Mario Bava’s Black Sunday poster (1960)
This Sunday we’ll focus on Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (seems appropriate right?). The film was released in the US on February 15th, 1961 (nice Valentine’s Day movie). According to Wikipedia, This is credited as Mario Bava’s directorial debut even though he directed a few movies he wasn’t credited for. Black Sunday stars Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominico and Enrico Olivieri.
Black Sunday was considered “unusually gruesome” by many in the 1960’s. So much so that it was banned in the UK until 1968. I would imagine that this helps the film with horror fans. Hearing something is “too gruesome” would make many want to see it more. Some of the gore was censored from the US version as well. The film achieved world wide success despite the censorship.
More after the leap…
Black Sunday or La Maschera del Demonio
Black Sunday is the story of Asa Vajda who is convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death by her brother in 1630. Before dying she curses her brother and all of his descendants (pretty harsh). Then an iron mask with spikes on the inside is hammered onto her face (you know, normal punishment). Two hundred years later some people find the tomb, and the fun begins.
Found the first 9 minutes of the film…which is followed up by more…
I found some Mario Bava interviews…but they were not in English. But here’s one below for those of you who can understand Italian. 🙂
