Movies - La maschera del demonio

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	Movies - La maschera del demonio

Black Sunday (Italian title: La maschera del demonio) is a 1960 horror film directed by Mario Bava, from a screenplay by Ennio De Concini and Mario Serandrei, based very loosely on Nikolai Gogol’s short story "Viy" (aka “The Vij”). The film stars Barbara Steele, John Richardson, and Ivo Garrani.

Plot

In the year 1630, beautiful witch Asa (Steele) and her lover Javuto (Arturo Dominici) are sentenced to death in Moldavia for sorcery by Asa’s own brother. Before being killed, Asa vows revenge and puts a curse on her brother’s descendants. A metal mask with sharp spikes on the inside is placed over the witch’s face and hammered repeatedly into her flesh…

Two hundred years later, Dr. Choma (Andrea Checchi) and his assistant Dr. Andre Gorobec (Richardson), are traveling through Moldavia when one of the wheels of their carriage is broken, requiring immediate repair. While awaiting their coachman to fix the wheel, the two wander off into a nearby ancient crypt and discover Asa’s tomb. Her partially preserved corpse is visible inside, her face staring out malevolently. Choma is attacked by a bat and he cuts his hand. Some of the blood drips onto Asa’s dead face.

Returning outside, Choma and Gorobec meet Katia (also played by Steele). She advises them that she lives with her father, Prince Vaida (Garrani), and brother Constantin (Enrico Oliveiri), in a nearby castle that the villagers all believe is haunted. Gorobec is instantly smitten by the beautiful young woman. The two men then leave her and drive on to an inn.

The witch Asa is brought back to life, rejuvenated by Choma’s blood. She telepathically contacts Javuto and orders him to rise from his grave. He does so and heads off to Prince Vaida’s castle, where Vaida holds up a crucifix and scares the reanimated corpse away. However, Vaida is so terrified by the visit that he becomes paralyzed with fear. Katia and Constantin send a servant to fetch Dr. Choma. But the servant is killed before he can reach the inn. It is the evil Javuto who arrives to bring Choma to the castle. Choma is led to Asa’s tomb, and the vampire-witch rises from the ruins of her coffin after it explodes spectacularly. She drinks the doctor’s blood. Under Asa’s command, the now vampiric Choma enters Vaida’s room and murders him.

Asa’s plan is to drain Katia of her blood, believing that this act will gain her immortality. A little girl who had seen Javuto meet Choma at the inn describes the dead man to Gorobec. A priest recognizes the description as being that of Javuto. The priest and Gorobec go to Javuto’s grave and find Choma hiding inside. Realizing that he is a vampire, they immediately kill the fiend by ramming a long wooden stake through his eye socket.

Javuto finds Katia and takes her to Asa. Asa attempts to drink her blood but is thwarted by the crucifix around her neck. Gorobec enters the crypt to save Katia but finds Asa instead. Asa pretends to be Katia and tells Gorobec that the now unconcious Katia is really the vampire. She tells him to kill Katia immediately by staking her. He agrees but at the last possible moment he notices the crucifix she is wearing. He turns to Asa and opens her robe, revealing a fleshless skeletal frame…

Production

Immediately prior to Black Sunday, Mario Bava had taken over the directorial reins of Caltiki, The Immortal Monster (1959) from Riccardo Freda, who had abandoned the picture in the middle of production. Bava, who had been that film’s cinematographer, completed the film quickly and efficiently. This was not the first time Bava had been able to save a troubled film for Caltiki’s production company, Galatea Films, and Bava was subsequently offered his choice of any property for his first directorial effort. As a lover of Russian fantasy and horror, he decided on adapting Nikolai Gogol’s 1865 horror story “Viy” into a feature film. However, the resultant screenplay in fact owed very little to Gogol at all, and seemed to be more a tribute to the atmospheric black and white gothic horror films of the 1930’s, especially those produced by Universal Studios. Despite a somewhat limited budget and short shooting schedule (under two weeks), Black Sunday was a remarkably assured debut, a stylishly filmed and moody visual treat. While undeniably old fashioned in many ways, it also contained moments of very graphic (for its time) scenes of horror and violence.

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, the movie was trimmed of over three minutes’ worth of violence, had its musical score replaced by an effective but more generic “horror” sounding one by Les Baxter, and was completely redubbed into English.

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