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Lisa and the Devil (1973) movie poster

Plot Summary

Lisa and the Devil (1973) Plot Summary Explained

Release, runtime and language
1973 · 95 mins · Italian
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Directed by
Mario Bava
Starring
Telly Savalas, Alida Valli, Elke Sommer, Gabriele Tinti, Eduardo Fajardo, Sylva Koscina

Lisa, a lone traveler exploring an ancient city, becomes disoriented and seeks refuge in a decaying mansion. There she meets housekeeper Leandre, whose influence pulls her into a web of deception, decadence and supernatural terror as the mansion's dark past surfaces and reality blurs. The narrow corridors echo with whispers, amplifying her dread.

On this page (6)
  1. 1 Where to watch
  2. 2 What happens: full plot
  3. 3 Plot questions answered
  4. 4 Movie threads
  5. 5 Movies like Lisa and the Devil
  6. 6 Every angle
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Full plot summary · contains spoilers

What Happens in Lisa and the Devil: Full Plot Summary

The whole story of Lisa and the Devil (1973) explained, from the opening scene to the final frame: every key event, every twist and what it all adds up to. Read it as a quick recap before the sequel, to check a scene you missed, or to finally understand what really happened.

During a tour of Toledo, Lisa Reiner encounters a fresco that depicts the Devil carrying off the dead. When a faint, otherworldly melody drifts through the air, she follows it into a small shop, where a music box sits crowned with turning figurines. The shop owner explains that the box belongs to Leandro, a man who bears a striking resemblance to the Devil painted in the fresco. The moment is unsettling, and Lisa quickly exits in a sense of unease, only to become hopelessly lost in the labyrinth of streets.

A short while later, she crosses paths with Leandro again, who guides her through a narrow arch and up a stairway into a shadowy, uncertain world. At the top, she is faced by Carlos, a figure who mirrors Leandro’s mustachioed dummy and whom he greets as Elena’s revenant. He proclaims that he has returned for her, and in her distress, Lisa lashes out, pushing him away. The sudden fall down the stairs leaves Carlos dead, and Lisa, shaken to her core, cries out for help as night begins to fall.

As darkness thickens, Lisa finds herself hitchhiking with a curious trio—Francis Lehar, Sophia Lehar, and their loyal chauffeur George. A car breakdown forces them to seek shelter at a quiet villa where Leandro appears as the servant to a blind countess and her son, Maximilian. The household agrees to let the travelers stay in a nearby cottage on the estate while repairs are underway, a choice that will pull Lisa deeper into a net of peril and illusion.

Inside the villa, the mood of the night grows tense. Sophia and George share a private moment, while Francis bathes and Lisa wrestles with the unsettling presence of Carlos, who seems to be creeping closer to her. Maximilian, with a charm that veils something darker, hints at a past romance with Lisa and insinuates that she already saw Leandro carrying a certain Carlos dummy. The tension thickens as the group sits down to dinner with the countess and her son, and Maximilian departs briefly to deliver a dessert to an upstairs room where an unseen detainee lies. He speaks of Carlos’s return and vows never to let him come between them again, even burning a photograph of Elena that resembles Lisa.

Visions haunt Lisa—the image of Elena with Carlos, followed by a surreal scene in which she kisses Maximilian, who then morphs into Carlos. Outside, Francis berates Sophia for her affair, while Sophia discovers the body of George, who has been stabbed and left in the repaired car. Maximilian and Leandro urge Francis to leave the corpse untouched and depart from the scene without involving the police.

Maximilian promises Lisa that he will never abandon her, but the tension in the house grows deadly. The countess interrupts and scolds her son, while Lisa wanders away and encounters Carlos again. Carlos urges patience as he spies on Leandro, and Lisa witnesses Leandro entering the estate’s chapel, seemingly arranging Carlos’s body in a coffin. Before she can process what she has seen, Carlos reappears outside again, and she flees into the villa’s interior, discovering a bedroom full of lifelike dummies that blur the line between the living and the dead. The shock triggers a faint.

Francis attempts to coerce Sophia into leaving with him in the car, but Sophia defies him by running him over and returning to the villa. In the dimly lit room filled with dummies, Sophia witnesses Maximilian bludgeon Carlos to death as Carlos fights to revive Lisa. Maximilian then pursues and murders Sophia, escalating the carnage. In the chapel, the countess reveals the truth about Carlos: he was her husband, Maximilian’s stepfather, whose affair with Elena had a long shadow over the family.

Leandro reappears, reviving Lisa and taking her measurements, bluntly informing her that Carlos is dead. Lisa then discovers the countess examining Sophia’s corpse and flees to Maximilian, who confines Elena’s remains to a hidden room. Elena, now reduced to a skeleton, represents the deep corrosion beneath the villa’s beauty. In a brutal turn, Maximilian knocks Lisa unconscious and rapes her, but their macabre moment is interrupted by the ghoulish laughter of Elena’s spirit.

