Black Sunday
The official debut feature of revered cult director Mario Bava is a landmark work of Italian genre cinema. English-born scream queen Barbara Steele plays dual roles, as Asa Vajda, a decadent 17th-century satanic-leaning princess condemned to a gruesomely sadistic death, and Katia Vajda, the distant ancestor whom Asa returns to torment centuries later. Former cinematographer Bava’s dynamic camerawork and striking monochrome visuals elevate this gothic shocker to high art, laying the foundations for the luridly eroticized Euro-horror giallo genre.
Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi
- Notes From Duke JohnsonEssential viewing for anyone inspired by the practical illusions of handcrafted filmmaking. Bava was a cinematographer before he became a director. He approaches directing from a heavy craft perspective. Personally, I like to see the fingerprints in the clay, so to speak. Much like a painting attempts to capture the essence of its subject, the objective being to get to the truth of a thing, sometimes an emotional expression (rather than a literal one) can yield more. Anyway, I dig that stuff and so did Bava. He used a lot of practical FX and sets and forced perspective and mattes and miniatures and things like that. This was also Bava’s first credited feature as a director, another theme running through this list. It’s also essential spooky Halloween viewing, another checked box.