It was an accident that I even saw this film - I bought the DVD from Diamond Entertainment under the assumption that the disk, titled "Umberto Lenzi Presents Kiss Me, Kill Me" was actually the 1969 Giallo, which also stars Carol Baker. Diamond Entertainment made a mistake, and the disk and the cover do not match, which is a huge shame as Baba Yaga is a horrible mess of a film, and I spent eighty minutes bored to tears with it. The film is along the same lines of Mario Bava's Lisa and the Devil, except it moves slower, makes even less sense and is nowhere near as atmospheric. The plot supposedly comes from an Italian comic book, and follows a young female photographer named Valentina (Isabelle De Funès), who comes under the spell of an evil witch called Baba Yaga (Carol Baker). She starts to realise that something is wrong when she begins having nightmares, and when she has accident with her camera and one of the models; she begins to suspect the real motive behind the mysterious Baba Yaga.
Just the name of this film is enough to put anyone off - what kind of a title is 'Baba Yaga'? The fact that the film moves really slowly is annoying enough on its own, and it gets worse because very little actually happens. The film tries to make the atmosphere the star, and this ultimately harms it as despite undertones of sexuality and innuendo; the film is very boring. The acting doesn't really help the film much either. Isabelle De Funès is great to look at, but despite it being the lead; her role doesn't really allow her to do much. George Eastman, star of Eurotrash films such as Emanuelle's Revenge, Photo of Gioia and Antropophagus has a small role and the film is rounded off by Carol Baker, who just looks silly in the role of the witch. The murky cinematography ensures that the film always looks very cheap, which doesn't help it much on the 'art' front. Perhaps the most annoying thing about Baba Yaga is the fact that it's about a relationship between two women, one of them a witch; and yet barely any attempt is made to capitalise on either of these potentially interesting themes. It only cost me 99p to see this film, and I feel ripped off. If you like messy arty films, you might find something here...although I can't imagine what.
Just the name of this film is enough to put anyone off - what kind of a title is 'Baba Yaga'? The fact that the film moves really slowly is annoying enough on its own, and it gets worse because very little actually happens. The film tries to make the atmosphere the star, and this ultimately harms it as despite undertones of sexuality and innuendo; the film is very boring. The acting doesn't really help the film much either. Isabelle De Funès is great to look at, but despite it being the lead; her role doesn't really allow her to do much. George Eastman, star of Eurotrash films such as Emanuelle's Revenge, Photo of Gioia and Antropophagus has a small role and the film is rounded off by Carol Baker, who just looks silly in the role of the witch. The murky cinematography ensures that the film always looks very cheap, which doesn't help it much on the 'art' front. Perhaps the most annoying thing about Baba Yaga is the fact that it's about a relationship between two women, one of them a witch; and yet barely any attempt is made to capitalise on either of these potentially interesting themes. It only cost me 99p to see this film, and I feel ripped off. If you like messy arty films, you might find something here...although I can't imagine what.