The countess offers to shield Maximilian from consequences if he will disavow or even kill Lisa, but Maximilian responds with fatal violence, stabbing the countess to death. Later, he encounters the lifeless forms of his victims and the undead countess’s approaching figure, only to be frightened into stepping backward and tumbling from a window to his own death. Leandro appears in the aftermath, while the countess collapses in a limp, doll-like stillness.

Lisa awakens in the villa’s ruined rooms and tentatively confronts a Maximilian dummy that seems to plead with her to stay. Haunted, she boards a plane, hoping for a fresh start, but discovers that the other passengers are the villa’s corpses and the pilot is Leandro, a silent observer to her final breakdown. As the plane descends into nightmare, Lisa collapses, and the world around her dissolves into an eerie transformation: the living turn to dummies, and Elena’s symbolic presence lingers as Lisa’s fate is sealed in a final, haunting image.

Last updated: October 09, 2025 at 12:32

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Plot questions answered

Lisa and the Devil Plot Explained: Your Questions Answered

The questions people ask most about Lisa and the Devil (1973): what happens in the confusing scenes, why the characters do what they do, the twists, hidden details and what the ending means. Each answer contains spoilers.

Q1

Why does Carlos call Lisa Elena?

Carlos calls Lisa Elena because she is the living double of his former lover Elena, who was the stepdaughter of the countess and Maximilian's lover. Maximilian burned a photograph of Elena earlier in the film, and the resemblance between Lisa and Elena is so striking that multiple characters mistake one for the other throughout the story.

  • elena
  • carlos
  • doppelganger
  • mistaken identity
  • maximilian
Q2

How does Carlos actually die in the film?

Carlos dies after Lisa pushes him down the stone staircase when he confronts her on the estate. He falls and appears to die from the trauma of the tumble. However, his body is later seen being placed in a coffin in the chapel by Leandro, confirming his death despite the confusion caused by the film's supernatural elements.

Foreshadowing: Carlos first appears mirroring Leandro's dummy and calls Lisa Elena, suggesting he has returned from somewhere.

  • carlos death
  • staircase
  • pushed
  • corpse
Q3

What is the relationship between Carlos, the countess, and Maximilian?

Carlos was the countess's husband and Maximilian's stepfather. He had an affair with Elena, the countess's stepdaughter, which created the central family drama. The countess reveals this truth in the chapel, explaining why Carlos returned to the estate and why Maximilian was so desperate to prevent him from reuniting with Elena's lookalike, Lisa.

  • carlos
  • countess
  • maximilian
  • husband
  • stepfather
  • elena affair
Q4

Why does Leandro seem to have supernatural abilities?

Leandro appears to have supernatural powers because he functions as a demonic figure in the film, resembling the Devil depicted in the Toledo fresco. He can appear and disappear, revive the dead, arrange bodies in coffins, and ultimately pilot a plane full of corpses. He is essentially the film's embodiment of evil or the Devil, luring Lisa into the villa as part of a supernatural trap.

Foreshadowing: The opening fresco shows the Devil carrying off the dead, and the shop owner notes Leandro bears a striking resemblance to that Devil.

  • leandro
  • devil
  • supernatural
  • powers
  • demonic figure
Q5

Why does Maximilian kill the countess?

Maximilian kills the countess because she offers to protect him from consequences only if he abandons or kills Lisa. Rather than comply with his mother's demand, Maximilian stabs her to death. This act completes his descent into murdering everyone connected to the estate's dark secrets, including Carlos, Sophia, and now his own mother.

  • maximilian
  • countess
  • murder
  • matricide
  • betrayal
Q6

What is the significance of the dummies in the villa?

The dummies throughout the villa represent the blurred line between the living and the dead that defines the film's supernatural logic. Several characters have doppelganger dummies that resemble them, including Leandro's mustachioed dummy that Carlos mirrors. The dummies foreshadow the final revelation that the living will turn into dummies, and they symbolize the mechanical, puppet-like nature of the characters trapped in this nightmare.

Foreshadowing: Maximilian mentions Lisa has already seen Leandro carrying a Carlos dummy, hinting at the dummy motif.

  • dummies
  • dolls
  • doppelganger
  • living dead
  • villa
Q7

What does the final plane scene mean?

The final plane scene reveals Lisa's fate: she is as trapped in this nightmare as Elena was. The other passengers are the corpses from the villa, and Leandro serves as the pilot, indicating the entire experience was a supernatural trap. Lisa's attempt to escape by plane fails because there is no escaping the demonic realm Leandro represents. She becomes another Elena, another victim claimed by the Devil figure.

  • plane
  • ending
  • escape
  • corpses
  • Leandro
  • nightmare
Q8

Why can't Lisa escape the villa's nightmare?

