The Truth According to Satann (it was originally released as The Truth According to Satan and this is the censored revised title) is about how Roibert (Isarco Ravaioli) believes that his depression is the result of his constantly on-the-make ex-lover Diana (Rita Calderoni). He tries to shoot himself in a game of Russian Roulette and fails. He also lives when he tries to hang himself when she opens the door, then lays all the blame on her for everything.

This being a movie by Renato Polselli, of course Roibert has interrupted Diana in the midst of her romance/BDSM relationship with Yanita (Marie-Paule Bastin). But this is where Roibert turns the tables, as he strips her and just when you think he’s going to kill her, he stabs himself and makes sure to get her prints all over the knife and his blood all over her.

The movie shifts gears when it turns out that next door neighbor Totoletto (Sergio Ammirata) has seen the entire thing and decides to torture Diana with this knowledge, all while he remains obsessed over his diet of eating two eggs every hour on the hour, quacking like a duck and calling her cabbagehead.

Calderoni is a real trooper in this. Beyond the knife play already mentioned, she’s covered in blood and then showered while fully clothed, then has dogs eat raw meat off of her body. She also has numerous near-mental breakdowns while Polselli edits in scenes of warfare and the origins of how Roibert and Diana got together. He even has Totoletto try and turn Yanita from slave to master, but Diana has too strong of a personality for that.

If I tell you it all ends with red skies and dancing hippies, will it make any more sense?

According to a great interview that Jay Slater did with the director, “Because of the word gospel in the title, La verita’ secondo Satana was instantly accused of blasphemy and its distribution was very limited. Once considered a lost title, Polselli’s film was broadcast on the smallest Italian television networks during the early 80s. To bypass censorship and distribution hassles, Polselli shot three different versions and although the movie was released five times during the 70s, the director added new footage to each print, while deleted certain scenes. The hardest print of La Verita’ secondo Satana features a close-up of the female orgasm. To achieve this, Polselli filmed the actress’s face, body and pubic region in extreme detail as the female orgasm is less evident than the male. Polselli is proud to be one of the first hardcore directors to film such a steamy scene.”