364. La Maschera Del Demonio (Revenge of the Vampire / Black Sunday) (1960)

Directed By Mario Bava

Synopsis

A vampire/witch and her vampire lover get killed by the Inquisition in medieval times. Centuries later a doctor and his student do enough stupid things to allow the vampires to take their revenge.

Review

The plot of the film is pretty beside the point, it is traditional horror fare. What is not traditional for 1960 is just how gruesome the whole thing is. Watching this right after Psycho puts Hitchcock's violence in perspective. At this time European cinema had the edge.

It starts off with a great scene where the convicted lady gets a mask with nails stuck to her face with a mallet, to the point you see blood actually spurting from her head. This is something completely new, the level of gore here is just so far ahead that it makes the film compelling.

If gore and the visual horror of the bodies regenerating in their tombs was all there was to the film it would still be revolutionary and only comparable to Eyes Without a Face before it, but the film is also beautifully shot, with the director Mario Bava doubling as cinematographer. The acting is pretty terrible all around, and the best version is the English one with the Italian soundtrack, as the main actors were English-speakers the usual doubling from Italian films is less noticeable and they are using their own voices... even that doesn't save the acting... but bad acting is part of the film's charm. Definitely one for Halloween.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson, of American International Pictures, were screened the Italian language version of the film when they were visiting Rome in search of viable, inexpensive European made films to act as second features for their double-bills. They immediately recognized the film as a potential hit, and bought the U.S. rights for $100,000, reportedly more than the movie’s budget.

In order to make the film more accessible to American audiences, AIP trimmed over three minutes’ worth of violence and objectionable content. Sequences excised or shortened included the burning "S" branded into Asa's flesh and the blood spewing from the mask after it was hammered into her face, the moist eyeball impalement of Kruvajan, and the flesh peeling off Vajda's face as he burned to death in the fireplace. In the original version of the film, Asa and Javuto were brother and sister; in the AIP version, Javuto became Asa's servant. In addition, some dialogue was "softened", including Asa's line, "You too can find the joy and happiness of Hades!"; AIP modified it to "You too can find the joy and happiness of hating!"


First part of the film: