98-698: Black Sunday may refer to: Events [ edit ] Natural disasters [ edit ] Black Sunday, a day of major bushfires in Victoria, Australia during the 1925–26 Victorian bushfire season Black Sunday (storm) , a 1935 dust storm that swept across the Midwestern United States during the Dust Bowl Black Sunday, a 1938 event of extraordinary surf conditions at Bondi Beach , Sydney, Australia Black Sunday (1955) ,
196-440: A Chopin waltz. I certainly didn't want them to tear open my dress and expose my breasts, so they got a double that I didn't like at all, so I ended up doing it anyway — drunk, barely over 18, embarrassed and not very easy to be around. — Barbara Steele on her on-set behavior during the shooting of the film According to Lucas, principal photography for Black Sunday lasted approximately six weeks — an average schedule for
294-421: A "cacophonous, tone-deaf mess". Curti stated that contemporary Italian film critics "ravaged" Black Sunday , although some noted its cinematography. In France, Fereydoun Hoveida of Cahiers du Cinéma praised the film for the extreme mobility of its camera movements, and the way Bava's visual style created a fantastical and poetic dimension; he declared Bava to be an immediate film auteur with "the soul of
392-430: A 1975 novel by Thomas Harris Black Sunday (1977 film) , an American film adaptation of the novel See also [ edit ] Black mass Black Sabbath (disambiguation) Bloody Sunday (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Black Sunday . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
490-524: A Galatea production, but longer than the three to four weeks normally allotted to Italian films of the time — beginning on March 28, 1960, and ending on May 7. Meanwhile, film historian and critic Roberto Curti has stated that shooting began in June, and ran for seven weeks. Most of the film was shot at the studios of Scalera Film, with exteriors and some interiors shot at Castle Massimo in Arsoli . Despite
588-408: A children's show when compared to it." Bava drew extensive storyboards from the film, during which he developed the film's visual style based on his earlier works as cinematographer and co-director. Lucas notes that the film features a recurring motif related to eyes and sight, as well as the impairment of both, such as the subjective shot of Asa looking at the spikes of the "Mask of Satan" as it
686-569: A fleshless skeletal frame. The priest then arrives with many torch-carrying villagers, and they burn Asa to death. Katia awakens from her stupor, her life and beauty restored, and is reunited with Gorobec. Credits adapted from Mario Bava - All the Colors of the Dark and Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957-1969 . From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, the Italy-based production company Galatea
784-399: A foam latex mask of Asa's face, which he made based on photos of Steele without having to make a lifecast . To create the illusion of Asa's eyes regenerating within the sockets, a section of the character's tomb was built containing a hollow area under the mask, into which tomato soup and rice were used to simulate blood and maggots. These were then substituted with poached eggs, representing
882-464: A four-page outline faithfully based on Gogol's story, several other screenwriters, both credited and uncredited, worked on the script. Former Rank Organisation contract players Steele and Richardson were cast as Bava felt that British leads would allow the film to compare favorably to Dracula . Filming took place in the studios of Scalera Film in Rome and on location at Castle Massimo in Arsoli ; shooting
980-409: A limited edition LP record (500 copies) by Spikerot Records on July 5, 2019. A suite from Baxter's score were first made commercially available on a 1980s Bax Records LP of his score for Black Sabbath (1963); this was later edited to form the basis of a separate soundtrack CD first released by Bay Cities in 1992, which was reissued in 1998 alongside Baxter's score for Baron Blood (1972). A CD of
1078-401: A means of preventing the film from falling into the public domain ; it features new, red-colored credit titles in place of the original credits, a newly-recorded opening narration, and cues from Baxter's score for Baron Blood that play over scenes that originally lacked music. While noting that Leone created this version in the best interests of preserving Bava's work, Lucas has lambasted it as
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#17327734014991176-453: A nearby ancient crypt and discover Asa's tomb. Observing her death mask through a glass panel, Kruvajan breaks the panel (and the cross above it) by accident while striking a bat. He removes Asa's death mask, revealing a partially preserved corpse. He cuts his hand on the broken glass, and some of his blood drips onto Asa. Returning outside, Kruvajan and Gorobec meet Katia Vajda. She tells them she lives with her father and brother Constantine in
1274-408: A nearby castle that the villagers believe is haunted. Struck by her haunting beauty and sadness, Gorobec becomes smitten with Katia. The two men leave her and drive to an inn. Meanwhile, Kruvajan's blood brings Asa back to life. She contacts Javutich telepathically. He rises from his grave and goes to Prince Vajda's castle, where Vajda holds up a crucifix to ward off the reanimated corpse. However, Vajda
