jadavix This is a weird, surreal movie about an improbably beautiful female photographer who has a strange encounter with a weird pale lady. The lady gives her a doll that she can apparently control the photographer with.It's hard to know what to say about this one in that it is deliberately incomprehensible and perhaps indeliberately tedious. There's nudity, but nothing all that great. The only actor in it I liked is the behemoth George Eastman. I could never see why he is described as a handsome man but he works in front of the camera better than all the ladies in this movie do.Apparently it was based on an Italian comic strip called a "fumetti". I know nothing about these, and after watching this, I'm not that interested in finding out about them either.

Joseph Brando If you answered "Yes" you should not bother seeing this movie. However, if you can view a haunted house dark ride style movie as a satisfying cinematic viewing experience, then strap yourself in and enjoy the view as creepy weird unexplained visions flash in front of you. Pouty-lipped Valentina is smack-dab in the middle of the art house European revolution crowd of the time - photographing nude woman by day and walking the lonely city streets at night alone, which is how she meets up with "Baba Yaga" a mysterious woman who dresses in black (played by the always lovely Carroll Baker). She instantly weaves a spell over Valentina haunting her thoughts, her dreams and her camera. She also does a pretty decent job of weaving her magic spell over the viewer. "Baba Yaga" takes Gothic Horror, stylish pop art, comic books and bondage sex, whirls them in a blender and spews the concoction forth. Although very often defined as a "Giallo" film this certainly belongs more to the "Art Horror" genre. Those who are fans of the trippy stylish body-baring Giallo/Horror output from Italy circa 1970 should put "Baba Yaga" on their "must-watch" list.

Bezenby Is this artsy fartsy seventies jive or compelling allegory of the so called enlightened intellects versus the unknown? That's up to you to decide. I know nothing about the comic strip so I can't compare… Valentina is a fashion photographer being romantically pursued by George Eastman (aka Luigi Montefori, from The Unholy Four and The New Barbarians). Fobbing him off one night and walking home herself, she finds a puppy lying within a circle of candles and narrowly manages to save it from being run over by a car driven by the mysterious Baba Yaga (Carrol Baker, from The Devil with Seven Faces). Baba Yaga's immediately starts getting weird on Val, taking a clip from her suspenders and saying she'll be back the next day. And the next day indeed (after Val indulges in some topless photography), Baba turns up and gives her the clip back and gives her address. Intrigued in a way only free living seventies people can be, Val goes to Baba's house, takes photos of things, finds a bottomless pit in the hall, finds a strange glove and puts in on, which prompts her to do a bit of invisible banjo playing while the film turns into a comic. Baba also gives her doll in bondage gear and curses her camera so that every time she takes a picture of someone, they die. The doll on occasion turns into Ely Galleano (from Lizard in a Woman's Skin and High Crime) who puts in a performance so erotic, I felt obliged to send her some money in the post. Sounds weird, eh? It is, all done in a surreal, playful manner with plenty of topless women and kinky situations. It's not overly pervy though, but highly stylish. The sets and general execution are very good indeed, involving scenes that turn from reality to comic strip, a nazi trial, a boxing match with a guy dressed like Jesus, and a soap powder commercial that's truly bizarre. Gore hounds will be disappointed, as will though who like things fast paced. As for me, I liked it. Made a nice change from all the violence you usually get from Italian films from this era. The copy that Shameless Screen Entertainment have released looks to be the fullest version (including a full frontal scene with Baker!), and it looks beautiful. This is the only version I've seen so I can't comment on anything that's gone before.

Hitchcoc I watched this with an awareness of the pseudo-art of the seventies. I'm sure the people who made this thought carefully about each shot, put together some silly plot, set up some titillation, and went from there. The movie is mess because the editing is a mess. If they thought they were making a serious film, it needed to be put together with some sort of point. The story is a bit ghost story/fantasy. A photographer makes a good protagonist because of her ability to encounter a cross section of characters. Many are superfluous, there so we could see them unclothed. This is just more of the junk that was put out in the seventies in Europe. It was a liberating time but it brought out hack artists. From reading other reader comments, apparently this particular character has a comic book connection. Having seen none of them, I can't judge this based on that form. As a movie, it isn't much. Good old Carol Baker. She never really amounted to a whole lot, did she?