month? Bah.

In proper gothic fashion, style is at its peak with paisley wall paper in a well-decorated library, marble fireplaces, crystal decanters, those giant old-timey globes, creepy basements full of old nautical junk, silken night-robes, flowing dresses, rococo decoration all over the walls, tailcoats, those wool shoulder cape things that you see in Sherlock Holmes or Jack the Ripper fiction, grim black carriages, and peasant shacks engulfed in flame. Perfection.

As the film progresses, everyone slowly becomes more twisted. Mrs Steele begins acting like a slasher villain, luring people’s guards down with a devilish charm and creating and destroying all sorts of love triangles. The exact way a succubus should be envisioned – driving everyone to madness over her beauty. The village idiot attempts to assassinate the village strongman, the school-teacher is REDACTED for spoilers, the strongman is seduced into beating the tar out of everyone Mrs Steele seduces, and we get something that is truly insane, at least by 1966 standards, when Mrs Steele seduces her maid. I’m pretty sure people used to be institutionalized for lesbianism back in the day.

Not really Blood but some people have cuts and scrapes so I’ll let it slide, Beasts by way of ghosts and witches, and no Breasts. Despite the lack of breast, we do get a nipple peaking through a shirt and Mrs Steele appears topless while she strips for the village idiot before beating him with a cane. Some people pay extra for that. There’s a twist at the end that’s a bit fun but I won’t spoil that for you. I don’t like this as much as Black Sunday, though to be fair, what can compete with that? But otherwise this is excellent – absolutely go watch it. Two Thumbs Up Seal of Approval.