Lisa and the Devil

Lisa, visiting Spain from America, is dutifully following a tour guide when he points out a macabre medieval fresco depicting the Devil. But the lovely young woman begins hearing some mesmerizing music and wanders away from the tour group.

The haunting tune leads her to a little curiosities shop where she finds an elaborate carousel music box. She asks to buy it, but is told it’s already been sold. The purchaser, examining a life-sized mannequin, turns around, and Lisa’s blood runs cold – the bald man is a dead ringer for the devil in the fresco. Unsettled by the eerie resemblance, the young woman runs out of the shop, intending to rejoin the tour. But as if drawn by an invisible force, she ends up getting lost in an endless labyrinth of unfamiliar cobblestone alleyways in a disconcertingly desolate city.

As night falls, the poor girl is still wandering aimlessly, but finally manages to flag down a dour couple being chauffeured in a vintage limousine. They agree to give her a lift, but when the car breaks down on the outskirts of town, the group is forced to seek assistance at the door of a sprawling villa just steps away from the disabled car. The door opens to reveal a butler who is none other than the bald man from the shop. The mistress of the well-appointed but forboding mansion, a blind countess, initially objects to hosting the new arrivals, but her neurotic son, Maximillian, is oddly adamant that they stay, and convinces his mother to put them up for the night.

For Lisa, it will be the start of a Kafkaesque odyssey.