Ever since the international box office success of The Exorcist in 1973, horror films dealing with religion and priests have usually focused on demonic possession. This trend even continues today as witnessed by the release of The Pope’s Exorcist (2023) and The Exorcism (2024), both starring Russell Crowe. A refreshingly different approach to this often formulaic subgenre is L’Arcano Incantatore (English title: The Arcane Sorcerer), a sadly overlooked but richly atmospheric period thriller from Italian director Pupi Avati, which premiered in 1996 but never received an official theatrical release in the U.S.
To be honest, The Arcane Sorcerer doesn’t deserve to be pigeonholed as a horror film because it encompasses so many diverse elements – necromancy, Catholicism, superstitions and curses, unsolved mysteries and bibliophiles with an expertise in arcane subject matter. In fact, the film, whose title is also translated in English as The Mysterious Enchanter in some presentations, is accompanied by the introductory text, “An Esoteric Fable from Our Countryside.”
An ominous tone is established from the first scene as a priest in rural Italy is visited by a papal member from Bologna to discuss a prisoner in his basement cell. The man in question is Giacomo Vigetti (Stefano Dionisi), a seminary student who originally fled the order after forcing a young woman to have an abortion (he was the guilty party). He currently stands accused as being a practitioner of the black arts and an accessory to murder but the visiting priest offers him salvation if he will confess his crimes. The rest of the movie, told in flashback, details Giacomo’s slow descent into a nightmarish situation with no easy way out.
We learn that Giacomo, desperate to avoid scandal and imprisonment for impregnating a parishioner, makes a pact with a mysterious person who is a follower of “the evil one.” In exchange for relinquishing a heirloom from his late mother, Giacomo is whisked away to the countryside where he will serve as secretary to an excommunicated monsignor (Carlo Cecchi). It is only after he arrives that Giacomo learns he is replacing Nerio, the former secretary who has died under mysterious circumstances.
The monsignor, who is in poor health, lives in a dark, dusty fortress with a maze of corridors and rooms lined with floor to ceiling bookcases crammed with rare volumes and research materials on alchemy, demonology and other unorthodox subject matter. His relationship with Giacomo is clearly that of master and servant but his intelligence and knowledge of the occult intrigues the young man, who launches his own investigation into Nerio’s death. As Giacomo learns more about his employer from the locals including Aoledo (Arnaldo Ninchi), a villager who helps him bury Nerio’s corpse in consecrated ground, he begins to wonder if the monsignor is the diabolical character he was warned about or was it his former secretary?
The Arcane Sorcerer evolves into a compelling battle of wills between the monsignor and Giacomo, with the latter becoming increasingly paranoid and fearful of his role in the relationship. The film is strong on mood and ambiance with Guiseppe Pirrota’s 18th century production design a major asset but there are also disturbing scenes along the way that qualify The Arcane Sorcerer as a horror film. Among these are a scene where a bat appears out of nowhere and laps up a bowl of the monsignor’s blood, a visitation by a glowing apparition that drifts through the castle and an eerie sequence where Giacomo digs up Nerio’s corpse by moonlight and moves his body to a new grave. Also, a good deal of the film takes place by candlelight in the monsignor’s spooky rooms and hallways.
In the title role, Carlo Cecchi is both charismatic and sinister and, by the end of movie, he is truly terrifying, especially when he gets his hands on a pickaxe and goes after Giacomo. Cecchi is considered one of the guiding lights of contemporary theater productions in Italy after serving as an apprentice to actor/director Eduardo De Filippo, an advocate of The Living Theatre, which was popular during the sixties. He made his film debut in 1966 in Romano Scavolini’s A Mosca Cieca (English title: The Blind Fly) but went on to work with such acclaimed directors as Jean-Paul Rappeneau (The Horseman on the Roof, 1995), Bernardo Bertolucci (Stealing Beauty, 1996), Ferzan Ozpetek (Steam: The Turkish Bath, 1997), Francois Girard (The Red Violin, 1998) and Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden (2019), an award-winning adaptation of Jack London’s semi-autobiographical novel.
As the hapless Giacomo of The Arcane Sorcerer, Stefano Dionisi makes a likable if flawed protagonist whose curiosity leads him into a world of darkness. He also keeps us guessing as to whether he has ulterior motives for his behavior and does he really have the gift of second sight or is he simply delusional? The scenes where he sees the ghosts of two murdered girls and encounters Nerio’s spirit in the library are genuinely chilling.
Dionisi has the dark, brooding good looks and talent of an actor like Michael Ontkean of Making Love (1982) and Twin Peaks fame and has enjoyed a long career as a leading man in Italian films and TV productions. Although international stardom seems to have eluded Dionisi, he has turned in impressive performances in numerous films and a few of these received theatrical distribution in the U.S. such as the 1994 biopic Farinelli, an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language film, Francesco Rosi’s The Truce (1997) and Mike Figgis’s The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1998).
All of the supporting players in The Arcane Sorcerer are ideally cast and do fine work but the major praise for the film’s success goes to Pupi Avati, the director/screenwriter. Unfortunately, except for horror genre fans, the Italian director is almost unknown in the U.S. despite the fact that he has directed over 50 feature films, TV movies and series in his native country, many of which were critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
The first time I learned of the director was in an article by Tim Lucas in 1991 in volume #3 of Video Watchdog in which he covered The House with Laughing Windows (1976) and Zeder aka Revenge of the Dead (1983), two unusual horror genre exercises which were difficult to see outside of poor bootleg copies in those early years but are now considered classics with a huge cult following. The House with Laughing Windows never received theatrical distribution in the U.S. and Zeder had a very limited release in an English dubbed version. Of course, both films are available now in remastered editions on Blu-ray but Avati is known in Europe for more than just his excellent contributions to the cinema of the fantastic.
The director has dabbled in various genres and subject matter over the years. He has directed comedies (The Mazurka of the Baron, the Saint, and the Early Fig Tree, [1975], The Story of Boys and Girls [1989]), historical dramas (Magnificat [1983], The Knights of the Quest [2001]), musicals (Bordella, 1976), biographical portraits (Bix [1991], Dante [2022]), coming of age tales (Dichiarazioni d’Amore, 1994), and the occasional experimental feature (Le Strelle nel Fosso, 1979). Yet, despite all of the awards he has garnered during his career including three of his features being nominated for the Palm d’Or at Cannes (2003’s Incantato, Magnificat and Bix), Avati has never been properly acknowledged or celebrated for his work in the U.S.
The Arcane Sorcerer is an excellent introduction to his work and deserves to be placed alongside such masterpieces of supernatural horror as The Innocents (1961) and The Others (2001). Not only is the film deceptively complex addressing issues of death, religious hypocrisy, life in rural Italy and rational vs. irrational thought, but it has a distinct literal quality with its richly delineated characters and intelligent dialogue. Add to this the striking cinematography of Cesare Bastelli with its muted fall colors of rural Umbria and a moody music score by Pino Donaggio (Carrie, Dressed to Kill, The Howling) and you have an unsung masterpiece.
Although The Arcane Sorcerer is not currently available on any format in the U.S., you might be able to purchase an import DVD of the film (with no English subtitles) from an online seller. Even better, you can stream a fine copy of the film from the Cave of Forgotten Films website.
Other links of interest:
https://horrordelite.art/en/pupi-avati/
https://axismundi.blog/en/2021/04/19/25-years-of-arcane-charmer-conversation-with-puppets-avati/
https://www.ncregister.com/news/interview-with-pupi-avati-italian-film-director
https://www.firenzemadeintuscany.com/en/article/pupi-avati-and-his-new-film-on-dantes-life/
Cinema Sojourns 