#la maschera del demonio (1960)

[weirdlookindog]

La maschera del demonio (1960)

AKA Black Sunday; The Mask of Satan; Fright; Revenge of the Vampire; House of Fright; Mask of the Demon; The Demon's Mask; The Hour When Dracula Comes

source

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Barbara Steele - Black Sunday (1960)

[sesiondemadrugada]

Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960).

[monstrousdaughter]

hey can someone PLEASE help me. i've been trying to find the Italian version of Black Sunday (1960), original title La Maschera del Demonio, on the internet with English subtitles but I'm only finding the version that was dubbed in English (which afaik was somewhat censored) or the Italian version without any subs. can someone please point me to the Italian version with English subs PLEASE I will love you forever

[fibula-rasa]

Cosplay the Classics: Barbara Steele as Asa/Katia Vajda in Black Sunday (1960)

Sometimes October flies by and you’re left with very little time to put together an appropriately ghoulish look for the big night: Halloween! But, with a little construction paper, colored pencils, safety pins, and a black sheet… you too can closet cosplay Barbara Steele in her dual role of Asa and Katia Vajda in the Italian horror classic Black Sunday / La maschera del demonio (1960).

I personally adore this movie, and its source material, so hopefully, when I have some more time to spare, I’d love to give it a full write up. Maybe a Gogol on film series???

Anyways, Happy Halloween!

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

[spilladabalia]

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Isobel Goudie

[scary-movies-on-netflix]

BLACK SUNDAY (1960)

This one starts off, as most movies do, with an angry mob in the seventeenth century.  Asa (Barbara Steele) and her lover, Javutich, have been captured and accused of witchcraft.  Asa is tortured.  She swears eternal vengeance on the local inquisitor, who is also her brother!  The mob places a nail-ridden mask over her face and then hammer it onto her.  (“The Shrine” (2010) also featured masks being hammered onto faces.)  The mob then tries to burn the bodies, but a huge storm arrives and puts out the fire.  Javutich’s body is buried in a local cemetery, and Asa’s body in placed in her family crypt.

We jump to the nineteenth century.  Two doctors are riding to Moscow for a conference, but they decide to go through a spooky forest.  Their carriage breaks, and they take the opportunity to explore a local ruin, which turns out to be the very same crypt mentioned above!  Asa’s still-masked body is buried in a big sarcophagus with a little glass window, so that she is always in view of the cross set over the tomb.  A big rubber bat flies toward the older doctor, named Choma, and whilst killing it he breaks the cross and cracks the glass window over the tomb.  The doctors are curious.  They remove a little icon and then take off the mask.  Asa’s body is in relatively good shape, except for lacking eyes and having nail-holes in her face.  Choma cuts himself.  The doctors head off, but over the next few scenes we’ll see as the blood drips onto Asa and she begins to recompose herself.

Heading back to their carriage, the doctors run into Katia, who is a dead ringer for Asa, because she is also played by Barbara Steele.  The younger doctor, Andrej, is smitten with her, because she looks like Barbara Steele.  They continue to the next town.  We follow Katia back to the local castle, where she lives with her father and brother.  They are basically the descendants of Asa’s brother, upon whom Asa previously swore vengeance!  We move down to Asa in her tomb as her eyes re-form.  She summons Javutich back to life, and whilst the doctors drink vodka at the inn and a young woman collects milk from a cow, he crawls free of his grave!  (Strangely enough, the young maid reminds me of the Polish girl sneaking around the forest from “The Zone of Interest” (2023).)

Back at the castle, Katia’s dad is asleep in bed, but Javutich, his face hideously scarred, stalks into the room.  Katia’s dad waves a cross at him, and Javutich runs away, but Katia’s dad goes into shock.  Katia remembers that the doctors are staying at the local inn, and they send a coachman to summon help.  The older doctor, Choma, is out having a smoke, and the young woman who was milking the cow watches as an ominous coach appears.  A voice calls out to Choma, and it is Javutich!  We watch a very dramatic carriage ride back to the castle, a scene that was essentially recreated in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992).  Javutich leads Choma into the castle, and then down a secret passage to the crypt!  Asa’s tomb bursts open!  Asa, her face still punctured with wounds, mesmerizes Choma, telling him, “You will be dead to men, but you will be alive in death.”  She commands him to kiss her, and he plants a smooch on her lips. 

