Audience Member
An adaptation of Guido Crepax's comic series "Valentina", under the film title: "Baba Yaga", now playing on Amazon Prime. It's a seductive and quite imaginative, giallo thriller, more art cinema than horror, full of eroticisms and some great camera work, from director Corrado Farina, edited at times with Crepax's comic drawings. Besides the wishy-washy lesbian witch narrative, its a fun, satisfactory watch, with some unconventional imagery, fabulous 70's wardrobe, along some fierce platform shoes.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/19/23
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Audience Member
Baba Yaga wasn't particularly enjoyable, i think it may have been the most drawn out 90 minute movie i've ever experienced. Valentina uncomfortably looked like someone i know which kind of disturbed me throughout, of course that is of no fault of this offbeat 'horror'. I had pretty much no idea what Baba Yaga was about before watching so it was very different to see such things as some sort of BDSM girls doll but i did appreciate the dream sequences and the use of B&W photography to imply sex rather than seeing it. I didn't like any of the characters at all and Valentina seemed a little too dim for me to connect with her. The witch wasn't all that scary, she seemed more like a sexually repressed cat lady. What's with these 70s Italian movies and this sort of weird forced same sex erotica between non lesbians? Anyway, i wouldn't really recommend Baba Yaga unless you've got a lot of patience for a pretty boring outcome.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
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Audience Member
"I think yer cutting your own throat with all that third world jazz." A trippy (i.e. incoherent) Italian erotic horror story about a Nazi nightmare plagued fashion photographer bewitched by the mythological Russian Baba Yaga. Lots of "Who Goes There?" spookery crammed with nearly wall-to-wall nudity thanks to a batch of willing and swinging actresses. Not sure what to make of the muddled end product, but it definitely passed the time pleasantly. VF.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
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bill t
Trippy Black Magic thriller that has Isabelle De Funes falling under the spell of a witch played by Carroll Baker. Murders happen, who's responsible? Maybe you should see it for the amazing set design and editing rather than the story. I was paying more attention to that aspect, that's for sure.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Audience Member
A pretty damn good Italian horror adaptation of an Italian comic book that deals with the occult and some S&M (but not too much). Valentina is a fashion photographer, who hangs around intellectual lefty artist types. One night after leaving a party, she runs into a dog, who is about to get hit by a car. Che dives in front of the car and pushed the dog out the way, luckily survivng. The women behind the wheel goes by the name of Baba Yaga. Shes a strange lady, with obviouis lesbian tendencies and perhaps also Magikal abilities. It does quickly become apparent that Baba has indeed put a spell on Valentina, but is this all in Valentina's imagination or is it real.
The movie is heavily stylized, with rapid and intresting editing, plentiful dream sequences (involving nazi's whips and dominatrix's amongst other things), lots of photographic stills, and is a pleasure to look at. The story itself is also highly unusual. When I read the synopsis I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was about to see, being that these were common themes in Italian horror in the 70's. I was pleasantly surprised that this film had it's own personality, and manages to stay away from the sleazier aspects that a lot of other Italian filmmakers would focus on. For example most of the S & M is only implied at, with only one scene actually confronting it face to face. The scene is brief and not too graphic. Definently a tasteful choice, as this way one can actually focus on the ideas the film is trying to get accross, rather than confrontational imagery alone. The film does drag at times, and at a little under 90 minutes that shouldn't have been the case. but still this is a highly interesting, enjoyable and creative horror that is not easy to pigeonhole, and truly stands on its own, and not just another example of Italian giallo, cannibal, supernatural etc. which too many other Italian horrors of this period have a tendency of doing.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
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Audience Member
Some really lovely imagery, but terribly composed.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
Full Review
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