Black Sunday

A great film that delightfully scared a young teen. Amazingly, I first saw this movie on television when I was growing up. A Buffalo station, WKBW, ran a Friday night double feature of horror movies and creature features. Black Sunday would have been only a decade old when I first saw it, and it would be almost 40 more years before I saw it again on DVD. Great black and white cinematography, and the memorable Barbara Steele. The first 15 minutes of the movie is so dramatic, the rest of the movie is almost a letdown.

B A V A ! ! ! It's a bit ironic that this master of vivid color cinematography launched his directorial career with a black and white movie, and yet the color seems abundant in this gothic-goes-to-the-Drive-In opus. Bava creates a tapestry of shadows, layer after layer of dark images from a palette that ranges from thick walls black to opaque shades of pale grey. This creates a weird pseudo-3D effect that makes the backgrounds seem to reach out beyond the screen. Add the haunting beauty of a 23 year-old actress named Barbara Steele and you have one of the true classics among horror films.

I am not a fan of horror films. I find corpses rising from their coffins and flesh-eating zombies to be as juvenile as the most insipid Disney products. Truly horrifying, to me, is Ingmar Bergman's THE SERPENT'S EGG; the real evil that men do is truly horrifying. That said, BLACK SUNDAY has beautiful cinematography,mood and atmosphere, and Barbara Steele is enchanting and versatile. 3.8 stars.

Evil should be a little cooler...

If you are in the mood for a period horror film this is fun. The cinematography is very fine.