‘Black Sunday’ is an atmospheric horror classic

Mario Bava, the great Italian director who kicked off the giallo movement, got his feet wet with Black Sunday (also known as The Mask of Satan), a superb horror movie that features one of the earliest performances of the legendary and intoxicating Barbara Steele. The film is an atmospheric classic that relies on setting as much as it does story and character. The visuals are stunningly portrayed. From Gothic castles to dark crypts to spooky graveyards, Black Sunday looks beautiful.

Steele plays Princess Asa, a Russian princess accused of witchcraft in the 17th century. The grand inquisitor who sentences her to a bloody death is her own brother. The form of execution is a grisly one: The princess is unceremoniously given a spiked mask to wear. The spikes are drilled into her face and she is eventually vanquished.

Or is she?

Right before she dies, Princess Asa promises to come back from the dead and haunt the local area.

Two hundred years later, two doctors (John Richardson and Andrea Checchi) are passing through the Russian countryside on their way to a medical conference. They stumble upon the body of Princess Asa, which is now deposited in an elaborate crypt. Her coffin features a window so the image of a cross can always be right above her eyesight.

Disturbing them in the crypt is Princess Katia (Steele, again), whose family owns the land in the local area. She tells the doctors the legend of the entombed witch and sets them on their way with spooky thoughts in their heads.

One thing leads to another and the ghostly corpse of Princess Asa comes back to life, and all hell begins to break loose.

From start to finish, Bava is able to inject his trademark vision into every shot. One could take a picture of the scenes in this movie and they would look beautiful in their black-and-white eeriness.

The performances are all believable and nicely crafted. Steele, in particular, has a wonderful way of drawing you into her gorgeous eyes. Her looks of menace are frightening, and the iconic image of her face scarred from the ‘Mask of Satan’ is highly memorable.

The movie is dubbed, which is standard fare for Italian horror films. Though, Black Sunday is a cut above the rest in that department. It never becomes distracting and Bava’s beautiful imagery always keeps one’s interest.

Black Sunday, some 50 years after it was first unleashed on audiences, stands as a classic horror film, one that influenced an entire genre.

Based on a short story by Nikolaj Gogol, Bava’s masterpiece is like Roger Corman’s work on the Edgar Allen Poe short stories. Black Sunday stands as a perfect example of how a tale of horror can be catapulted to cinematic heights by a visionary director.

• Black Sunday

• 1960

• In Italian, dubbed into English

• Directed by Mario Bava

• Written by Ennio De Concini, Mario Serandrei, Marcello Coscia and Bava; based on the short story, “The Viy,” by Nikolaj Gogol

• Starring Barbara Steele, John Richardson and Andrea Checchi

• Running time: 87 minutes

• Bubble score: 4 out of 4

• Click here to purchase Black Sunday on DVD.