Sunday, March 24, 2013

1960 - BLACK SUNDAY, horror film from Mario Bava


Barbara Steele with the big anime eyes, is the star of this horror film that has something to do with witches and vampires being resurrected 200 years after they were entombed.  Steele got a reputation as a woman that Italian directors liked to tie up at the stake and then film some sort of soft core S&M whipping scene for their horror movies. 

Black Sunday does have good Gothic photography.  The director Mario Bava, frequently photographed his own films and was an expert at creating a creepy feeling in his films.   Bava also has a credit in the screenplay that is supposed based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol although there is probably not too much left of the story in this adaptation.  The story is a confusing mess.



As a director you get what you get with Bava, as much gruesome stuff as he could get away with even for 1960.  The photography and the creepy studio atmosphere are  good even if the cast and the story are just there for Bava to indulge himself with his usual excesses.

87 minutes.

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