Monsters (TV Series) La Strega (1989) User Reviews

Linda Blair's effort and charm makes this rather confusing story tolerable.

[b_kite · 6/10 · 28 March 2019]

La Strega starts with Vito a young Italian American man who enters the dress shop of a young woman named Lia, and attempts to kill her. She disarms and subdues him. Vito says Lia is "la strega" (the Italian language word for witch). Ten years ago, Vito was very ill and his mother sold her engagement ring in Lia's pawn shop to pay for a doctor. Lia allegedly switched rings, then cursed Vito's mother so that she was ill for a decade before finally dying. Vito wants revenge. Lia says it wasn't her but rather her mother who owned the pawn shop, that her mother was a witch, and that she herself is innocent. To prove it, she makes Vito promise to stay with her for two weeks, after which he may kill her or not. He agrees and as the time passes Vito slowly begins to learn what actually happened all while falling in love with the mysterious Lia.

What a really strange way to end season one, with a strange witch love story of all things. To cut to the chase the best thing about this episode is Linda Blair, she's cute and charming and really puts 100% into her role, you could tell she was really having fun here. Rob Morrow isn't really bad either and the both really work well off each other. Now for the bad news, this story is really confusing, I'm not really sure whats going on, for starters who is the witch Lia, Lia's mother, or Vito's mother, it's never really explained which really bugged me, even thought my guess was Vito's mother was the bad witch, while Lia was a good witch. I was surprised to see this was directed by a feminist woman named Lizzie Borden (yes this is true), her only efforts as director seem to be a couple of movies, and an episode of "Silk Stalkings" and "Red Show Diaries". Our two locations are the inside of a store and a small living room. Overall, there's not really much more to say about this one, the only instance of a monster is when Linda Blair witches out twice in two rather short scenes. Other then that her charm manages to make this one worth the watch, even though it has very little to offer for both a confusing story and the special effects department.

Linda Blair playing a sexy witch - what could go wrong?

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 4 April 2015]

This is one of the better MONSTERS episodes I've seen, mainly down to Linda Blair being cast in the central role of a junk shop owner cum sexy witch. The role has clearly been written with Blair in mind because she has a ball with it, making this one of the most entertaining episodes yet. It's still cheesy with a weak story, but it could be worse, much worse.

The story features a male protagonist who visits the junk shop with murder in mind. His motive? His mother's death, which he believes was caused by a witch's curse; Blair's no less. Blair convinces him to hang around for a couple of weeks to find out what sort of a woman she really is, and what follows isn't really all that interesting, the only worthwhile part seeing Blair contributing a fairly convincing performance. Some rubbery makeup effects add to the fun but even though this is one of the better MONSTERS episodes it's still strictly average.

Passable episode

[Woodyanders · 6/10 · 8 August 2019]

Vito (nicely played by Rob Morrow) plans to kill beautiful witch Lia (the always perky and appealing Linda Blair), who Vito believes was responsible for placing a deadly curse on his mother.

While director Lizzie Borden keeps the rather muddled story moving along at a reasonable pace, Borden crucially fails to generate much in the way of any essential tension or atmosphere. Moreover, the briefly seen aged version of Lia rates as a lackluster monster while the sappy happy ending simply fizzles. Fortunately, Blair's lively acting keeps things watchable throughout -- and she looks mighty fine, too. A decent diversion.

Soap Opera

[zimbo_the_donkey_boy · 3/10 · 1 June 2008]

Linda Blair on an episode of a series called Monsters -- how can that not be great? This is how. This show is simply dreary. It plays like a script written for fifteen minutes, stretched out to fill half an hour. This is for fans of make-up, rather than anything scary. OK, the witch's face is a real dramatic example of the make-up art but I care zero about that. Monstrous Make-up would have been a less deceptive title for the show. Was the script written by little kids? The show would be good to put kids to bed, as, so little action was going on, I nearly fell asleep myself (and I'm a big adult.) This is the only episode of this series that I can recall seeing but this is why.

OK Monsters episode with Linda Blair.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 15 May 2009]

Monsters: La Strega starts as a man named Vito (Rob Morrow) confronts a woman named Lia (Linda Blair) in her shop with the intent to kill her, Vito believes that she is in fact a Witch named Le Strega & is responsible for the death of his mother (Maria Tucci) after putting a curse on her ten years previously. Lia denies this & makes a deal with Vito, if he spends two weeks living with her & after those two weeks he still wants to kill her then he can. Over those two weeks Vito comes to realise who Lia is & finds out the truth about what happened ten years previously...

Episode twenty four from season one of Monsters this originally aired in the US during May 1989 & was in fact the final episode of the first season, directed by Lizzie Borden this is an OK episode but is nothing particularly special but wastes twenty odd minutes if you've got nothing better to do or watch. The story supposedly builds up to a big twist ending that reveals it was Vito's mother who was the villain & Lia is in fact a nice Witch which is OK I suppose but a little too upbeat & happy for my liking. Then there are unexplained moments where Vito has hallucinations or dreams or something, people switch as say moment Vito is talking to Lia then suddenly he's talking to his mother & just to fit into a series called Monsters Lia almost randomly changes into an ugly Witch a couple of times. Le Stega isn't that bad but it could have been better & it's not amongst the show's best. For those interested in such things I believe La Strega means The Witch in Italian.

The main area of interest in La Stega is that it guest stars Linda Blair of The Exorcist (1973) fame as well as dozens of other low budget horror & sleaze offerings down the years, I suppose you could say that this episode features a real Blair Witch. Sorry, that's just not funny. There's a decent make-up job effect when she turns into the ugly version of herself but little else of interest here & nothing that memorable.

La Stega is a fairly average way to round off the first season of Monsters which has been a mixed bag ranging from the poor like Satan in the Suburns & Their Divided Self to the excellent like Glim-Glim, The Match Game & Mannikins of Horror with episodes like La Strega stuck somewhere between.

Sexy seductive episode that involves a curse and strange love!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 5 November 2020]

This episode 24 from season one of "Monsters" called "La Strega" is one that's entertaining and seductive, and it has an interesting story with drama, intrigue, and eye candy sex appeal. It has old themes of wicked curses and love that connect up. It involves a young man Vito(Rob Morrow) who visits a local junk type pawn store who seeks revenge as he believes years ago this shop and a ring lead to the murder of his mom. The shop is now ran by Lia("The Exorcist's" Linda Blair) and this young attractive beautiful lady has secrets too. The story and episode builds up with reveals and past connections and the tension and chemistry between Vito and Lia really heats up and gets steamy it's a seductive cat and mouse game the love making scene provides some real sexy eye candy as Linda Blair really makes this episode(a real sexy turn from Linda, that scene of her in that silk sexy black strapless bra rocked!). The makeup and special effects work from Dick Smith add pleasure and wonder to the episode and the story was well written by Michael McDowell as it spins the two themes of an old curse and a new modern love just fine! Overall beautiful well done episode that's made a watch for Linda Blair's performance really one of the series better one's!