1372-399: A notable structural flaw — that Asa appears to be powerful enough to destroy her tomb and return Javutich to life, yet remains confined to the tomb even after draining Kruvajan's blood — as well as scenes that exhibit Bava's frequent re-working of the material. These include Katia's irascible dismissal of Sonya's claim that Javutich might be alive, her flirtatious invitation to Andrej to stay in
1470-585: A painter". Jean-Paul Torok of Positif also praised the film; Steele was featured on the cover of the magazine's July 1961 issue. On its release in the United Kingdom, Tom Milne of the Monthly Film Bulletin declared that Black Sunday was "One of Bava's best films, with a fluid visual style and a narrative grip that only weakens towards the end. Some chilling moments of both beauty and terror, he has never surpassed." In his view,
1568-630: A piano version of the theme representing a piece played by Katia that suggests her mutual feelings for Andrej was re-scored with a dirge that more closely follows Steele's hand movements on the instrument. He also adapted "Katia's Theme" for the title song of his 1961 exotica album Jewels of the Sea . After being passed uncut by the Board of Censors, Black Sunday was theatrically released in Italy as La maschera del demonio on August 11, 1960, where it
1666-407: A rear system of radiating handlebars capable of spinning the camera on its axis. Its movement was so imperceptible that Garrani believed that the pivot was achieved through editing. Eugenio Bava developed several of the practical effects used in the film. These included an articulated wax head with a mechanized interior, used to represent Prince Vajda's head as it is being burned in a fireplace, and
1764-596: A series of bushfires in South Australia Black Sunday (1963), the deadliest lightning strike on record involving Pan Am Flight 214 , or The Clipper Tradewind, a Boeing 707-121 that crashed in Maryland on 8 December 1963. Black Sunday, the day of the deadly 1967 Iowa–Minnesota tornado outbreak Black Sunday, the evening the deadliest single tornado in to ever hit the US State of Missouri,
1862-639: A song by Black Label Society from Order of the Black "Black Sunday", a song by Coheed and Cambria from album Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures "Black Sunday", a song by Cold from Year of the Spider "Black Sunday", a song by Espen Lind from This Is Pop Music "Black Sunday", a song by Jag Panzer from album Ample Destruction "Black Sunday", a song by Jethro Tull from A Other uses [ edit ] Black Sunday (1960 film) , an Italian horror film Black Sunday (novel) ,
1960-524: Is a personal reaction, but there can be no argument on the general effectiveness of special effects and photography." A review in Time declared the film to be "a piece of fine Italian handiwork that atones for its ludicrous lapses with brilliant intuitions of the spectral." Variety proclaimed that "There is sufficient cinematography ingenuity and production flair [...] to keep an audience pleasantly unnerved." Eugene Archer of The New York Times dismissed
2058-443: Is brought towards her, Andrej falling for Katia at first sight , as well as Kruvajan being staked through the eye; it also features a circularity in its choice of first and last images, as both are of flames that are to be used to put Asa to death. Drawing on both of the films that he had co-directed with Riccardo Freda , I Vampiri (1957) and Caltiki , Bava used Black Sunday to develop his frequent use of backstories to expand
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#17327734014992156-891: Is prominently featured in both works, as is the transformation of a witch into a beautiful young woman; the bronze "Mask of Satan" hammered onto Asa and Javutich's faces is a possible reference to the Viy's iron face and eyelids. During the scripting phase, the film's title was changed from Il Viy to La maschera del demonio to capitalize on the success of two other horror films — House of Wax (1953) (released in Italy as La maschera di cera ) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) ( La maschera di Frankenstein ). The Ministerial Commission of Revision, through which all Italian film scripts were required to be submitted for review, remarked that Black Sunday ' s script "is so stuffed with witches, vampires, skeletons, ghosts, with its complement of murders and dead bodies, that [Fisher's Dracula ] looks like
2254-457: Is so terrified by the visit he becomes paralyzed with fear. Constantine sends a servant to fetch Dr. Kruvajan, but the servant is killed before he can reach the inn. Javutich brings Kruvajan to the castle under the pretext that his services are needed. Javutich leads Kruvajan to Asa's crypt. The witch hypnotizes Kruvajan and says she needs the rest of his blood. Asa then kisses him, turning him into her servant. By Asa's command, Kruvajan follows up on
2352-497: Is tied to, amplifying the violence of the scene. Bava felt that Black Sunday needed a British cast to convince the audience that they would be watching a film as strong as Dracula . Barbara Steele was cast in the dual role of Asa and Katia Vajda. She had appeared in several films for The Rank Organisation , including Bachelor of Hearts (1958), Sapphire and Upstairs and Downstairs (both 1959), before Rank sold her contract to 20th Century Fox . Steele seldom worked in
2450-629: The 2011 Joplin Tornado Warfare and terrorism [ edit ] Black Sunday, the 1918 attack of SM U-151 against U.S. ships off the coast of New Jersey Black Sunday, 1937 , an Irgun attack on November 14 in Jerusalem Black Sunday, a 1943 event where 53 USAAF aircraft and 660 aircrewmen were lost during Operation Tidal Wave Bus massacre , also known as Black Sunday, the 1975 clashes in Beirut that started
