Second Viewing: Black Sunday (1960)

Black Sunday is truly a movie that succeeds on atmosphere and direction. It’s arguably Mario Bava’s best film (I’d certainly put it in his top five), but it doesn’t necessarily have the most compelling story. It has a fantastic opening scene, and then after that moves quite slowly, but with purpose.

Bava’s wonderful eye for cinematography is on full display throughout the film. I think this may be the only black and white film I’ve seen him do, but he’s really great at it. As much as I love how he uses colour in something like Blood and Black Lace, I think this may be his best looking movie.

I think the male characters could stand to be a lot more interesting in this movie, but at least we have Barbara Steele, who excels both at playing a young innocent woman and her creepy witch ancestor.

The makeup is incredibly gruesome for the time, and Steele’s performance makes this character so much more demented. It’s some great stuff.

Rating: 8/10