Black Sunday
What the hell is going on?
Asa (Barbara Steele) full-time witch and part-time vampire is put to a violent death by her own fucking brother Prince Vajda! The Prince renounces any ties with his sister, because seriously, nothing divides a family like religion. Asa vows to exact revenge on her family until Vadja shuts her up with a nasty little relic of medieval torture. It is referred to as the Mask of Satan.
The Mask of Satan as seen worn on the red carpet by Ann Hathaway
The Mask has an Asian samurai looking battlestar galactica face on one side and long ass spikes on the inside. The bastards place that leaden veil on Asa’s face and with a giant hammer, at her brother’s behest, pound that mask into place. That is dressing up for Halloween the hard way.
My hammer is a tree trunk.
Sunday getting blacker:
This film is directed by Mario Bava. He is the great Italian director from the golden age of Italian horror films. Bava’s work inspired the italian ‘gaillo’ film genre which later influenced the modern day slasher films. I obviously recommend his work as it was recommend to me.
Ironically the film is black & white and film has ‘black’ in the title yet there are no black people in the film.
After Asa is masked ‘iron maiden style’ she is buried in a coffin. The coffin has a little glass window at the face. Neat, huh? You don’t see many of those. Coffins with a view. It’s on purpose though. A giant cross is placed in clear view for Asa (through the mask of satan) which renders her powerless. Here, she is left to rot, and rot she dost.
Black Sunday then picks up on the 200th anniversary of Asa and her vampire lover/servant Javutich’s, death by angry mob. The current elderly Prince Vajda knows about the anniversary and is particularly troubled this year. His house servant gives him a phat gold cross and reminds him that crazy dead bitches can’t do shit when you gots a gold ass cross like dat. Well he doesn’t say it like that, being an elderly white man, but it’s basically what he says.
Elsewhere bumbling Doctor Kruejan and handsome young Doctor Gorovek are traveling to Moscow for a medical conference. Dr. Kruejan is a lot like Inspector Gadget but without the gadgets. (I”m not going to type out these long foreign names, so I’ll give them nicknames. Dr. K, and Goro.) Goro has a little too much delicious Russian vodka and Dr. K sends him off to bed. He tells Goro he is going to take a stroll with his pipe and then be up. I assume he isn’t going to take advantage of Goro. It’s not that type of movie. But, it is foreign so you really never know. That’s part of the reason foreign films can be so satisfying.
Without going through all the details, Dr. K ends up in the crypt of Asa the witch. The stooge knocks over the giant cross shattering it, which breaks the window in Asa’s coffin. If that isn’t enough he manages to cut himself and drip his blood on Asa. Here I’m not sure if this begins to restore Asa back to life, because she is a vampire or a witch. She is referred to as a witch yet she behaves like a vampire. It’s a little confusing but, it’s not really as big an issue as I’m making it seem.
Asa calls forth her love and servant Javutich from the grave. Javutich’s wet slimly hand pushes up from the moist earth. I love when you see the dead coming up from the grave. I may be wrong but most modern movies do not have zombies coming up from graves. Though Javutich isn’t a zombie. He is one ugly comrade and there is no way he is plugging Barbara Steele.
(even with his needle dick in her bot fly holes)
Javutich slowly digs himself out of the grave. Great scene. Oh and look another Mask of Satan!
Now the evil witch and her sidekick are back. They quickly posses Dr. K, (doctor of stupidity) and use him to dispatch the prince. It is here I will stop giving plot details.
Ok a few more important details. the Princess is Asa’s mirror image. Actually she is. Barbara Steele plays a dual role as Asa and the Princess. Dr. Goro and a priest become our protagonists, mostly Dr. Goro, who falls for the Princess.
Dr. Gorovek on the right, me on the left.
Oh and there is an angry mob. Apparently, before the TV and the internet forming an angry mob was how people entertained themselves at night.
It’s branding time bitch aka a typical weeknight in Russia before TV and the internet.
Acting:
I thought Barbara Steele’s performance as the witch stole the show. When she was the princess. She was very somber and pretty in goth but, when she was the witch, you couldn’t take your eyes off her. Well done.
Everyone else was good. I think actors in this era seemed to take their job very seriously. I thought everyone did well. Dr. Goro was a bit of a tool, but it was his character. He reminded me of a prince from a disney movie. Which disney prince? Any of them, except Aladdin, or any non-white 50s era type prince.
Sex:
Mario Bava doesn’t shy away from sex and nudity. This movie should have had some, but nada. So here is an image from one of Bava’s other films (The House of Exorcism) if you are a fourteen year old boy.
Gore:
We get the mask of Satan worn, ouch, some eye gouging, impaling, human bar-b-que, post mask of Satan scares, which look like the worse bot fly marks or the worst black heads ever. (‘Black’ heads in ‘Black’ Sunday!) One very cool eye forming in a skull effect. Mario Bava was know for his special effects and worked on creature FX in some films.
Javutich’s face is disgustingly gory. His bangs and mustache will haunt your dreams.
‘Come with me.’ (Hello! Who wouldn’t?)
Final Black Thought:
Ironically it’s Sunday as I type this in black.
This is a classic foreign horror. It’s creepy and scary like a campfire tale then a walk in the blackest woods. Though today’s movies have amazing practical special FX and CGI, there are classic tales like Black Sunday that still captivate. With me it’s often about two things, was it entertaining? and did it provide me with an escape from reality? This film did both for me. I loved the atmosphere. The details, the costumes, the creepiness of the film, the actors, and the the satanic genre. I don’t watch many black and white movies. I found I quickly accepted the lack of color and wasn’t irritated by it.
I wish there had been some nudity. But I’m just being sleazy. Perhaps the era of sleazy exploitation was not yet upon us. Truth is everything about this movie was cool and spooky, it was little details in films like this that inspired modern day horror masters and their predecessors in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It is considered the pinnacle of Italian gothic horror. Who am I to question that reputation? Watch it and let it enfold you.
-Director
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