Black Sunday (1960) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 27

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Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away.

The Italian horror film Black Sunday is a seminal work in the genre that jump-started the directorial career of Mario Bava and brought genre-based Italian cinema into the limelight. It pushed the bounds of convention and good taste while delivering some truly terrifying moments that would inspire filmmakers for decades to come.

Before Viewing

It’s a bit difficult to make out what this film is about from the trailer. The one clear thing is the narrator telling audiences it’s the height of terror, and that the film is called The Mask of Satan (an alternate American title). People who are dead appear to rise from the grave, but when the casket is opened later the body is certainly deceased. A man fights a bat. A woman blanches when she notices a crucifix hanging on another woman’s neck. Someone gets thrown into a fireplace and catches on fire. What elements of horror, anguish, and terror await us on Black Sunday?

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

In Moldavia, in the early 17th Century, Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) and Igor Javutich (Arturo Dominici) are put to death by Asa’s brother Griabi for being vampiric witches. They are fitted with the Mask of Satan, a steel demon mask with spikes on the inside, which is hammered onto their faces. Asa curses Griabi and his descendants as they are put into a pyre. But a sudden thunderstorm douses the flames and the two are buried instead. Two hundred years later, Dr. Choma Kruvajan (Andrea Checchi) and his apprentice Dr. Andre Gorobec (John Richardson) are traveling to a conference in Moscow.

Their coach breaks down outside the Vajda estate, and Choma and Andre explore an abandoned chapel which leads them into the witch’s tomb. Choma explains the history of Asa which freaks Andre out and he returns to help the coachman. A bat attacks Choma and while defending himself he accidentally breaks the glass window and crucifix on the coffin. A cut on his hand drips some blood onto the preserved body. Outside the tomb, the pair of doctors run into Katia Vajda (also Barabara Steele), a descendant–and spitting image–of Asa. Andre appears smitten with her.

Katia returns to her castle where her brother Constantine (Enrico Olivieri), and father Prince Vajda (Ivo Garrani) await. The Prince is spooked because today is the 200th anniversary of Asa’s death, and he sees portents all around. The body of Asa begins to reconstitute and she uses her power to wake Igor from his resting place. He claws his way out of the earth and comes for the Prince in the night. Frightened, the Prince grabs his crucifix which scares away the evil servant, but the Prince lapses into paralysis from the fear. Katia sends word to have the doctor brought from the local Inn. But instead of the normal coachman, Igor comes for Choma, hypnotizing him.

Igor leads the professor through many secret passageways and into the tomb where Asa uses her power to force the doctor to kiss her, returning her power and making Choma her servant. The doctor tells Constantine to remove the crucifix as it may cause a relapse. That evening Choma leaves the castle allowing Igor to kill the Prince. Unable to find Choma the next morning, Andre visits the castle. He is joined by the villagers letting Constantine know that his groomsman was found dead. Andre questions Sonya (Germana Dominici), the innkeeper’s daughter, who identifies the man who took Choma from the Inn as Igor–after seeing the same figure on a painting in the castle.

Constantine finds a hidden passageway behind the fireplace that Igor uses to move between the castle and the tomb. He is attacked by the servant and falls through a trapdoor. Andre consults with the local Priest (Antonio Pierfederici) who takes the young doctor to Igor’s grave. They discover Choma’s body instead, and the Priest stabs his eye with a nail–freeing him from Asa’s control. Andre must do the same thing to the witch in order to save Katia from being consumed by her evil. Igor grabs Katia and takes her to the tomb where Asa begins to suck the life from the young Princess, making her appear older.

Andre returns and battles Igor in the secret passageway. He nearly falls into the trap door as well, but Constantine has climbed back up and pulls the foul assistant into the hole, just before collapsing from loss of blood. In the tomb, Asa–posing as Katia–urges Andre to kill Katia–who appears to be Asa. As he raises the blade, Andre notices a crucifix on “Asa.” Realizing his mistake, he stops. Asa tries to mesmerize him, but the Priest and the villagers arrive, take Asa outside, and burn her on a stake. Katia’s youth is restored and she awakens, kissing Andre.

“My revenge will seek you out, and with the blood of your sons, and of their sons, and their sons, I will continue to live forever!” – Asa Vajda

Whether this film is known as La maschera del demonio, Black Sunday, or The Mask of Satan (as the version I watched was), one thing is clear, it’s got a strong and creepy vibe to it. Its black-and-white production might belie that fact, however, the film elicits visceral reactions from the audience. The movie had a number of firsts that set it apart from similar works from the same period, with Black Sunday having garnered continuous praise over its lifetime. There is no doubt that its influences have been felt far and wide since its initial Italian release.

