Massimo Dallamano directs this alternately disturbing and ordinary possessed child film set in Spoletto where a TV producer (Richard Johnson) has traveled to do a documentary on diabolical art. He has brought along his daughter Emily (Nicoletta Elmi of BARON BLOOD and DEMONS) and her nanny (Eurohorror regular Evelyn Stewart) upon the advice of his daughter's psychiatrist (a one-scene cameo by Edmund Purdom in part of the film shot in London) since Emily has not gotten over her mother's death in a fire. A British countess (Lila Kedrova) tries to discourage Johnson's interest in a particular painting - in a ruined villa, of course - depicting a Boschian mob pursuing a little girl in white (shades of KILL BABY KILL) under the figure of a falling angel (associated with the dead mother). A rather impressive (if stylistically out of place) rendering of Satan looms over the piece. An ectoplasmic projection shows up on the film, necessitating an extended stay in Spoletto despite the presentiments of doom experienced by the Countess who thinks Emily is the reincarnation of the girl in the painting Emilia. The girl was said to have died mysteriously in the villa, her body disappeared, and the painting showed up the next day (uh, okay). In the villa, Johnson and his window-dressing production manager Julia (Joanna Cassidy) discover a medallion that looks exactly like the one he bought for his wife which is now being worn by Emily and seems to be the cause of her increasingly bizarre behavior (which really looks like the behavior of a possessive little girl obsessed with her father after the apparent accidental death of her mother). More strange events occur and the countess is convinced that the past is going to repeat itself (I know its a cliche statement to conclude a summary but to go further would spoil the rest of the film's revelations, banal and predictable though they are).

Probably the least interesting of Massimo Dallamano's films, the film probably looks great in a better print (it was photographed by Franco Delli Colli on location in London and beautiful Spoletto, and Orvieto, I think). Fulvio Lucisano had an HD master made (along with other Italian International productions TERRORE NELLO SPAZIO and WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?) a while ago but my source was a Canadian ex-rental tape which is slightly letterboxed with faded color (and Anglicized credits). Stelvio Cipriani's score is not so much lyrical as monotonous though the throbbing suspense track does anticipate his Goblin-performed compositions for SOLAMENTE NERO but the cloying romantic theme is off-putting as it features in several successive scenes in various instrumentations. Johnson is his typical professional self, Cassidy does not have much to do, Stewart's (aka Ida Galli) is always nice to have along, Kedrova's psychic role recalls similar characters in Bava films, and Elmi is always a standout though she's not helped by the dubbing (strangely the film seems to either be otherwise really well post-synched or Cassidy, Kedrova, and Johnson's performances were recorded sync-sound).

Like the HD transfers of TERRORE NELLO SPAZIO and SOLANGE, MEDAGLIONE INSANGUINATO is available on DVD in Italy with English subtitles (though strangely no English dub track - though SOLANGE had both English and Italian audio - TERRORE NELLO SPAZIO could not include English since its a different edit than PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES and AIP produced the English version). I haven't seen the new disc but I'm guessing it looks phenomenally better than the old Canadian tape.