Lisa and the Devil (1973) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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