Movie Review - "Black Sunday"

"Black Sunday" is almost universally hailed as one of the greatest Gothic genre movies of all time, and not without very good reason. The film was directed by Italian horror maestro Mario Bava, and starred legendary horror actress, Barbara Steele.

This movie just oozes Gothic atmosphere out of every pore; ruined Gothic crypts, moonlight pouring through wispy clouds, fog shrouded cemetaries and forests, slow-motion scenes of black horse-drawn carriages emerging through the mist, the Inquisition burning witches, and said witches returning from the grave as vampires to exact their vengeance.

The plot is loosely based upon a short story by Gogol called "The Vij". In 17th century Moldavia, Princess Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) is denounced as a witch by her brother, the Grand Inquisitor of the region, and sentenced to be burnt at the stake together with her lover, Prince Javutic. In a surprisingly gory scene for its era (1960) we see the black hooded executioner hammer a nailed demonic-visaged mask to Asa Vajda's face.

Just prior to this she issues her curse against her brother that she will return from the grave to bring bloody vengeance against the family and its descendants. As the inquisitors then set their flaming brands to the kindling set about Asa's feet, ready to burn her corpse at the stake, a flash rain storm appears from nowhere sending the inquisitors, and the rampant peasant mob attending the execution, scattering in all directions. The flames are extinguished.

Cut to the 19th century and two Doctors are travelling through the region. They are warned by local rustic types not to travel through the forest as there is an evil lurking there. Of course, they dismiss this as superstitious nonsense and proceed regardless. They have to stop due to damage to a wheel on their coach. On so doing, the Doctors see a ruined chapel/crypt, all moody moonlight-soaked Gothic arches, and approach to investigate. Inside they find a tomb, in which is the corpse of a woman wearing a demonic mask, a glass panel over the face allowing the shadow of a crucifix to be positioned over the corpse constantly.  The elder of the two doctors, Kruvajan, is attacked by a large bat and in defending himself from it manges to smash the crucifix and the glass. In breaking the glass, he cuts his hand.....blood drips from the wound onto the face beneath.....and thus it begins....

The doctors are then introduced to the current members of the Vajda line....the first of whom they meet at the cript, Princess Katja Vajda - the very likeness of her ancestor's image....and soon to be the object of her ancestor's quest for revenge

....as the undead Vajda says to her latter day doppelganger "You didn't know your body had been consecrated to belong to Satan, but you sensed it, didn't you?".

The rest of the movie concerns the battle between the rejuvenated vampiric Asa Vajda and her lover Javutic on the one hand, and the Vajda descendants on the other, the prize being the very body and soul of young Katja.

The film was very shocking for its time and was initially banned in some countries. It strangely manages to be a product both of the past and the future. It's imagery is very much a throwback to the old 1930's Universal horror movies of James Whale and Tod Browning, yet it's storyline and the fact that the antagonist was a strong and powerful female nodded towards the future.

It was the first major role for Barbara Steele, who went on to star in many European genre movies during the 1960s. It was her offbeat and disturbing face that appealed to the horror directors of the time - her ability to change from looking innocent and angelic one moment to downright diabollic and deranged the next. As she herself put it, she always got to play "predatory bitch goddesses" - though she often played dual roles one sweet and innocent such as Katja in this movie, and the other dark and fiendish such as Asa. Very few actors or actresses have ever been able to portray such duality so effectively, representing both light and dark so easily within the same movie.

So, in a way this film opened the door for women to finally be able to take the lead in Horror stories as well as the men, and for that we must thank Mario Bava and Barbara Steele, both of whom went on to achieve legendary cult status.

There are two versions of the movie available on DVD:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0006UG69S/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thegotharstom-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B0006UG69S

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000UVV238/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thegotharstom-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B000UVV238