Italian horror directed by Federico Zampaglione which draws heavily on Italian horror films of the 70s, taking inspiration from Argento, Avati, Bava, mixing the gothic setting with moments of intense and crude violence.

The staging of the The film is not sloppy, despite the low budget and Zampaglione knows how to bring out good camera movements, some directorial ideas and good management of the artisanal effects and splatter.
The major defects are instead on the writing and acting side, on this last aspect I partially give the benefit of the doubt as I saw the film dubbed.
The beginning of the film with the protagonist Lisa inside the bus headed to Sambuci is very reminiscent of the incipit of several 70s horror films and if desired also Suspiria as well as the incipit of the film where Lisa, from the United States, is called to restore a painting reduced to very bad conditions due to a fire at the castle of Duchess Emma Malvisi is very reminiscent of La Casa dalle Finestre che Ridono by Pupi Avati but also Dallamano's Bloody Medallion.
Lisa looking out the window with the reflection of her face is a warning for the ending of the film, the reflection recalls the double, the two souls and therefore the narrative arc that will see Lisa as the protagonist .
The narrative of the film is mostly divided into two blocks, Lisa restoring the painting inside the castle with the presence of Duchess Emma and her daughter Giulia and the team of biologists that Lisa meets on the bus, who will be prisoners in the basement of the castle they are victims of ferocious violence.

On the writing side, the biological team has practically no characterization so the viewer cares little about their outcome. The splatter moments are enjoyable and with good artisanal effects, in the film for example there is a back where the skin is torn, a torn eyeball and much more in this respect, but it remains that the victims not being characterized do not bring empathy, emotion for the spectator.
Continuing to talk about the writing, through a vision and a hint of dialogue between Lisa and Giulia we discover the conflict between the protagonist and her father but this relationship is not explored in the film nor taken up, retracted in the rest of the film.
Same thing, in part, for the conflictual relationship between Giulia and her mother Emma which appears to be little experienced and mostly always dialogued between Lisa and Giulia.
Also the loneliness that the two girls say they have is not so expressed in the film, as written everything remains a bit more spoken than shown, the shot that best embodies this feeling is when Giulia is looking out of the window, framing it from a distance.

Instead, there are directorial solutions that recall the concepts of imprisonment and time. The caged raven, the darkness that swallows the Moon, foretell that it will be impossible for Lisa and her biological friends to escape from the castle; the repeated shots of the pendulum clock inside the castle immediately clarify how the temporal element is central, the focus on time is also given by the fact that Emma orders Lisa to finish the restoration of the painting in two weeks and not in a month as Lisa would prefer.

Zampaglione executes good camera movements, the one outside arriving at the castle which shows the building, the beautiful camera movement from above at the table with Lisa, Emma and Giulia, the disorientating rotation with the two girls (Lisa and Giulia) and also the handheld camera during Lisa's descent towards the underground are some examples of the technical side.

The management of tension times is rather standard, not there is a great mastery in prolonging time, for example in the bathtub scene the moment in which the horror is shown is quite direct.
Being a horror film that aims to be sold outside Italy too, we there are some slightly mainstream horror dynamics, there are some avoidable jump scares and moments in which the soundtrack is lowered, silence and then the jump scare arrives with rather standard mechanisms.
This is also a shame because in some circumstances, such as when the creature slowly approaches the sleeping Lisa and lies down next to her, it is possible to create tension given that there is coexistence between the villain and the victim of the scene where the latter is unaware of the danger, but then the scene ends with a jump scare. This expedient, jump scare, is present in the film but not overused.

The sequence of the capture of the biologicals in the forest is not handled very well, here too the jump scare is used without much building of tension.
On the other hand, the subjective shots of the painting are good in highlighting its essence and vitality, also note the chromatic contrast with the painting, which is blackened at the beginning and Lisa's clothing which is totally white.
The photography It focuses on dark tones and can also go with blues and reds, also creating good scenarios in certain circumstances. However, it is a shame that the castle and its setting have been little exploited and this does not allow you to fully experience the atmosphere and immerse yourself in the Gothic. unfortunately everything is reduced to the usual few rooms, I presume for budget reasons.

In this respect therefore it lacks a bit of expressive strength, however the film manages to be good in the visions of the past where the fog acts as a its effect but also in the scene at the bottom of the well where the monstrous creature appears among the skulls and mice.
As already written Zampaglione is quite direct and does not have who knows what construction of times, however his staging does not expire and in moments of splatter and violence proves to be at ease.
To try to enjoy the film it is true that you have to ignore various aspects, the writing which does not delve into the characters and aspects covered and the acting which is at times very poor, ok here there is the benefit of the doubt in that the dubbing makes the final rendering much worse but there remain some dialogues that are a bit thrown away like Giulia at the end who exclaims "this is petrol", the repeated reactions of the boy imprisoned in the underground but also simple exchanges not written so well.
Overlooking this, the film offers good artisanal effects, splatter and a decent staging in a horror that harks back to Italian products of the 70s genre and can be dated because like in the films , often minor of the period, the focus is more on the mechanics of the genre than on the characters and their conflicts, going against the trend of a certain modern horror.
The ending is very reminiscent of Riccardo Freda's The Vampires and the prologue is linked to that initial reflection, Lisa's path with a note that also criticizes a certain type of capitalism.
The viewer has the choice whether to overlook the defects present in the film to try to enjoy a non-sloppy artisan horror with a retro taste where however the same Zampaglione must also improve and manage the horror moments better both to give more strength to the gothic and to fuel the tension especially when he tries to remake Wan, some directorial ideas are also present, the rendering of others creaks a little more and in general Zampaglione manages the moments at the Hostel better.