Black Sunday (1961)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Disturbing yet enthralling

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This film has the distinction of being the first Italian horror film I ever watched, way back in the early nineties. My love of Euro-horror didn't take off until almost a decade later (with Lucio Fulci's The Beyond), but the opening scene of this film sure sticks in your mind.Asa (Steele) is about to be burned at the stake for being a witch, but just to make sure, the gathered monks brand her with a huge 'S' then fix a mask to her face, said mask being filled with nails, and when I say 'fix' I mean they get that thing on there using a huge sledgehammer, resulting in a lot of gore for a film made in nineteen sixty. Asa curses everyone, especially the family of chief prosecutor Prince Vadja, and all his family for generations etc. A storm puts out the flames about to burn Aja, so instead she's chucked in a tomb. Two hundred years later, two doctors force their carriage driver to take a shortcut through a creepy forest and as he's fixing the wheel that mysteriously fell off outside of a ruined tomb, the two doctors have a wander around. Here they find the tomb of Asa, but the older of two says that the cross fixed above her tomb keeps her at bay. The younger doctor is all 'whatever' and wanders off, and just then the older doctor is attacked by that most feared of Euro-horror monsters – the giant fake looking bat!Proving that he might have obtained his doctorate by fraud, our old guy takes out a gun and starts shooting, and not only ends up destroying the cross above the tomb, but also smashes the glass panel, cuts himself, and bleeds all over Asa's corpse. Didn't they have Hellraiser on video back in the nineteenth century? Now everyone's got a reanimated horror witch needing blood and setting her undead sidekick on the Vadja family.One of the Vadja family is Katia (also Steele), and right away the young doctor's eyeing her up. For some reason, the Vadja family keep two giant portraits in their huge, creepy castle, one of Asa, and one of her sidekick. Shouldn't they have thrown them away years ago? Maybe they kept it around so Katia's dad could point at it and scream in terror. Let's not go any further with the plot. Anybody interested at all in Mario Bava might as well start with this one. I wouldn't know enough to announce this the first Italian Gothic horror film, but with the secret passageways, mood and Barbara Steele wandering about, it was sure imitated a lot. Mario Bava's cinematography works very well here too in black and white. Just about every shot is composed meticulously, and he loads the film with a creepy atmosphere from start to finish. Additionally, this is well paced, especially for a Gothic horror, and further indication that Bava was well ahead of the pack in Italian genre films.

Controversial, Banned, Censored, Cut, Dubbed, and Ultimately Unstoppable, the Directorial Debut Film from Cinematographer Mario Bava was as Influential as Hammer and Corman.ARGUABLY, Bava's Best Film, although there are others that are just as Good. The Auteur is Well Known for His Expressionistic use of Color and here He Works in Black and White. But the Director is so Adept at Camera Flourishes and Utilizing Uncanny Set Designs that Little of Bava's Touch is Missing.It's a Violent, Sadistic, Gothic Masterpiece of Modern Horror with Images so Dark that Light Fights a Losing Battle to Emerge. The Sets and Scenes Drip with Anemic Atmospheric Displays that seem to have the Inanimate in as Much Pain as the Living Struggling to Find the Life-Force.This is a Breakout Film for Bava and Barbara Steele. The Dual Role of the Vampire/Witch is a Part that Steele was Born, or Reborn, to Inhabit. Her Odd Beautifully Angled Face, Bulging Eyes, and Overall Mysterious and Otherworldly Form Fills the Frame that Bava Presents and the two Feel Incredibly Inseparable.An Unforgettable Film even when Viewed Today. Essential in the Gothic/Horror Canon.

If you think you won't be easily scared of watching ìt at night, think again. You seriously will have chills up your spine and your heart beating because of the film being mostly dark since ìt is an old black and white movie from the 1960's.Barbara Steele was such an amazing beautiful actress. She was quite scary I have to admit though. She played a really good vampire!It's too bad that they didn't have the actor's wearing fangs because like, it was always the tradition that Vampires always have fangs. It was a good movie but be warned, it is frightening if you watch ìt at night. I'm not joking at all when I say this, just be aware that it could be sensitive to some viewer's!

I Vampiri pleasantly surprised me so I really felt like watching some more of Mario Bava's movies. Actually "Black Sunday" or "The Mask of Satan" does resemble I Vampiri in a way. Again there is a woman wanting to restore the beauty she once had. I was mostly impressed by the atmosphere that this movie breaths greatly helped by the black/white cinematography and the constant fog outside when darkness falls. The castle was a stunning setting. I was also impressed by the horror effects like the piercing mask, the evil prince rising from his grave, the giant bat and the witch restoring her life from the body of the beautiful princess. Both of these roles are played by the amazing Barbara Steele. Hardly have I seen a woman with such a beautiful face and expressive eyes. Nice debut also from the young Germana Dominici who plays Sonya the innkeeper's daughter.