La Maschera del demonio
Mario Bava
© Galatea Film, Jolly Film
In 17 th -century Moldavia, Princess Asa Vajda is suspected of witchcraft, condemned by the Inquisition and dies cursing her family, who are responsible for her fate. In the 19 th century, doctors Kruvajan and Gorobec, on their way to a medical conference, discover Asa’s coffin and accidentally wake her up. She then methodically sets about exacting her revenge...
Cast : Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani
Scenario : Ennio De Concini, Mario Serandrei
Cinematography : Mario Bava
Editing : Mario Serandrei
Music : Roberto Nicolosi
Scenario : Ennio De Concini, Mario Serandrei
Cinematography : Mario Bava
Editing : Mario Serandrei
Music : Roberto Nicolosi
Production : Galatea Film, Jolly Film
Distribution : Tamasa Distribution
Distribution : Tamasa Distribution
"La Maschera del demonio (Black Sunday), filmed in sumptuous black and white and featuring the magnetic presence of young actress Barbara Steele, is an adaptation of a story by Gogol, which was a huge success from the moment it was released and instantly became a landmark in the history of fantasy cinema. In Italy, Bava launched the fashion for gothic horror, ready to rival English productions from Hammer. His films are characterised by a spellbinding way of directing that scrutinises the mechanisms of madness and fantasy. In Bava’s films, actors and characters are reduced to puppets animated by impulsive jolts. Obsessed with the themes of contamination and serial murder, Bava is also a precursor in the evolution of genre cinema. Long scorned by historians and filmgoers alike, he has finally, posthumously, found his place in Italian cinema: one of the very first. Bava was indeed a great inventor of forms and a brilliant visual artist, a victim of his modesty and of the production system in which he worked his whole life." (Olivier Père; lesinrocks.com)