2548-658: The Denver International Airport Automated Guideway Transit System Black Sunday, the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt Black Sunday (2005) , a day when three New York City firefighters were killed in two fires Black Sunday, the 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, alongside seven other people. Music [ edit ] Black Sunday (Cypress Hill album) (1993) Black Sunday (Sutter Kain & Donnie Darko album) (2005) "Black Sunday",
2646-498: The Spaghetti Western and the giallo . The film turned Steele into a movie star in Italy, and led to her appearing in several horror film productions throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1630s Moldavia , Princess Asa Vajda, a vampiric witch, and her paramour, Javutich, are sentenced to death for sorcery by Asa's brother Griabi. Asa vows revenge and puts a curse on Griabi's descendants. Bronze masks with sharp spikes on
2744-473: The "beautifully composed chiaroscuro cinematography, expressionistic set design and art direction and the grotesquely appealing makeup lend the film a distinct atmosphere; this is cinema at its most grandiose and rich, brimful of high-flown imagery." The film continues to have a popular fan base among horror fans and filmmakers, and placed in a 1996 poll of the Top 25 Favourite Horror Films of All Time conducted by
2842-438: The 1835 collection Mirgorod . The story concerns a group of students' encounter with an old witch capable of transforming into a beautiful woman, whose death summons the Viy, a gnome chieftain with a face made of iron and eyes that are capable of penetrating spiritual barriers, which are covered by heavy eyelids that droop to the ground. Bava frequently read this story to his children before their bedtime. His first outline of
2940-459: The Body ; they rejected the offer. When asked about this in 2002, Steele said the invite never reached her, but she would have been very happy to accept it. Steele would appear in more comedies and European art films , such as Federico Fellini 's 8½ (1963), later reflecting that, "It was very difficult for me, doing all those horror films at that particular period of my life. The difficult thing
3038-600: The British comedy Carry On Nurse (1959) or Roger Corman 's The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). Black Sunday grossed $ 14,750 in its first week at the Allen Theatre, which topped AIP's previous record holders by 35%. The film also performed well in San Francisco and Salt Lake City, making it AIP's highest-grossing film in its five-year history, and generated domestic rentals of $ 706,000. Black Sunday
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3136-468: The British fan magazine Shivers . It appeared in a reader's choice poll conducted by Fangoria of the ten greatest horror films made before 1970, where it tied for number seven with Fisher's Dracula . In the 2010s, Time Out polled authors, directors, actors and critics who had worked in the horror genre to vote for their top horror films; Black Sunday was listed at number 84 on their top 100. Bava's son Lamberto recalls that after Black Sunday
3234-494: The English Language Dubbers Association (ELDA). A scene present in early Italian-language prints was deleted from this version of the film. Depicting a conversation between Katia and Prince Vajda, during which her father notices her melancholy behavior and suggests that the family leave the castle, it was originally intended to take place following her first encounter with Andrej and Kruvajan but
3332-597: The English version of the film was "devastated" by the dubbing, and felt the sound belonged, "not just to a different film, but to a different world from the near-hysterical images on screen". In the United States reviews reflected on the plot, as well as the film's cinematography. Dorothy Masters of the New York Daily News found the film gruesome, but proclaimed that "whether this is reprehensible
3430-474: The Italian version of the film, an interpreter and Lucisano helped to guide them through the plot. Arkoff found the film to be a "picture of a first class horror and suspense director", and was introduced to Bava after the screening, congratulating him. AIP acquired the film for approximately $ 100,000, recovering its production budget. For the film's release in the United States, AIP re-edited scenes, re-dubbed
3528-852: The Lebanese Civil War Black Sunday, the first day of the Siege of Sadr City (2004–2007) during the Iraq War Other events [ edit ] Black Sunday, the 1955 opening day of Disneyland Park Black Sunday, the 1982 cancellation of the Colony Shale Oil Project Black Sunday, the 1984 victory by the Los Angeles Raiders in Super Bowl XVIII Black Sunday, the 1998 failure of
3626-418: The United Kingdom, Arrow Video released both cuts alongside the Italian version of I Vampiri on a single Blu-ray in 2013. Under license from music publisher Creazioni Artistiche Musicali, Nicolosi's score was released, alongside his music for The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), on CD in the first volume of Digitmovies' Mario Bava Original Soundtracks Anthology in 2005. The score was later released as
3724-684: The United States: she was cast opposite Elvis Presley in the Western Flaming Star , but a falling-out with director Don Siegel led to her being replaced during the first week of shooting by Barbara Eden . After a Screen Actors Guild strike in March 1960 left her free to pursue her own interests, she traveled to Italy, leading to her casting in Black Sunday . There are two accounts describing how Steele came to be cast in
