Mario Bava made his officially credited directorial debut with La maschera del demonio (The Demon’s Mask). The film took inspiration from a 19th century short story, Viy, written by Ukrainian author Nikolai Gogol. In the United States, American International Pictures released the picture as Black Sunday. The film starred Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Arturo Dominici, Andrea Checchi and Ivo Garrani.
A WORD ON THE FILM’S TITLE
The Italian-language title, La maschera del demonio, can be read as a pun, a homage to, or rip-off of Hammer’s 1957 production The Curse of Frankenstein, exhibited in Italy as La maschera di Frankenstein. The Warner Bros. 3D horror marvel, The House of Wax (1953), also bore ‘La maschera’ in the title when released as La maschera di cera (The Wax Mask).
American International Pictures (AIP) purchased North American distribution rights and re-edited scenes, redubbed the soundtrack and dialogue, changed character names and gave it an entirely new identity: Black Sunday. In England, during 1968, it received a theatrical run as Revenge of the Vampire. (There are other alternative titles floating around including House of Fright.)
Whatever one’s overall judgement of the AIP cut, Black Sunday, as a title, fits the Gothic and plangent mood much better than The Mask of Satan or the utterly naff Revenge of the Vampire. I would even argue it is better than La maschera del demonio. ‘Black’, in this context, too, resonated with the saturnine but elegant countenance of Barbara Steele’s role as Katia, as well as a suitably apt description of evil – and dead sexy – ancestor Asa (also played by Steele). AIP’s alteration also aligned the film closer to Gogol’s tale, by virtue of the creation of a faux folkloric tradition that gave context to the overall plot action. Fixing narrative events around a historical date bestowed upon the movie a wonderful portent of doom: ‘One day in each century, it is said that Satan walks the earth. To the God-fearing, this day is known as Black Sunday.’ The clever alteration to The Mask of Satan’s soundtrack (Tim Lucas suggests either dubbing producer Lou Rousoff or director Lee Kresel made the change) produced a satanic frisson: a reversal of Christ’s resurrection from beyond the grave on Easter Sunday. We witness the Passion of Asa and her return two hundreds year later on … Black Sunday.
If the Italian-language title attached itself to André de Toth’s House of Wax or Hammer’s Frankenstein picture then it has been suggested AIP were reminded of Black Friday (1940), a B-picture starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and co-written by Curt Siodmak. AIP also considered other titles, such as Witchcraft, The Curse and Vengeance.
But, let’s face it, putting the word ‘black’ into any horror film title just sounds damn cool and invokes the appropriate – and required – amounts of audience expectation, fear and menace. Bob Clark flipped White Christmas (1954) into Black Christmas (1974). Unless you’re a complete bloody sadist and/or rank sentimentalist, you’d watch Clark’s proto slasher every time.
In 1992, just over thirty years on from the release of Black Sunday, the film’s rights reverted back to Italian producers and an English dubbed version (initially prepared for AIP) was licensed to Redemption Video. This version was passed by the BBFC on 10th November 1992 and awarded the ‘15’ certificate. The Mask of Satan was released on VHS and has threatened, with its explicit violence and other uncensored moments, to overshadow the AIP version ever since. So much so that the English-language ‘Director’s Cut’ could not be ignored in the writing of this monograph. But wait there a minute!
Why the preference for Black Sunday over this alternative English-language version that is now widely seen thanks to VHS, DVD and Blu-ray and which is essentially Bava’s cut replaced with an English dubbed soundtrack and dialogue? Simply because the AIP version was – like a lot of folk – how I first became introduced to the film and the world of Mario Bava. The AIP cut might stick one in the eye to auteur theory, but it is the version which spread his name and reputation abroad. So yes, AIP might have changed more than a few things (with mixed results – see chapter 3), but its cinematic power and the imagination and genius of Bava is undiminished.
The monograph shall refer to the film throughout as Black Sunday with reference, where applicable, to La maschera del demonio and The Mask of Satan.
SYNOPSIS
The year is 1630. In the principality of Moldavia, Princess Asa of the House of Vajda, and her accomplice Javuto, have each been condemned to die as vampires and for consorting with Satan.
Asa, in her very last moments, curses the bloodline of the Grand Inquisitor (and her older brother) Griabe, warning that one day she will return from beyond the grave to exact revenge. Griabe commands the executioner to hammer the Mask of Satan on to Asa’s face. He then gives the go-ahead for the stake to be lit. A thunderstorm suddenly rages and Asa’s body is unable to be burned. The crowd scatters.
Two hundred years later, Dr. Thomas Kruvajan and his colleague Dr. Andreas Gorobec are passing through Moldavia on their way to a medical conference. Kruvajan orders the driver to take a short cut through the forest road and to stop for the night at the village of Mirgorod. A wheel of the carriage comes off on the old and unpaved lane. Waiting for their superstitious driver to fix it, they wander to a nearby set of chapel ruins – attracted by a whistling noise – and inspect the crypt, where Kruvajan relates the story of the cursed Vajdas. They discover the well-preserved corpse of Asa lying in her tomb. Kruvajan unwisely removes the Mask of Satan. A giant bat attacks the older man, which he shoots with a revolver and beats with his cane. Gorobec notices the older doctor has cut his hand. Droplets of blood drip onto the waxen skin and into the eye sockets of Asa.
Walking back through the ruins, the carriage now fixed and waiting, Kruvajan and Gorobec meet Princess Katia and her two large hounds. She is the exact image of her wicked ancestor killed two centuries ago. Gorobec appears instantly smitten with the princess.
Meanwhile, Kruvajan’s blood has acted as a reviving agent to Asa’s corpse and she calls out to Javuto, who stirs from his slumber in a nearby graveyard to set about their diabolical plan/promise made two hundred years ago. Javuto goes to the castle and terrifies Prince Vajda. The troubled prince attempts to ward the vampire off with a crucifix before succumbing to a state of catatonia.
Kruvajan, resting in Mirgorod village inn, is called to the castle by Katia and her brother Constantin, but the messenger, Boris, is intercepted and murdered by Javuto. Kruvajan is taken to see Asa instead, who has not yet been restored to full power. She turns the poor doctor into a vampire’s consort. Asa’s plot is to drain the lifeforce of Katia and walk free again upon the earth. Kruvajan, now one of the undead, is sent to the castle to turn Prince Vajda into a bloodsucking fiend.
The innkeeper’s daughter, who witnessed Asa’s demon helper take away Kruvajan, informs Gorobec of what she saw. A priest recognises, too, that Javuto has returned from the grave and must be stopped. The priest and Gorobec search the local graveyard and discover the sleeping body of Kruvajan. The priest thrusts a stake into the man’s eye, killing him.
At the castle, Javuto has located Katia and taken her by force to meet Asa. Gorobec enters the crypt and finds Asa pretending to be Katia. The real Katia is sleeping on the coffin. She informs the love-struck hero to stake the vampire whilst he still has the chance! Asa gives herself away because Katia is wearing a small silver crucifix around the neck, something the witch would find intolerable, given her allegiance to Satan. Asa’s ruse is called out. She opens her robe to reveal a skeletal form. In the nick of time, the priest and villagers turn up to save the day and Asa is tied to a stake (again) and set alight. She is killed (again). Like Sleeping Beauty, Katia awakes.
