Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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....

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.

Many 1970's Italian horror films tried to rip-off Hollywood hits "Rosemary's Baby", "The Exorcist", or "The Omen". Well this one tries to rip-off all three at the same time, and the result is a completely incomprehensible mish-mash. As near as I could follow, the film is about a coven of middle-aged female Satanists who begin to have buyer's remorse over the deal they made with the Dark Prince after he targets their nubile teenage daughters(perhaps this is supposed to be a metaphor for former 60's "flower children" reconsidering what the social changes of that era had wrought by the late 70's?). Three of the women band together to fight back against their infernal master with disastrous results.This movie has a surprisingly all-star European cast, but only Anne Heywood is in the film for any length of time. Marisa Mell appears suddenly in the middle of the film and disappears so fast you'd think she was just a mirage. John Phillip-Law is pretty much wasted in the role of a defrocked priest, and Irene Papas' character is similarly superfluous. Several other supporting actresses/perennial pieces of tail like Carmen Russo and Dirce Funari show up too in non-speaking (and non-clothes-wearing) roles.Gratuitous nudity seems to be the main raison d'etre of this one. It ends with a bizarre naked catfight between the decidedly middle-aged Anne Heywood and her obviously teenaged daughter (Lara Wendel). Aside from fulfilling some people's strange sex fantasies though, I have no idea what the point of this particular scene is. The ending does do "The Omen" one better though with the anti-Christ advancing on the Vatican City in a metered taxi-cab. Whatever it is, it definitely isn't boring.

Spoilers ahead.This abysmal film introduces us to a group of satanist women, all of whom seem to want their daughters to grow up normal. I guess becoming brides of Beelzebub didn't thrill them as much as they'd hoped. The focus is on one woman, Carlotta, played by Anne Heywood, and her 13 year-old daughter Daria, played by Lara Wendel. As the movie progresses, Daria shows a growing interest in the occult and begins to demonstrate her burgeoning magical powers. Carlotta (remember, a bride of Satan no less) freaks out and seeks ways to prevent her daughter from becoming an evil witch.It soon becomes apparent that this is nothing more than the tale of a mother trying to deal with a bratty daughter on the road to womanhood. The supernatural stuff is just tacked on. Daria is more or less like any obnoxious teenager seeking independence from a parent. She's rude. She challenges authority. She thinks she knows everything. Sound familiar?Carlotta goes through various painful (for the viewer) efforts to rid her daughter of the devil, including an exorcism where Lara Wendel appears nude. Wendel was actually 13 or 14 when the film was made and was one of the notorious nude teen stars of the '70s. Not the kind of thing you'd see in an American flick, but an Italian one is something different.The growing tension between Carlotta and Daria comes to a head when Daria finds her mother standing inside a mystic symbol painted on the floor, nude except for a cape. Daria brags that she is now stronger than her mother and calmly begins disrobing to prepare for the skin-on-skin showdown.Well, this is probably not the only movie where a girl of 13 or so and a woman in her 40s appeared nude together (Anne Heywood was 47 when this film was released, and looked fabulous), but it may be the only one to feature a nude catfight between them.Ah, but movie catfights are almost always awful, and this rule goes quintuple for occult films where a clash of magical strength is part of the bargain. I mean, the potential for maybe the greatest movie catfight of all time was right here. Lara Wendel may have been only 13 or 14, but she was as tall as Anne Heywood and her body was slim but very well-developed. A young knockout, to say the least, so with two beautiful actresses playing mother and daughter how can you go wrong?Well, to start with, you can shoot it mostly in the dark (actually, Anne Heywood's nude scene is mostly darkened, so you don't really see much). Then you can have the only positive physical attack be repulsed by pure magic. Who wants to see that? A catfight should have slapping, hair pulling, punching, scratching, kicking, rolling around. The writer can decree that their magics are equally powerful until the end, when the loser can no longer counter the magic of the winner, and you can have a supernatural coup de grace. Simple. I won't say how they did it in RING OF DARKNESS, but I will say that it's hard to imagine a lamer conclusion. And in this mother/daughter nude catfight, nothing of interest occurs. In fact, it's a stretch to even call it a catfight.So they had a chance to deliver a truly amazing brawl and instead produced a non-fight. The viewer is thus cheated of the conclusion the whole movie built up to, therefore the movie is odious and awful. The only other points of interest are the nude scenes. Anne Heywood's was darkened, Lara Wendel's were more numerous and had better lighting. 3 stars out of 10.