3822-469: The Viy to scare the philosopher's soul from his body. Upon the story's end, it is revealed that the couple are reincarnations of the philosopher and the witch, who declares that she will haunt him forever. Santi deemed Bava's treatment unsatisfactory and hired Galatea's top screenwriter Ennio de Concini , who had co-written both of the Hercules films and The Giant of Marathon , to help the director turn
3920-687: The actual scripting, which Lucas attributes to Marcello Coscia, who co-wrote Bava's early science fiction film The Day the Sky Exploded (1958). The film's credits list only de Concini and the film's editor, Mario Serandrei , as the screenwriters; official papers archived at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (CSC) library in Rome credit Bava, Serandrei, de Concini and Coscia, as well as Dino De Palma. Other papers also credit Fede Arnaud, Domenico Bernabei, Walter Bedogni, Lucia Torelli and Maria Nota. Bava later noted that, "Such
4018-408: The best horror films, while critic James Marriott praised the film as the "crowning achievement of Italian gothic horror". The film is now considered to be a pioneering work that set the standards for Italian horror films due to its juxtaposition of beautiful and horrific elements, with strong depictions of eroticism and graphic violence. These elements would be found in later Italian genres, such as
Black Sunday - Misplaced Pages Continue
4116-519: The cast was given to work with was crude, they mostly stuck to it. Throughout the shoot, Steele proved to be difficult to work with; Govoni later described her as a "strange, neurotic person" and Bava proclaimed that "Steele was half-crazy, afraid of Italians." The actress frequently missed her call times or refused to arrive on-set due to misunderstandings: one instance of the former resulted in Arturo Dominici fainting under his costume while
4214-514: The castle, and her seeing Javutich's reflection while undressing. Lucas believes that these scenes suggest that Javutich was originally intended to kidnap Katia soon after his resurrection, leaving Asa to impersonate her descendant. An English-dubbed version of the film created for international export, titled The Mask of Satan , was translated from the Italian-language script, directed by George Higgins III and recorded in Rome with
4312-451: The castle. She identifies Kruvajan's escort with a painting of Javutich. A priest and Gorobec go to Javutich's grave and find Kruvajan's body inside the coffin. Realizing he is now one of the undead, they kill him by driving a nail through his eye. Javutich throws Constantine into a death pit and takes Katia to Asa. Asa drains Katia of her youth. When the witch goes to take her blood, the crucifix around Katia's neck thwarts her. Gorobec enters
4410-724: The concept into a workable screenplay. Many of the film's themes bear similarity to de Concini's sword-and-sandal films, including the tarnishing of holy places, the collapse of a decadent sovereign entity, and the casting of one actress in dual roles symbolizing good and evil , as was the case for Silvana Mangano in Ulysses (1954). According to Sergio Leone , de Concini "was far better at improvising stories, live, in front of producers, then writing them down"; this, coupled with his highly prolific resume, has led Bava biographer Tim Lucas to believe that while de Concini contributed many ideas to what would become Black Sunday , he did little of
4508-411: The crew waited for her arrival, prompting the actor to angrily tell Bava, "Who does she think she is? Marilyn Monroe ?". An example of the latter was due to her belief in a rumor that Bava had invented a special film stock that made its subjects appear nude. Critic and editor Martyn Conterio considers many of Steele's recollections of the film's production to be unreliable. This includes her claim that
4606-434: The crypt to save Katia, but Javutich attacks him and pushes him to the edge of the death pit. Constantine uses the last of his strength to pull Javutich into the pit and push Gorobec to safety. Gorobec finds Asa and Katia. Asa pretends to be Katia and tells Gorobec that Katia is the witch. Accordingly, he goes to kill Katia but notices the crucifix she is wearing has no effect on her. He turns to Asa and opens her robe, revealing
4704-619: The demon') is a 1960 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava in his official directorial debut , and starring Barbara Steele , John Richardson , Andrea Checchi , Ivo Garrani , Arturo Dominici and Enrico Oliveri. Loosely based on Nikolai Gogol 's short story " Viy ", the film takes place in Moldavia and tells the story of a witch who is put to death by her brother, only to return two centuries later to seek revenge upon his descendants. Having provided cinematography on Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1959) for
4802-586: The eyes. Eugenio also designed the "Mask of Satan" used in the film. Two versions of each mask were made — one cast in bronze and another being a rubber substitute to be used when worn by the actors. Mario Bava recalled that after the film's release he had received several offers for the mask. Most of the scenes depicting horse carriage rides were shot at Scalera. Due to the small size of the sound stage being used, forests were suggested by filming with glass matte paintings painted with black streaks and augmented with pieces of dead wood and foregrounded bracken. Smoke
