Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Mario Bava's first credited feature is still the number one film of the Italian Horror renaissance, startlingly original and genuinely creepy. It introduced the icon Barbara Steele to the screen and is probably her best film as well. The blend of vampire and witchcraft lore is atmospheric (all of those real crypts and broken stairs) and violent. This one had a tough ride with the censors both in England and in America.

Black Sunday is also weirdly sexy, no doubt due to Bava's innovative treatment of Barbara Steele as a seductress from beyond the grave. Overturning vampire film conventions, Steele's wicked witch seduces the "Van Helsing" doctor character. He knows she's an illusion, a rotten corpse whose outward beauty is an illusion. He can see the spike-punctures in her face. But he's drawn to her just the same. Never was the misogynistic basis of horror better expressed -- women are Evil because they evoke unclean thoughts in innocent men, and lead them to debase themselves.

Reviewing of this old classic reinforces our memories of Bava's highly kinetic camera direction. His slightly wide lens is forever swooping around candlesticks and craning down to the witch Asa as she writhes in her crypt. The budget may have been low, but Black Sunday is more atmospheric and cinematically active than any of Hollywood's classic horror films.

This film is also known as:

Black Sunday (USA)
House of Fright
Mask of the Demon
Revenge of the Vampire (UK)
The Demon's Mask
The Hour When Dracula Comes
The Mask of Satan