#381. Black Sunday [La Maschera del Demonio / Revenge of the Vampire] (1960)

"You too can feel the joy and happiness of hating." - Princess Asa

 Grade: ★★★☆☆

I'm usually not a fan of dubbed foreign movies. If I'm going to watch a foreign language film, I'd prefer to read the subtitles than suffer bad dubbing. So, that's my biggest complaint about Black Sunday. It's a classic Italian horror film that was shot in English, dubbed in Italian, then re-dubbed in English for the American release. It was a big hit in the '60s, and was actually banned in the UK for several years for its violence. One scene in particular was chosen as one of Bravo TV's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. I guess by 1960's standards, the opening scene was pretty gruesome, and I will admit that I averted my eyes for a moment.

The movie starts in Moldavia in 1630 with an ominous voiceover describing witch (or vampire) burnings, and how sometimes even family members were turning on each other to repel the demons. Cut to Princess Asa (played by Barbara Steele) and her boyfriend Javuto, who are in the process of being burned alive by Asa's brother. Now most witch-burnings end with the accused witch proclaiming their innocence to the very end. Not this one. Asa was all "F-you and your entire family!" So, she cursed her brother and his entire family line, declaring that one day she would return. He sees her curse and raises her one mask of Satan that he literally hammers into her face. Aaand that would be the scene that made it onto the 100 Scariest Movie Moments list.

Fast forward 200 years and we meet two doctors on their way to a conference in a nearby town. The older doctor, Kruvajan, insists they take a shortcut through the haunted forest. Sounds like a solid plan. Surprise, surprise, the inept carriage driver hits a log or a tree or something and the wheel comes out of its socket. So, instead of helping the poor guy, the two doctors decide to go rummage through the nearby dilapidated cathedral. Again, real solid, guys. They come across a tomb that houses the witch from the beginning of the movie. She's inside a fancy coffin with a window and a cross that keeps her from coming back from the dead. Young, attractive doctor, Gorobec, is wandering around while older doctor is still inspecting the witch's coffin, when older doctor is attacked by a huge bat! OK, I would have freaked out, too, but he just starts swinging at it and ends up breaking the cross and the window on the coffin! Oh, hey, since the window's broken, we may as well remove this mask of Satan from the 200-year-old corpse. What could go wrong? Seriously, where did these guys get their degrees? Eventually, the carriage guy shows up and tells them they need to leave. That's when we are introduced to Katja (also played by Barbara Steele). She's hanging out with her dogs in front of the church and immediately falls in love with the young, attractive doctor. I forget exactly what she said, the point of her being there was to reveal to the audience that she was the spitting image of Asa.

They eventually leave the church so that Asa can grow some eyeballs and call her boyfriend from beyond the grave. He climbs out of his grave (he wasn't a witch, so all he got was the Satan mask and buried in the ground) and starts killing people. But he has a plan. Everything is in order to help Asa completely come back from the dead. She's currently still trapped in her coffin for some reason. Cramps, I guess.

We meet Asa's father, who I'll call Prince Exposition because he tells us the entire story of Asa and her boyfriend and how their entire family is cursed because of what their great-great-great-great grandfather did. Asa also has a brother, Constantin. The undead boyfriend has made his way to the castle and now he has to get Katja to Asa's tomb so she can possess her body and live eternal life.

"I've been dead for 200 years, is there something on my face?"

SPOILER ALERT: the brother, father and older doctor die, Asa possesses Katja and the young doctor is very sad that the love of his life, whom he just met the night before is also dead. The angry villagers show up with torches and pitchforks (they found one of the Prince's servants murdered in the river and I forget why they immediately went to this abandoned church). Young doctor was able to convince them that Asa was in fact Asa and not Katja, because she was not wearing Katja's crucifix. These villagers were apparently in the bonfire-building business, because they were able to build one in no time! When it comes to witch-burnings, apparently the second time's the charm, because this one took. I think it had something to do with them killing her before sundown after she possessed Katja. Young doctor looks up and realizes that Katja is still alive. Hurray! The end!

This was a fine piece of Italian gothic horror, and also Tim Burton's favorite horror film. I can see that. I felt like I was watching the security camera from a Hot Topic. It was entertaining, and, like I said, I needed to avert my eyes a couple of times.

Why you should watch Black Sunday: I would really only recommend this to horror aficionados. 

Why you should skip it: Bad dubbing and the story wasn't very original.

Did you know? Barbara Steele would not get the scripts in advance. She would be given pages daily, and therefore had no idea what the story of the movie was.

Italy / RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes

PRODUCER: Massimo de Rita, Samuel Z. Arkoff (US version)

SCREENPLAY: Ennio de Concini, Mario Serandrei, Marcello Coscia (uncredited)

WRITTEN BY: Mario Bava (uncredited)

CAST: Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici

RELEASE DATE: 11 August 1960

BUDGET: $100,000

BOX OFFICE: ITL 139 million