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: Now this is a movie I d probably have never seen if it weren t for my girlfriend. Eye of the Devil , not available on DVD (never has been) and traded only amongst bootleggers, who peddle the chopped-up Turner Classics Movie version. Unfortunately this is the only version I have seen, and I like it a lot.

I hear the original, uncut version is even better. This movie is remarkable because it s Sharon Tate s first movie. In it, she plays a Satanic witch in France.

Oddly, just a few years after making this movie she would be murdered by the Manson cult. I can t tell if her voice was dubbed here; it doesn t look like it but there are rumors that it was. Her voice is really cool and she does have a kind of cold, distant, and slightly eerie beauty in this film that is appropriate for the character.

This is more of an atmospheric, gothic thriller than anything else. It s set in a massive castle in France, a castle populated by strange things that go bump in the night, including a black robed cult who stalk through the woods in one memorable scene, a scene that kind of makes you want to put on a Darkthrone album. (Seriously, some of the icy imagery in this would make a great black metal album cover).

The cinematography is bizarre: constant movement of the camera, it seems like, sweeping in, or out, moving forward or backwards. Nothing is ever still. Donald Pleasence also has an early role here, far before his days, as a suspicious priest.

If you can find this, it s worth a view. Who doesn t like icy black-and-white movies about Satanists in European castles? And with the late Sharon Tate at her gothiest?

The plot is similar to the (the original one), actually, but this one, through and through, has a frostier, gothier feel. There s one strange scene where Sharon Tate is being whipped by David Niven, who plays the main character, and she seems to be enjoying it. I can t wait for a real DVD edition, because I think some of the imagery would look absolutely beautiful in a cleard-up print/transfer.

In the meantime, if you can t find a copy and want to see this, I might be willing to sell some. This entry is getting to be a bit long, so I ll end it, though some other movies I ve seen recently and wanted to comment on are House of 9 : Now this is a movie I d probably have never seen if it weren t for my girlfriend.