RyothChatty ridiculous rating

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

ferbs54 Those viewers who believe Patty McCormack's Rhoda Penmark character, in the 1956 classic "The Bad Seed," to be the nastiest, most diabolical little girl ever shown on film might change their mind after seeing the 1979 Italian offering "Satan's Wife." This latter picture was originally released under the title "Un'ombra nell'ombra," or "Ring of Darkness," but for once, I prefer the American appellation, as it is both more memorable and more suitably descriptive. An engrossing though hardly essential example of Eurohorror, the film should certainly prove of interest to the jaded fan of such fare who is looking for something different.In the film, the viewer meets a very attractive, middle-aged mother named Carlotta Rhodes. Thirteen years earlier, Carlotta and several other women had danced and participated in a Satanic ritual...and even, shades of Rosemary Woodhouse, had sexual congress with ol' Lucifer himself. And now, the result of that union, 13-year-old Daria, is beginning to evince signs of her demonic daddy's, uh, DNA. In several well-done and unsettling sequences, Daria--who I suppose my main gal Ann Wilson would call a "dirty demon daughter"--shows an intimately uncanny knowledge of Charlemagne's sorcerous activities, draws a pentagram on a tennis court, prophesies her estranged father's death, compares the eating habits of "humans" to hyenas, and scorches a young suitor's chest by a mere laying on of the hand. But when the meddlesome adults in Daria's life start to suffer horrible ends, Carlotta comes to realize that a priestly exorcism might be the only hope of rescuing her devilish offspring....A tad slow moving in parts but always of interest, "Satan's Wife" has been directed by Pier Carpi for maximum freakiness. Utilizing a negative-image dream sequence, echo effects, long stretches with no dialogue and a mesmerizing score consisting of synth, bass and percussion (by Stelvio Cipriani, whose work on the 1978 giallo "The Bloodstained Shadow" had recently impressed me), Carpi manages to engender a decidedly strange, borderline surreal atmosphere. And he is here abetted by the very fine performances of his three leading ladies. English actress Anne Heywood, who many will recall as Sandy Dennis' partner in the 1968 film "The Fox," manages to steal the film as the distraught Carlotta. Heywood, 47 years old in this picture, still looks stunningly beautiful (how appropriate that her name at birth was Violet Pretty!), almost on the order of the middle-aged Jeanne Crain (and those IMDb readers who have perused my reviews for such films as "State Fair" and "Dangerous Crossing" already know what I think of Jeanne Crain's remarkable looks!). Whether dressed in prosaic street clothes or garbed in Satanic robes, Heywood looks simply smashing here, and offers up an effective performance. As her best friend Elena, Valentina Cortese (the former Mrs. Richard Basehart) also offers up a convincingly agonized portrayal. And in the crucial role of Daria, 14-year-old Lara Wendel, from Germany, is quite chilling indeed. Surprisingly, the film requires this young actress to appear topless in its final showdown sequence, as mother and daughter square off for a supernatural battle royale. Those viewers who were bothered by Mariora Goschen's topless appearance on that classic Blind Faith album cover, shot when the young gal was only 11, might be similarly appalled by the spectacle of the topless Wendel here, but I suppose no harm was done, and Wendel continued to enjoy her acting career for over a decade more. Though inevitably reminiscent of "Rosemary's Baby" for a bit of its running time, ultimately, "Satan's Wife" feels more and more like a cousin of "The Omen," as it becomes apparent that our little devilish spawn is virtually unstoppable. Indeed, the film's final image (WARNING: Spoiler ahead!), of Daria approaching St. Peter's Basilica, leaves the viewer with the sure knowledge that a showdown between the Devil and the Church is about to commence; what a sequel this picture could have had, if the filmmakers had chosen to continue! Little Daria vs. the Pope...the mind reels at the possibilities!Unfortunately for home viewers, "Satan's Wife" today seems to be only available on DVD from an outfit known as Mya. Just recently, I watched another of the company's DVDs, for another Italian horror film from 1979, "Island of the Fishmen," and was pleased with the print quality and adequate dubbing in lieu of subtitling. "Satan's Wife," however, is another matter, with very inadequate dubbing and a print quality that is decidedly fuzzy and scuzzy. Still, I suppose it will have to do until something better comes along. The experience to be had with this DVD incarnation is a marginally watchable one, but the film itself is surely of interest, and, as mentioned, should assuredly find acceptance in the eyes of all fans of 1970s Eurohorror....

