La Setta (The Devil's Daughter) (Demons 4) (The Sect)

Cast

Michel Hans Adatte
as Franz

Tomas Arana
as Damon

Angelika Maria Boeck
as Mrs. Heins

Carla Cassola

Roberto Corbiletto
as Martin

Mariangela Giordano
as Kathryn

Niels Gullov
as Mr. Heins

Herbert Lom
as Gran Vecchio

Donald O'Brien
as Jonathan

Erica Sinisi
as Sara

Kelly Leigh Curtis
as Miriam Kreisl

John Morghen

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Critic Reviews for La Setta (The Devil's Daughter) (Demons 4) (The Sect)

Audience Reviews for La Setta (The Devil's Daughter) (Demons 4) (The Sect)

• Oct 30, 2013

  'The Devil's Daughter' is an edgy, atmospherically ethereal cult classic from Italian producer Dario Argento and it adheres closely to Argento's penchant for dream logic but, contrary to the recent travesty 'Lords of Salem', director Michele Soavi intermingles beautifully frothy, idyllic reveries with the macabre (such as one spellbinding sequence in which Miriam's white robe is tethered to ropes and inexplicably a hideous stork-like creature materializes and pecks ravenously into her neck). Herbert Lom's schizophrenic, erratic behavior endears him as a Ernest Hemingway doppelganger who raves that religion "helps you die". Lom is definitely a shuddering presence in his short-lived cameo and the audience is ambivalent about his true intentions. The white-rabbit semiotics lend the film a fairy tale whimsy but it is quickly violated by the infernal circumstances. Of course, satanic-sect movies normally encroach into conspiratorial silliness involving dozens of peripheral characters, but 'The Devil's Daughter' is pretty airtight structurally and the intermittent goofiness (ala a fertility-symbolic insect that is implanted into Miriam's nostril) is offset by otherworldly stylishness (a handheld shot of water traveling through the pipes recalls early Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi).
  

  Cory T Super Reviewer
• Nov 25, 2010

  As with the earlier <i>La Chiesa (The Church)</i>, one comes away from <i>La Setta (The Sect)</i> feeling that if only Michele Soavi could get over the fact that he rather enjoyed <i>Rosemary's Baby</i>, he'd be eminently capable of making something extraordinary all of his own. To be honest, I haven't seen anything he made after this movie, so he may well have done it for all I know. Again, as with <i>La Chiesa</i>, Soavi pulls off some stunning visual coups and generates a strong atmosphere, though occasionally his set-pieces fail to deliver on the promise of their careful build-up, suggesting an unfavourable style to substance ratio. In particular, there is a wonderfully tense mortuary scene involving a coffin and a can-opener that peters out with an anti-climactic whimper.
  Stephen M Super Reviewer

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