Black Sunday [Blu-ray]

Director: Mario Bava

Overview

Generally considered to be the foremost example of Italian Gothic horror, this darkly atmospheric black-and-white chiller put director Mario Bava on the international map and made the bewitching Barbara Steele a star. Steele plays Princess Asa, a high priestess of Satan who is gruesomely executed in 1600s Moldavia by having a spiked mask hammered into her face. Before she dies, Asa vows revenge on the family who killed her and returns from the grave two centuries later to keep her promise. In a striking resurrection scene replete with bats, scorpions and fog, Asa rises from the tomb to claim her bloody vengeance. With vampires, bubbling flesh, dank crypts, undead servants and torch-bearing mobs, the plot is a little ripe, but the visuals are Bava's primary consideration. The atmosphere is so heavy and the imagery so dense that the film becomes nearly too rich in texture, but the sheer, ghastly beauty of it all is entrancing. Although this was only the second of Bava's twenty-six films as director, it is undoubtedly his best and the one upon which most of his considerable reputation rests.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/24/2015
UPC:	0738329157029
Original Release:	1960
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kino Classics
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:23:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ivo Garrani	Prince Vajda
Barbara Steele	Katia Vajda / Princess Asa Vajda
Andrea Cecchi	Dr. Thomas Kruvajan
Arturo Dominici	Igor Javutich / Javuto,Sonya
Enrico Olivieri	Prince Constantine Vajda
Antonio Pierfederici	Priest
Clara Bindi	Innkeeper
Mario Passante	Nikita
Tino Bianchi	Ivan
John Richardson	Actor
Les Baxter	Composer
Roberto Nicolosi	Composer

Technical Credits

Mario Bava

Mario Serandrei

Ennio de Concini

Mario Bava	Director,Screenwriter
Massimo De Rita	Producer
Mario Serandrei	Screenwriter
Ennio de Concini	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

The reign of B-movie "Queen of Horror" Barbara Steele began with Mario Bava's feature directorial debut, Black Sunday (a.k.a. The Mask of Satan). Very loosely based on a story by Gogol, this gothic gem is set in 19th-century Moldavia and revolves around Princess Asa (Steele), an entombed vampire reanimated by a single drop of blood, who seeks vengeance for her death at the hands of the Inquisition two centuries earlier. Steele is mesmerizing as the siren-like villainess who attracts even as she repels, and plays a dual role as Asa's present day, look-alike descendent, Princess Katia. Black Sunday's free mix vampire and witchcraft iconography make for a broader sense of Satanism and the occult that keeps the film from the trappings of genre. But the visual virtuosity of Italian-horror master Bava ultimately eclipses the film's plot: he photographed the film himself in sumptuous black-and-white, creating a lush atmosphere punctuated by inventively staged moments of shock and suspense; more recently, Tim Burton's own Sleepy Hollow saluted Bava's haunting visuals. Black Sunday fits comfortably in the grand horror tradition ranging from German expressionist shockers such as Nosferatu, through the classic Universal Studios horror films of the 1930s, to the gory Hammer films of the late '50s/early '60s.