A woman has fallen to her death in a small, close-minded village, after sending a cryptic note to the police concerning murderous events. When the police come to investigate, they find the woman dead, and so they call upon a coroner to investigate. Slowly, those involved uncover a dark secret and a superstition about the murderous ghost of a little girl that can't possibly be true...or can it? If you received the above note, wouldn't you be suspicious of the creepy little town in which a woman has just died after sending the note? I would. And the inspector on this case is suspicious, and fed up with townspeople who refuse to talk to him about the details of the death. What's going on? Everything about this woman's death points to suicide or an accident, how could it be murder? And why are the townspeople acting so suspicious and refusing to talk? What could they be hiding?

The barrage of questions above is only a guess at what might be going through the mind of the detective and coroner investigating the case, but these questions serve a purpose in this review as well: Be sure to realize coming into this movie that you won't have ANY of these questions answered satisfactorily until the film ends, and make sure you're comfortable with that, because otherwise the movie is just going to frustrate you. That's right, the movie keeps the mystery in full swing until well past the halfway mark, and when questions ARE answered by the film, the answers come in small pieces, one at a time, until the climax at the very end, which answers them all. In U.S. movies, the plot is usually spelled out for the viewer, but here you must infer
everything from the performances of the actors and the events on display, and what happens is often disorienting and misleading, so if this annoys you, you won't enjoy this film.

It's clear that the villagers are afraid of something, that they don't trust outsiders, and that they believe no one should touch a dead body--hence their anger with the coroner who examines the dead woman. But they never come out and actually SAY any of this, viewers just have to pay attention to what they DO to understand what's going on. The villagers run off with the dead woman's body, trying to bury her before the autopsy can be performed, but the inspector
catches them in the cemetery and prevents them from finishing the burial. This ensures that the autopsy will have to be performed in the cemetery...ooh, creepy. When the coroner insists on having a witness to the autopsy (and why can't the inspector just be the witness? Answer: Because the script says so) the inspector sends for a woman who has returned to the town recently after leaving to study science at a University. She left the village at the age of two, and
has returned now only to visit the graves of her parents who coincidentally have also died recently under mysterious circumstances. While this is clearly a plot device for introducing her character, it is easily forgotten because the following cemetery scene is so effectively scary. The shadowy setting, the fog, the creepy, lilting theme that introduces the presence of the "ghost girl," all these things work together to create a beautifully "gothic" setting.

Too bad! You're not going to find out until over forty-five minutes into the movie. Suffice it to say, there is an old house in the town, "Villa Graps," and as one young girl in the town says, "You don't come back from Villa Graps." In this house lives Baroness Graps, who hates the town and blames them for the death of her young daughter, Melissa, 20 years ago. Evil seems to emanate from the house, and it effects everyone in the town. The townspeople here do a great job of acting terrified of everything. Bava is a fan of the shadowy, disorienting camera angles that weave around and make viewers nauseous. This is a great way to demonstrate how disoriented the characters must feel, trying to uncover the truth about something no one wants to discuss. There is one particular moment, during a chase scene, where one character runs down a hallway through a door, and when he runs through the door he finds himself in the same hallway again. Repeat process five times. He's terrified, confused, and angry that he can't understand what's going on. It's a great scene. Also great are the two chase scenes down a spiral staircase, where the camera moves up and down, hypnotizing the viewer.

What doesn't work about this movie are the plot holes. I can't reveal all of them without giving away the twist ending, but suffice it to say that any viewer who's remotely good at math will recognize that a character can't be two years old in 1897 if she was born in 1896. And the actors who stand in one place, staring at each other before sighing and beginning long speeches that explain key points in the movie get old after awhile. But these are small quibbles about style and plot that don't outweigh the beauty of this atmospheric chiller. And it IS influential. Ever watch feardotcom and wonder where they got the idea for that creepy little girl and her bouncing ball? Here's the answer! And that scene is done so much better in this film. In fact, the creepy little girl is the best thing about this movie. She never does anything menacing but stare with her wide eyes, but those eyes are likely to haunt you long after you're finished with this film.

Make no mistake, a "spooky gothic chiller" is what this is, bottom line. If you don't like European horror movies, if you don't want to wait until the last five minutes of the movie to have the whole confusing mess explained, and if you're not a fan of movies where the music and the raging wind provide most of the scares, you won't like this movie. I loved it.