Il Medaglione Insanguinato (aka Night Child) (1975)

A documentary film maker (Richard Johnson) for the BBC travels to Italy with his daughter (Nicoletta Elmi, Argento's DEEP RED) and the child's governess (Ida Galli) to do a documentary on the devil in art. However, his daughter begins having visions and behaving in a most psychotic manner. This Italian entry (it was called NIGHT CHILD in the U.S.) in the "demon child" horror genre is a disappointment. No revolving heads, no spouting obscenities, no vomiting, the child merely comes across as a spoiled brat. If the director Massimo Dallamano had provided a sense of dread or a disturbing atmosphere even, then that would have compensated for the lack of genuine horror. As the hero, Johnson's character is pretty dense. With everything crazy going on around him, he seems oblivious to it all, refusing to even consider that supernatural forces may be in play. At best, we get some nice shots of the Spoleto and Umbria regions of Italy and there's a valiant try by Lila Kedrova (ZORBA THE GREEK) as a Countess with the ability to see into the future to bring some gravitas to the outlandish proceedings. The often intrusive score is by Stelvio Cipriani. With Joanna Cassidy and Edmund Purdom.