The time is 1630 Moldavia. Asa Vajda and her admirer Javuto have been sentenced to death by the former's own brother, convicted of the crimes of witchcraft. Before she is burned at the stake, Asa swears vengeance, smiting and cursing the descendants of her brother. Two hundred years later, through accidental tampering on the part of two traveling physicians, the witch and her servant return, murdering and hypnotizing innocent men in order to assist with Asa's ultimate goal: possessing the body of her heir apparent, thus gaining immortality.
I'm not quite sure what I can say about Black Sunday (known in some circles as the equally awesome-sounding The Mask Of Satan) that hasn't already been uttered or written by nearly every horror publication, connoisseur, fan, and general lover of cinema. It is the fault of nobody but myself for sleeping on this one for so long, especially when you consider that this picture, and Italian pioneer Mario Bava in general (I've previously reviewed his anthology picture Black Sabbath), played a big part in influencing future filmmaker kingpins such as Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling) and Martin Scorsese (no introduction needed).
For starters, this isn't a standard "older" horror movie as some people tend to identify them now. At the time, Black Sunday was quite macabre, and even a bit on the disturbing side. Though released in 1960, it took eight full years for it to find a theatrical release in the United Kingdom, given that censors were quite mortified with its imagery and shocking amount of violence (the "death mask" scene at the beginning is something that drew me to the picture in the first place, and it still looks awesomely sadistic). I am absolutely and completely against movie censorship, but it wasn't hard to see why certain individuals were so antsy about releasing this to the general public. When Asa is unearthed from her casket by our protagonists, there are several different bugs and arachnids crawling out from her eye sockets. Showing that today would conjure up just as many gags and shrieks as I'm sure it did back then. This morbidity also makes you think: when you consider the time period, Bava's foray into stardom occurred right after the "campy" horror/science fiction wave of the 1950s was dying down, where we would be receiving pictures like The Giant Gila Monster and The Tingler every few weeks or so. No disrespect to those two movies, or any others like it, but I feel like if through some odd means, you had transported some of the pickier or snobbier horror fans from today into a theater back then, sitting through multiple films in that sub-genre would have become incredibly tiresome, and they would have been craving for something like Black Sunday to finally come along and change things drastically.
The look of Bava's first "official" directorial debut is gothic, bleak, and all-around eerie, setting the tone for the horrors and murders that are to come. I know that I often speak highly of how much I adore good lighting and cinematography, but I honestly don't think anything on this year's list will be able to match this movie's techniques and captivating mood. Speaking of captivating, this was also my first introduction to the lovely English actress Barbara Steele, whose very distinctive-looking face and gaze are seen in essentially every promotional shot and poster for the flick. Gushing over actors or actresses isn't usually my thing or forte for a marathon such as this, as I prefer to stick to the quality of the motion picture itself, but the woman is instantly memorable and those large eyes and ravishing dark hair won't be leaving your mind for quite some time. She's definitely earned the right to be called a horror icon, even if she is unfortunately dubbed here (as is the rest of the cast. It's an Italian production after all).
You know that you've made a good choice when a feature only takes about twenty to thirty minutes in order for you to come very close to loving it. I legitimately stopped jotting down notes for this review around the halfway mark, just so that I could focus on Black Sunday's wonderful imagery and embrace the feel of the entire experience. This also could potentially explain why my review this time around feels more like fanboy masturbation rather than proper critiquing and analyzing, but hey, it's pretty late and I never claimed to be a professional. At least not yet. But either way, if you're interested in a dark, still somewhat creepy old Italian horror picture, go watch this one. It's respectable and different filmmaking at its finest.
My apologies, I feel as if there's nothing clever to say here this time around. If you ask me, The Mask Of Satan is a cooler title though.
Tomorrow, I'm partaking in my first attempt to find the elusive Bigfoot, but I might find Night Of The Demon instead!
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