4900-522: The film a four and a half star rating out of five, opining that with it, Bava created "a visual feast of the strange and forbidden that unleashes an adolescent-like interest in the unreal world" that was "easily among the most influential films of the Italian Gothic horror era". James Marriott praised the film as the "crowning achievement of Italian gothic horror" where "narrative and characterization (perfunctory at best here) take second place to
4998-399: The film being shot in black and white, Bava permitted numerous production and publicity stills to be photographed in color; these stills are representative of the lighting choices Bava and his crew made for the film, and were not arranged to accommodate the still photographer. Govoni recalled the shoot to be a "very tiring" experience characterized by long work hours. Lucas believes that this
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#17327734014995096-575: The film was released that same year as Les masque du démon by Comptoir Français du Film. Before its release in the United States, AIP considered renaming the film Witchcraft , The Curse or Vengeance , before settling on Black Sunday . AIP premiered the film at the Allen Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, on February 3, 1961. In its initial release, Black Sunday was a double feature with films from smaller independent companies, such as
5194-470: The film was shot in winter, and that everyone on set had worn black and white costumes, neither of which are true. Steele admitted to her misbehavior during the film's shoot later in life and noted that towards the end of the shoot, she and Richardson were prone to nervous fits of laughter due to the stress they had accumulated over the course of filming. Although Bava is credited as the film's cinematographer, Govoni stated that camera operator Ubaldo Terzano
5292-471: The film's budget compared to what he felt would allow the film to turn a profit. Due to the recent success of Terence Fisher 's version of Dracula for Hammer Film Productions , Bava decided to make a horror film. To compete with Dracula , Santi wanted the film to be shot in Technicolor , but Bava insisted on shooting in black and white; he justified this as both a stylistic and practical choice, as
5390-459: The film, a four-page treatment titled Il Vij , is dated September 1, 1959 and closely follows Gogol's original story. Transposing the story to the present day, it tells the story of a young, married couple who come across a derelict church and encounter an old man who tells them the story of a centurion 's daughter who would take the form of a witch by night to harass a philosopher, who eventually beat her to death. The undead witch then called upon
5488-446: The film, declaring it "nonsense" and suggesting that was filmed with "no restraint". In his 1967 book The Illustrated History of Horror and Science-Fiction Films , Carlos Clarens declared Black Sunday was the "best of [Mario Bava's] work" while his later work "rejected chiaroscuro in favor of lush Technicolor and developed the directorial of Black Sunday into mannered tricks such as gratuitous abrupt cuts and an unrestrained use of
5586-569: The film: one suggests that Bava, while perusing through head shots of British actors under contract at Fox, selected Steele from these photos. Steele, however, recalled that Bava tracked her down after being captivated by photos of her in a Life magazine photoshoot. Bava later commented that Steele "had the perfect face for my films". John Richardson was cast as Katia's love interest Andrej. A colleague of Steele who had appeared in Sapphire and Bachelor of Hearts , Richardson's Rank contract
5684-459: The final film: Bava recalled that he eventually asked the actors to discard them due to their clichéd appearance, while Govoni stated that the fangs were kept during the shoot, but "Serandrei cut around them" during editing. Most of the cast delivered their dialogue in English, with the exception of Checchi and the Dominicis; Govoni recalled that while the translation of the original Italian text
5782-568: The full score, remastered from the original two-track session tapes sourced from MGM 's archives, was released in May 2011 by Kritzerland in a limited edition run of 1000 copies. A unique variant of the ELDA cut of the film was aired as part of a Bava retrospective on TCM in October 2002. This version, copyrighted in 2000, was supervised by Bava associate Alfredo Leone of International Media Films as
5880-406: The inside are placed over Asa and Javutich's faces and hammered into their flesh, but a sudden storm prevents the villagers from burning them at the stake. Two centuries later, Dr. Choma Kruvajan and his assistant, Dr. Andrej Gorobec, are traveling through Moldavia en route to a medical conference when one wheel on their carriage breaks. While waiting for their coachman to fix it, the two wander into
5978-616: The jagged edge of Asa's tomb. Other examples of Bava's matte work in the film include an exterior shot of Castle Vajda as a window is illuminated by the moon, and a subjective shot of the pit of spikes over which Andrej and Javutich fight. When Javutich appears to materialize in front of Constantine, Dominici stood off-camera, and his reflection was bounced off a mirror onto a black section of Asa's painting. The scene in which Asa touches Katia and drains her youth reprised an effect Bava had previously employed on I Vampiri . Wrinkles were drawn on Steele's face with red grease pencil , while rouge
