| | | Stare Into These Eyes. Discover Deep Within Them the Unspeakable Terrifying Secret of Black Sunday...It Will Paralyze You with Fright!
Features: DVD
Mario Bava's 1960 directorial debut stands alone as one of the most influential and startling chillers of all time. British actress Barbara Steele became an international icon in this uber-gothic fever dream pulsing with stunning cinematography and landmark special effects -- both by Bava himself -- in which the conventional trappings of the horror genre were indelibly impaled upon perverse sexuality and graphic sadism. It remains a masterpiece of the macabre that changed the face of cinema forever. This presentation of Bava's uncut and uncensored International Version features the original Italian score and English dubbing.
"The most influentual figure in Italian exploitation horror movies would never again match the success of this venture." Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
"Visually stunning, black and white creeper." Gerry Shamray, Sun Newspapers of Cleveland
"Glorious to look at..." Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress
"Intriguing story...Beautifully atmospheric." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"A must-see for horror fans; firsts for Steele as star and Bava as director." VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever
Editor's Note
Buxom B-movie queen Barbara Steele stars in this beautiful, atmospheric film about the long dead evil Princess Asa and her brother who are accidentally brought back to life. Asa goes on a quest to murder her twin descendent, Princess Katia (also played by Steele), and seduces many unknowing victims along the way. Director Tim Burton often cites this film as his favorite horror movie.
| Features | Audio: Italian Dolby Digital Mono | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: STARZ/SPHE |
| Release Date: 10/23/2007 |
| Running Time: 87 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1960 | | Catalog ID: 13303 | | UPC: 00013131330397 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Italian | | Available Audio Tracks: Italian | | Video: B&W |
| Cast & Crew | Andrea Checchi | | Barbara Steele | | Ivo Garrani | | John Richardson | | Ennio De Concini, et. al. - Screenplay | | Les Baxter - Original Music By | | Lou Rusoff - Producer | | Mario Bava - Cinematographer | | Mario Bava - Director | | Mario Serandrei - Editor | | Nikolai Gogol - Based On Short Story By | | Roberto Nicolosi - Original Music By | | Samuel Z. Arkoff - Executive Producer |
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| | Professional Reviews | Classic-Horror 10 of 10
Italian horror, that awkward pile of animal feces capped with 24-karat gold, owes quite a bit to Mario Bava. More specifically, it owes it to Bava's first solo directorial effort, La Maschera del Demonio, better known in the United States as Black Sunday. This macabre tale of atavistic revenge brings together the outlandish Gothic trappings of Universal's old chillers and the newer viscera of Hammer, along with a visual nuance that belongs entirely to Bava...If taken purely as a visual tour of the best kind of horrific fairy tale, with all the bizarre imagery therein, Black Sunday is a masterpiece and a cornerstone of Italian horror cinema. (not to mention a huge influence on American directors like Tim Burton). Putting too much emphasis on the sub-par audio elements and poor dubbing (the fault of the American distributors rather than the filmmakers themselves) will hurt the film's overall effectiveness. Turn the volume low, open your eyes wide, and soak in Bava's beautiful nightmare. - Nate Yapp
Reel.com 10 of 10
The film stars Barbara Steele, whose work here and in a slew of subsequent Hammer films, has made her the reigning "queen of horror" among genre fans. Once labeled "the only actress who can snarl with her eyes" by a film critic, Steele plays the evil Princess Asa, condemned to a grizzly death in 17th-century Moldavia for being a witch and/or vampire. When, two hundred years later, two doctors inadvertently resurrect her corpse, they set off a wave of terrifying murders as the deadly monster woman inflicts her wrath on a sleepy castle, seeking to kill her living descendant, the lovely Princess Katia...Made in 1960 on one of Bava's larger budgets, Black Sunday is a visually sumptuous (to put it mildly), sometimes gruesome, sometimes sexy film that has influenced generations of filmmakers, including everyone from David Cronenberg to Tim Burton (who supposedly wanted to remake this film at one time). The film was the first to mix the potent elements of horror and sexuality together to provocative effect. Influenced by Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the closest to a horror film that Italians had ever seen prior to the genre's inception in that country in the 1950s), Black Sunday is every bit as much a fairy tale as it is a gothic chiller. - Robert Payne
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