Indeed, the Nuovo Cinema Europeo magazine states that Pier Carpi finished shooting the film in 1977. Also, Marisa Mell's filmography in Stephen Thrower's excellent Lucio Fulci book lists it as a 1977 film but mentions it was first released in 1979, so I think it's safe to assume Lara Wendel was around 12. This may cause some problems for a legit DVD release - at least in certain countries.
Later in 1977, Carpi started shooting a new film called IL MAGO E LA SVASTICA with RING cast members John Phillip Law, Valentina Cortese, Marisa Mell and Paola Tedesco, as well as Max Von Sydow. It's never been released, though, and was probably never finished.
I'm going to buy the Midnight Video version next time I do some Euro film shopping, so I'll report back on whether or not it's longer than the Greek and Belgian Cinehollywood versions. At the very least I hope the picture quality is less dark. The Italian version may well be the same as the Greek and Belgian Cinehollywood versions but a longer version should exist. I remember reading on the Italian Nocturno forum about a longer version that contains the onscreen suicide of one of the characters.
The film isn't great but it's very fascinating and with a great cast of internationally respected stars like Irene Papas and Valentina Cortese as well as more B-movie favorites like Anne Heywood and John Phillip Law, and various glamorous Italian starlets popping up in brief t&a cameos. Certain plot points make very little sense, and it would have been good if some of the actors had dubbed their own voices but, again, I assume it was dubbed a great deal later than when shooting was complete, so the actors were probably busy with other projects. It's still a fun film, though, and I dig the soundtrack and the funky satanic hand-greetings.