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#17327734014996076-585: The joining of the fire fronts on 14 February. In the Warburton area, 31 deaths were recorded including 14 at Wooley's Mill in Gilderoy , 6 at Big Pats Creek and 2 at Powelltown . Other affected settlements included Noojee , Erica and Kinglake , where St Mary's Church and Thompson's Hotel were amongst the buildings destroyed. Black Sunday (1960 film) Black Sunday ( Italian : La maschera del demonio , lit. 'The mask of
6174-470: The joy and happiness in Hades!" which became "You too can find the joy and happiness in hating !". AIP removed or shortened the more violent and sexual scenes in the film, including the hammering of the "Mask of Satan" onto Asa's face, the scene in which she kisses Kruvajan to drain his blood, and the priest's staking of Kruvajan's eye. Arkoff reasoned that, "All of AIP's films were very clean, so anything that
6272-496: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_Sunday&oldid=1167820180 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Black days Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages 1925%E2%80%9326 Victorian bushfire season A series of major bushfires occurred between 26 January and 10 March 1926 in
6370-427: The magnificent atmospheric visuals", noting that "unlike many of the Italian gothic chillers that followed, some sequences here [...] are genuinely creepy". James Blackford of Sight & Sound reviewed the film in 2013, concluding that, "Italian horror cinema is known for its intense atmosphere, extravagant visual style and gory scenes, and Black Sunday is the film that first pioneered this approach." He also noted
6468-407: The makeup transformation sequences required special red and green lights that would have made them impossible to film with color. The shooting budget of Black Sunday is unknown. De Rita remembers it being between $ 50,000 and $ 60,000, while production manager Armando Govoni recalled the final budget was around $ 100,000. Bava chose to base his project on Nikolai Gogol 's " Viy ", first published in
6566-511: The new soundtrack for the film at Titra. Lucas considers the re-score to be a major factor in the success of the American version, noting, "Baxter's score is everything Nicolosi's score is not: boisterous, unsubtle, boldly orchestrated, incessantly busy — musically underlining every footfall, every droplet of dripping blood [...] every smoking undulation of dry ice". Baxter's score incorporates Nicolosi's "Katia's Theme" at several points, although
6664-427: The opportunity to make a film for foreign markets. According to producer Massimo De Rita, an oft-repeated story suggesting that Santi approached Bava to make a film based on a story of his own choosing after being impressed with his work on The Giant of Marathon is apocryphal ; De Rita claims that he was responsible for persuading Santi to allow Bava to make a film of his own and that he also begged Santi to increase
6762-425: The production company Galatea and helping finish two of their other films, Caltiki – The Immortal Monster (1959) and The Giant of Marathon (1959), Bava was permitted by the company's president, Lionello Santi, to make a film for foreign markets; he chose to make a horror film to capitalize on the recent success of Terence Fisher 's version of Dracula (1958) for Hammer Film Productions . After he developed
6860-444: The removal of some scenes of violence and sexuality, redubbing the dialogue, and replacing Roberto Nicolosi 's musical score with one by Les Baxter . The film found greater success upon its American release in 1961 when it became the highest-grossing film to be released by AIP in its first five years of existence. The film was banned for several years in the United Kingdom and did not receive a wide release there until July 1968, when it
6958-423: The request to tend to Vajda. He orders the crucifix removed from the room, ostensibly so it will not upset Vajda; this allows Javutich to return later and murder him. Asa's plan is to revive herself by draining Katia of her life since Katia is physically Asa reincarnated. Puzzled to hear that Kruvajan abandoned his patient shortly before he died, Gorobec questions Sonya, a young girl who saw Javutich take Kruvajan to
7056-482: The role of Javutich; his daughter Germana also portrayed Sonya, the innkeeper's daughter. Ivo Garrani , who portrayed Prince Vajda, was a veteran of earlier films photographed by Bava; the actor reflected that his friend's on-set behavior changed little in his transition to directing full-time "because Mario was already a director. He had proven this in the movies we had made together before, since he always found himself directing and saving other people's movies. So it
7154-410: The romantic "Katia's Theme" motif for praise. Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson of American International Pictures (AIP) had been buying the American distribution rights to Italian films since 1959. In 1960, the two were invited to Rome by their Italian talent agent, Fulvio Lucisano , to view Black Sunday . Arkoff spoke about this screening in 1997, saying that because they were viewing