Michael_Elliott Satan's Wife (1979)* 1/2 (out of 4) If it's from Italy and features "Satan" or "devil" in the title then you know it must be a rip-off of THE EXORCIST or ROSEMARY'S BABY but here we're in for a treat as this one rips both of those classics. A mother (Anne Heywood) begins to notice something wrong with her teen daughter (Lara Wendel) and sure enough Lucifer (Ezio Miani) is after the young one. Turns out that mommy and two of her friends made a deal with the evil red one years earlier and now he's taking it out on their children but a priest (John Phillip Law) agrees to try and defeat him. I'm really not sure what the point of this film was as it goes off in several directions and in the end it never really seems to know what it wants to do. Apparently this thing sat on the shelf for two years before getting released and you'll see why when you sit through it. The biggest problem is that the film starts off with your typical possession stuff but it does very little with it. There's non-stop nudity to add into the sleaze factor but there's very little else in terms of entertainment. The possession stuff is all mild, any back story is boring and it doesn't help that the film jumps around from one character to another. The cast will feature some familiar faces including previous Oscar-nominees Ian Bannen, Valentina Cortese and Frank Finlay. Wendel will probably be best remembered for a memorable death scene in Argento's TENEBRE but her performance here is pretty weak. The incredibly bad dialogue doesn't help matters nor does her nude scenes and if the DOB on the IMDb is correct then many will want to avoid this film at all costs. Heywood doesn't do any better as she's all over the place and looks confused at what she should do in a film like this. Cult favorite John Phillip Law doesn't get that good of a role either so he's wasted as well. THE EXORCIST-rip should be a genre onto its own as we have dozens and dozens of films that would fall into it but this one here is certainly one of the lesser entries. The film does start off with a near musical number that will have your eyes coming through your skull but things go downhill from there. There's enough nudity that might make Euro-sleaze folks tune in but it's not enough to keep the film moving.

The_Void After the release of The Exorcist in 1973; ripping that film off became so popular in Italy that "the Exorcist rip off" almost became a genre. It turns out that Italian filmmakers were still at it six years later and Rings of Darkness is one of the later rip offs. It seems that director Pier Carpi was not happy just to rip off William Friedkin's film, however, and this one also features elements from other Satanic classics such as The Omen and Rosemary's Baby. I have to give the film some credit actually for the plot, as it does feature one of the more interesting ones; although it is rather messy. The basic plot focuses on three women that made a deal with the Devil. However, the Devil has decided to target their young daughters instead; prompting the women to fight back against their master. Unfortunately, it has to be said that this film is something of a missed opportunity and nowhere near as good as it could have been. The atmosphere is really rather good, and while the music is a bit too over the top at times; it does work well. The plot soon becomes indecipherable, however, and unfortunately this means that the film quickly becomes boring. In my experience, most of the Exorcist rip off's are rubbish and this isn't one of the better ones. I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to find a copy.

darksoul71 Warning,contains spoilers!This is one of the best Italian sleaze films I've seen.The plot has a teenage girl who is interested of occultism and has supernatural powers.Her mother is a member of satanist group and is afraid what influences it'll have on the girl.No need to worry, the girl knows just what to do and there's no return,she belongs to Satan..During the film odd things happen in typical italo way,there's not too much logic,but that's only good thing.It's amazing how entertaining these films are.. On the final battle we see her and her mother fighting each other (nude off course) and doing some mysterious rituals,you might guess who wins... The films final pictures leaves your mouth open and wandering why can't there be more films like this?There's superb music through the whole film and the actors are quite good,better than usual in these type of films.Specially Anne Heywood looks and acts good.It also has some unusual camera angles and stuff like that, so it's not boring at all.My rating is 10.Hopefully someone releases this on dvd.