Director Mario Bava began working in Italian cinema in the late 1930s doing a number of uncredited jobs. In 1943 Bava took his first job as the cinematographer on Le avventure di Annabella and shot over 40 films between then and 1959, including popular films like Hercules, The Giant of Marathon, and an early Italian horror film, I Vampiri. He was offered the opportunity by his studio, Galatea, to come up with a story of his own to film. Inspired by the success of Hammer Horror’s 1958 Dracula, and by Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol’s 1835 novella “Viy,” Bava worked out the plot and from there, the rest is history. From this film, Bava is responsible for the creation of the cinematic style of the Italian horror film, or giallo, and Spaghetti Western seen through the 1960s. The deep gothic mood and the juxtaposition of the erotic with the violent are some of the most defining features. He would continue as a director, credited with 22 films before his death in 1980. Some of the most famous films include this one, Black Sabbath, Kill, Baby, Kill, and A Bay of Blood, along with the sci-fi inspiration for Alien entitled Planet of the Vampires. His films inspired a generation of directors including Italy’s own Dario Argento who had Bava work on some special effects shots for his own film Inferno.

This was also the first horror film for English actress Barbara Steele. She had worked on four films prior to Black Sunday, but this film escalated her career, especially in the horror genre. Reportedly, she was difficult to work with on set due to her lack of experience, her young age, and her inability to understand Italian. But that didn’t stop her. She appeared next in the first film reviewed from 31 Days of Horror this year, The Pit and The Pendulum plus dozens of others including The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, Castle of Blood, and Piranha, becoming an early scream queen. Her dual role as both the evil woman and the virgin gave her plenty of screen time to impress audiences and future filmmakers. Her co-star John Richardson was the male lead in One Million Years B.C. (with Raquel Welch) and made some additional Italian horror films in the 1970s, none of which made much of a splash.

Black Sunday was the film that put Italian horror films on the map. Prior to that, it was films from England or the United States that influenced the genre (plus an assortment of early German horror, such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). Bava pushed sensibilities in this film further than similar films of the era, and further than censors in English-speaking countries would allow. Just look at the American film Psycho from the same year or the British film The Innocents from 1961. While Psycho purports to show graphic violence, it’s all just a trick of camerawork and editing. Censors were as concerned about the violence Alfred Hitchcock depicted as they were about him showing a toilet flush on film. The Innocents has nothing like the visceral horror that Bava creates, instead depending on psychological horror. Black Sunday includes graphic scenes (for its time) of nails being stabbed into eyeballs, corpses re-animating as their eyeballs grow back into their head, the undead clawing their way out of the earth, and the most stomach-churning moment, the mask of Satan being hammered onto Asa’s face, spikes first. The poster for the film even has a disclaimer about children under 12 not being admitted (this was in the days before the motion picture rating system). I can only imagine any person, young or not, being traumatized by this film in their first screening of it. The gothic mood and atmosphere, and dark elements (witchcraft, mesmerism, mind control) create a setting that rivals any Hammer horror film of the time and would lead to dozens of other films adopting a similar look and feel.

There is some confusion about the nature of the villains in the film. The opening narration refers to them as vampires, but every other mention regarding Asa refers to her as a witch. Both appear equally plausible. Her ability to come back to life from a single drop of blood, her dislike of crucifixes, and her ability to control the minds of others all showcase standard aspects of the vampire. However, the branding of her stomach with the mark of Satan, her death by being burned at the stake, her ability to regain her youthful appearance, and her control of others (including possibly manipulating a bat to make Choma break her crypt) can also be signs of witches and witchcraft. There’s also some strange methodology for killing the associates of Asa, with the Priest suggesting driving a nail through Choma’s left eye to kill him. That may be due to him being controlled by Asa, and not being a witch/vampire herself. No mention of stakes through hearts though.

Black Sunday uses both simple photographic effects and practical special effects to communicate its horror and eerie vibe. Several slow-motion scenes of the coach being driven by Igor create an otherworldly feeling, something that Francis Ford Coppola would repeat in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Bova also utilized smooth camera moves with dollies while his subject, usually Igor, was also on a dolly which created a smooth gliding gait as he walked. Simple double exposures were used for a couple of shots where Asa and Katia were needed in frame at the same time. And for the regeneration of Asa’s eyes, tomato soup, and rice were used to simulate the blood and maggots, later to be replaced by poached eggs. Sometimes effects are best handled in black and white. I was dubious about the accolades heaped on this film, if only due to the film being over 60 years old. So much innovation has come since then. But Black Sunday still manages to create an unnerving and moody piece that can definitely upset the squeamish and cause even the most stoic of viewers to let out a small scream.

Assorted Musings

• Richard Donner was such a fan of this film that he modeled the cemetery scene in his film The Omen on the scene where Katia first appears to Andre, in the graveyard with her hounds.
• For an effect where Asa and Katia appear to age in real-time on camera, red make-up was applied simulating old-age lines while lit with a red light. As a green light was turned on the red lines stood out, aging the actress years, in only seconds.