7252-412: The scope of his films beyond their narrative and budgetary constraints; in this case, the death of another of Asa's lookalike descendants, Masha, is used to highlight the power Asa continues to hold over the family even prior to her resurrection. As storyboarded, the hammering of the "Mask of Satan" was originally supposed to include a shot of the nails of the mask piercing through the wood of the stake Asa
7350-404: The score sparingly, leaving the creation of much of the soundscape to the sound editor, although key dramatic scenes, such as the climactic fight between Andrej and Javutich, play with no music at all, suggesting the difficulties of creating music for a film in a genre that was in its infancy in Italy. He deems much of the score to be derivative of James Bernard 's work on Dracula , but singles out
7448-558: The soundtrack, and changed several of the characters' names. Arkoff deemed the ELDA version of the film to be "technically unacceptable", and had Lou Rusoff produce a new English version at Titra Studios in New York City, which was directed by Lee Kresel and edited by Salvatore Billitteri. In contrast to the embellishments of the ELDA version, Titra's dubbing was largely faithful to the cast's spoken dialogue, although some phrases were softened, such as Asa's line "You too can find
7546-682: The state of Victoria in Australia . A total of 60 people were killed with 700 injured, and 1000 buildings and 390,000 ha were destroyed across the south-east of the state. On 14 February, later referred to as Black Sunday , bushfires swept across Gippsland , the Yarra Valley , the Dandenong Ranges and the Kinglake area. The fires had originated in forest areas on 26 January, but wind gusts of up to 97 km per hour led to
7644-435: The success of the two Hercules films, American distributors were willing to pay in advance for genre films from Italy, even if they were not popular there. Aside from working on both of the Hercules films, cinematographer Mario Bava had partially directed other films without credit, including Caltiki – The Immortal Monster and The Giant of Marathon (1959). This led to Galatea's president, Lionello Santi, offering him
7742-588: The zoom lens". In a retrospective review, Timothy Sullivan wrote in The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural (1986) that the film was, "A supremely atmospheric horror film" and was Bava's "first and best directorial job, and the first of the 1960s cycle of Italian Gothic cinema [...] [The film] remains [Bava's] greatest achievement, without a doubt one of the best horror films ever made." Richard Gilliam of AllMovie gave
7840-455: Was able to use a dolly in one of the few occasions of his directorial career. In a scene in which Javutich appears to float towards Prince Vajda, Dominici was shot in close-up as he was pulled along by another, makeshift dolly. A later scene where Katia and Constantine look over their dead father's face employs a 180° pivot which was accomplished using a specially-customized camera with modifications by Bava's father, Eugenio , which included
7938-419: Was among the most active producers of genre films . They had initiated the sword-and-sandal phenomenon of the time with their productions Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1959), which were both successful at the American box office. The company made films in other genres, such as the science fiction film Caltiki – The Immortal Monster (1959), which enjoyed less financial success. Following
8036-646: Was applied around her eyes and on her cheeks to make them appear sullen. These were made to initially appear invisible under red lighting, but became more prominent as green lights were gradually raised in their place. The explosion of Asa's tomb was a miniature effect ; pieces of the lid were pulled away by fine wires to reveal a doll of Asa inside. Because Serandrei rarely worked as a writer, Lucas has suggested that his screenplay credit for Black Sunday indicates that his responsibilities went beyond cutting scenes together and that he helped Bava correct narrative flaws in post-production. Serandrei's assembly still contains
8134-408: Was complicated by Bava's frequent reworking of the script and Steele's conflicts with the crew. Black Sunday had limited financial success upon its initial Italian release. It was acquired for distribution in the United States by Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson of American International Pictures (AIP), who oversaw numerous alterations to the film prior to its American release, including
8232-425: Was distributed by Unidis. The film grossed 139 million Italian lira from its domestic release. While Curti has described this financial performance as "rather limited", the film quickly turned Steele into a movie star within Italy. Its popularity influenced other Italian films, such as I motorizzati (1962), where Ugo Tognazzi plays an impressionable horror fan who is terrified of Black Sunday . In France,
8330-471: Was dropped due to the power of the Prince's terrified introduction in a later scene in which Katia plays a piano. The sequence was crudely inserted between Sonya's milking of a cow and Javutich's resurrection without Bava or Serandrei's approval. The music for the Italian and ELDA versions of Black Sunday was composed by Roberto Nicolosi and conduced by Pier Luigi Urbini. Lucas notes that both versions used
8428-400: Was filtered through the studio to disguise a cyclorama . These were edited with actual exteriors shot near Castle Massimo to lend credibility to them; because the exteriors were shot day for night , Bava camouflaged the sunlight through dead trees placed in the foreground. When Steele was required to play both Asa and Katia within the same frame, the footage was double-exposed and matted over
