in this early fulci work the director show his most mainstream side as well a a talent for compel storytelling and more than reasonable elucidation for the genre . personally i think he have be unfairly malign throughout his career a an aesthete of gore . it a pretty capable procedural and surprise me with it subtextually rich narrative that show his distrust for small mind small town mentality and the inefficiency of the police and as well a the twisted ideal of the catholic church and the last of which seem to have cut this film at it knee when it be first release and could have possibly give the director another direction so early on . the comparative lack of gore in the film show a more urgent and psychological imperative to this film in it prevailing mystery but the gore and puppetry he do utilise be put to good use here most notably in the scene where a falsely accuse murderer be senselessly lynch by a mob of men in a graveyard and leave for dead in a show of vile and antiquate vigilantism and expertly choreograph to the modern tune off a diegetic radio . another example be the final scene ( which be indeed awesome ) in which a strikingly handsome priest fall from a cliff and the puppet use be markedly show in a medium closeup which accentuate it demonic appearance and evident ugliness . curiously and consider his later work and fulci also invoke the idea of modernity seize upon the hamlet hold on to it anachronistic superstition and ignorance when the idea of black magic be just that and a quaint idea of supernatural evil that never really end up manifest from the voodoo doll while make it witch nothing more than a disturbed woman . another thing i like be that he add to these character layer by make a bourgeois city girl into an ambiguous figure be she the corrupter the priest fear for his ward and perhaps more tellingly and for himself . this giallo do lend itself to become one of fulci more personal and substantive film and in that we actually get a fair influx of idea from him .