Lisa cannot escape because Leandro, the demonic figure, has already marked her as his next victim from the moment she encountered the music box in Toledo. The fresco depicting the Devil carrying off the dead established that Lisa's fate was sealed from the start. Every escape attempt, hitchhiking, staying in the cottage, fleeing on the plane, only draws her deeper into the supernatural trap.

Foreshadowing: The opening fresco and music box scene establish Leandro's demonic nature and his claim on Lisa.

  • escape
  • trap
  • Leandro
  • fate
  • demonic
Q9

What does the music box symbolize in the film?

The music box symbolizes the demonic lure that draws Lisa into Leandro's web. It plays an otherworldly melody that only Lisa hears, leading her from the fresco directly to the shop where she first learns of Leandro. The rotating figurines on top mirror the dummies in the villa, suggesting the music box is literally the mechanism of her fate, calling her like a siren to destruction.

  • music box
  • lure
  • demonic
  • figurines
  • fate
Q10

Why does Maximilian burn Elena's photograph?

Maximilian burns Elena's photograph to sever his connection to the past and prevent Carlos from coming between them again. He serves dessert to the unseen Elena in the bedroom and declares Carlos will never be allowed to return to her. However, this act of destruction only underscores his obsession, as Lisa's arrival proves that the past, and Elena's lookalike, cannot be erased.

  • maximilian
  • elena
  • photograph
  • burning
  • obsession
Q11

What happened to Elena in the villa?

Elena died and was reduced to a skeleton that Maximilian kept in a hidden room within the villa. Lisa discovers Elena's remains, which represent the literal decay beneath the villa's beautiful facade. Elena's spirit continues to haunt the estate, laughing during Maximilian's assault on Lisa, suggesting her death was tied to the same violent, obsessive dynamics that now threaten Lisa.

  • elena
  • skeleton
  • hidden room
  • death
  • haunting
Q12

Why does Leandro take Lisa's measurements?

Leandro takes Lisa's measurements as part of preparing her to become like Elena, another victim claimed by the villa's supernatural realm. The measurement scene occurs right after he tells her Carlos is dead, suggesting he is sizing her for whatever fate awaits. This ritualistic act reinforces that Lisa is being claimed, her identity reduced to a specimen in Leandro's collection of lost souls.

  • leandro
  • measurements
  • preparation
  • capture
  • victim

Movie threads

More Movies Like Lisa and the Devil, by Mood & Story

Curated lists built around what makes Lisa and the Devil tick: the same mood, the same kind of story or the same emotional payoff. Each list explains why these movies belong together.

Gothic horror movies in decaying mansions like Lisa and the Devil

Stories where decaying mansions trap characters in a web of supernatural terror. If you liked the gothic, claustrophobic setting of Lisa and the Devil, explore more movies like it. These films feature terrifying supernatural stories set in decaying estates, where dark family secrets and a haunted past create a nightmarish, dread-filled experience for the trapped protagonist.

  • gothic
  • claustrophobic
  • surreal
  • dread-filled
  • decadent
  • haunting
  • Tone: dark, eerie, surreal
  • Pacing: steady, methodical
Why these movies?

The story pattern: The narrative typically follows an outsider drawn into an isolated, decaying mansion where they uncover a dark family legacy. Supernatural forces and psychological manipulation blur the line between reality and nightmare, often leading the protagonist to an inescapable, bleak fate dictated by the house's malevolent history.

Why they belong together: Movies are grouped here for their shared reliance on the gothic mansion as a primary antagonist, a pervasive atmosphere of decadent dread, and the fusion of supernatural horror with deep-seated psychological themes, creating a uniquely suffocating and surreal viewing experience.

Psychological horror movies with blurred reality like Lisa and the Devil

Psychological horror where perception fractures and reality becomes a trap. For viewers who enjoyed the mind-bending, surreal terror of Lisa and the Devil, this section finds similar movies. These complex horror stories focus on psychological torment, a blurred line between reality and nightmare, and often feature bleak, unsettling endings that leave the audience questioning what was real.

  • surreal
  • unsettling
  • psychological
  • nightmarish
  • mind-bending
  • dread-filled
  • Tone: dark, unsettling, nightmarish
  • Pacing: steady, building tension
Why these movies?

The story pattern: Stories begin with a seemingly normal situation that gradually devolves into surreal chaos. The protagonist is subjected to psychological torment that fractures their perception, often through doppelgangers, recurring motifs, or a distorted sense of time. The plot is complex, demanding interpretation, and typically ends with the character trapped in their shattered psyche or a grim supernatural fate.

Why they belong together: These films are united by their core theme of psychological disintegration and blurred reality. They share a high-intensity, complex narrative structure, a dark tone, and a heavy emotional weight derived from the protagonist's complete loss of control and descent into a personalized hell.

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Every angle

Lisa and the Devil (1973) Explained: Plot, Timeline & Characters

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