8526-585: Was initially banned in the United Kingdom, receiving a single screening at the National Film Theatre in 1961. It did not receive a wide release until June 1968 as Revenge of the Vampire , a censored version of the ELDA dub, which was released by Border Films. The film was not released uncut in the United Kingdom until 1992. The first official home video release of the AIP version of Black Sunday
8624-490: Was just a natural thing to see him in the director's chair at last. But Mario was also very shy; he always tended to undervalue himself. You could never pay him a compliment. He would always say, 'C'mon Ivo, what the hell are you saying? Be serious. But he was unique, and we all knew it". Lord alone knows I was difficult enough. I didn't like my fangs — I had them changed three times. I loathed my wig — I changed that four times. I couldn't understand Italian. I didn't want to play
8722-521: Was not a remake of Black Sunday , but an adaptation of Gogol's story in a contemporary setting. Following the release of Black Sunday , Steele would become what Kim Newman described as an "Italian horror icon", appearing in several horror films, such as Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Freda's The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962) and The Ghost (1963). Bava asked Steele, through her agents, to portray Nevenka in his film The Whip and
8820-515: Was on LaserDisc in 1991. The Italian owners of the film released it in Japan through Toshiba Video and in the United Kingdom through Redemption Video on VHS. Image Entertainment released it on VHS and DVD for the first time in the United States in 1999. Both the Italian/ELDA and AIP versions were released on Blu-ray in the United States by Kino Lorber in 2012 and 2015, respectively. In
8918-486: Was partially the result of the film entering production prematurely, without a thorough revision of the script or consideration for certain filming logistics, prompting Bava to rely on his instincts and improvise; this is evident in Asa and Javutich being variously described or portrayed throughout the film as witches, Satanists and/or vampires. Steele and Dominici were initially outfitted with prop fangs which do not appear in
9016-516: Was released by Border Films as Revenge of the Vampire . The film received generally negative reviews in Italy and garnered positive reviews abroad in France and the United States, where it received favorable notices in Cahiers du Cinéma , New York Daily News , Time , and Variety . Retrospective reception of Black Sunday remains positive: it was placed at number 84 on a Time Out poll of
9114-524: Was released, producers began asking his father for more genre films. In the late 1960s, producer Lawrence Woolner approached Bava to remake Black Sunday in color; the project never materialized. "Viy" would be adapted for screen again in 1967 with Konstantin Yershow and Georgi Kropachoyov's Viy and later in 1990 as Sveto mesto by Djordje Kadijevic. In 1989, Lamberto Bava directed a made-for-television film also titled La maschera del demonio ; this
9212-664: Was similarly sold to Fox and he had come to Italy searching for film work; by this time, both he and Steele were represented by the same agent from William Morris Endeavor . Among the Italian cast members was Andrea Checchi , who had previously worked in various Italian productions including Michelangelo Antonioni 's The Lady Without Camelias (1953). Checci later appeared in two other films in 1960: Vittorio De Sica 's Two Women and Fritz Lang 's The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse . Arturo Dominici , who previously appeared as Eurysteus in Hercules and as Nieto in Caltiki , played
9310-404: Was suggestive of playing around - fornicating a corpse, you know what I'm saying? - we wouldn't stand for it." A dialogue exchange between Katia and Andrej that serves to develop their romantic relationship, as well as a climactic exchange between Andrej and the priest in which the former melodramatically laments Katia's apparent death, were also cut, as AIP believed that the juvenile audiences it
9408-405: Was targeting would react negatively to these scenes. AIP's editing reduced the film's runtime to 83 minutes, compared to the 87 minute runtime of most Italian prints. Nicolosi's score was replaced with a new one by Les Baxter . Arkoff and Nicholas felt Nicolosi's score was "too Italian" and that American audiences would not like it. Baxter flew to New York City on January 9, 1961, to record
9506-429: Was the actual director of photography, and insisted he had lit the sets "so perfectly that Bava seldom had to correct him". Lucas concurs on this point, noting that while Bava would provide storyboards and occasionally adjust lights and lenses, Terzano was largely in control of which takes would be printed. The final week of the shooting schedule was reserved for special effects work and tracking shots , for which Bava
9604-424: Was the genius of the screenwriters, myself included, that absolutely nothing remained of Gogol's tale." The references to "Viy" in the resulting film are mostly superficial: the film's characters Andrej Gorobec, Choma Kruvajan, and Javutich are named after the story's characters Gorobets, Khoma Brut, and Yavtukh, while the village of Mirgorod shares its name with the collection Gogol's tale appeared in. A ruined chapel
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