Katia and her family are upstairs, wondering where the coachman is, and Choma appears.  His hair is now white.  He says he’ll look over Katia’s dad, but tells Katia to take away the cross.  The next morning Katia and her brother find their dad dead, his face horribly disfigured!  Also, Choma is missing.  Back at the inn, the younger doctor, Andrej, is looking for Choma, and the innkeeper tells him that he went to the castle the night before.  Things start to pick up quickly now.  Andrej borrows a horse and heads to the castle, and villagers find the body of the dead coachman.  Andrej spends more time with Katia and meets the local priest, who agrees to help him translate the inscription on the icon they found in Asa’s tomb.  Katia’s dad’s body is laid out in the castle for his funeral.  A secret panel is discovered with a latch for the secret door behind the fireplace. 

Andrej and Katia’s brother explore the secret passage and find a nude painting of Asa.  They enter the crypt and find Asa’s body, which is breathing!  Andrej heads to the village to find the priest.  Katia’s brother goes to protect Katia, but he is intercepted by Javutich!  They fight, and brother falls into a pit.  In the town, Andrej and the priest are looking for Javutich’s burial site.  They locate it, but Choma is inside the coffin!  The priest explains that Choma is indeed dead, but his body has been reanimated by Satan!  He presses a cross against Choma’s head, which sizzles, and then he drives a nail through his left eye to put Choma’s spirit at rest.  The priest tells Andrej that the witch, Asa, wants to possess Katia.  Andrej rushes back to the castle.

At that very same castle, Katia is freaking out because she is all alone.  She collapses at the open coffin of her father, who comes back to life!  He tells Katia, “An accursed poison flows in your veins!”  Katia passes out, and undead dad is about to eat her, but Javutich stops him!  He throws dad onto a fire, and we have a grisly scene of him burning to death.  Javutich takes Katia down to the crypt with Asa.  Asa touches Katia and begins to drain the life out of her.  We can tell because Katia starts to look older, and Asa to look younger.  Asa tells her, “Now you shall have a beautiful life of evil and hate in me!”  She reaches out to Katia, but she sees Katia’s cross and is repulsed!

Andrej arrives back at the castle and heads to the crypt, but Javutich tries to stop him!  They fight for a while and open up the same pit where Katia’s brother fell.  Brother, who’s apparently been hanging out down there, helps to throw Javutich down the hole, and then he (the brother) dies.  Meanwhile, the townspeople have gathered a mob and are heading to the castle.  Andrej reaches the crypt, where Asa, pretending to be Katia, embraces him and tells him to finish off the witch, quickly.  Andrej is about to drive a stake through Katia’s left eye, but he spots her cross, which Asa cannot touch.  Andrej moves toward Asa with the cross, and when she turns from him she reveals her body, which is still mostly bones and half-formed flesh.  She rejoices in killing off the family and completing her vengeance, and then she attempts to mesmerize Andrej. 

Luckily, just then the mob arrives!  They capture Asa and tie her to stake and start to burn her.  As she dies, Katia is restored.  Andrej kisses her as the villagers rejoice over the burning witch.

This was…really good.  There are some excellent spooks, and the film’s Wikipedia page explains how most were performed (such as using different colored lights for certain shades of makeup to age and de-age characters).  For the most part, the physical acting is excellent, and even the voice acting is competent (being dubbed, per usual for an Italian horror movie).  Barbara Steele is mesmerizing, again.  She performs double duty, both as the Asa (the witch) and Katia (her hapless descendant).  She is crazed and desperate as Asa.  As Katia, we first see her outlined in some ruins of the castle, handling two huge dogs by their leashes.  The image promises a strong, powerful character.  Unfortunately, she’s mostly lackluster, fainting everywhere and depending on a man to save her.  Not a perfect movie, but a boundary-pushing pioneer for its time.

[moviesandmania]

BLACK SUNDAY Mario Bava's horror classic - reviews and free online

‘The undead demons of Hell terrorize the world in an orgy of stark horror’ Black Sunday is a 1960 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava from a screenplay by Ennio de Concini, Mario Serandrei and (uncredited) Marcello Coscia. Original title: La maschera del demonio; also known as The Mask of Satan and, in the UK, as Revenge of the Vampire The movie stars Barbara Steele, John…

[stillinstarshollow]

gothic ambiences in la maschera del demonio (1960)

[weirdlookindog]

La maschera del demonio (1960) - German program

[witchesonatree]

black sunday (or "la maschera del demonio") directed by mario bava, 1960, is literally gothic aesthetic at its finest.

[yeuxxsansvisage]

La Maschera del Demonio, 1960. Mario Bava.

[thechemistryset]

Mario Bava, La maschera del demonio, 1960

[inverted-cross]

La maschera del demonio, Black Sunday

Mario Bava, 1960

[lisaandthedevil]

Black Sunday/La maschera del demonio (Mario Bava, 1960) | Dracula, Bram Stoker