Review of Black Sunday (1960) by Ryan B — 09 Jun 2007

Bar none the most absolutely beautifully photographed film I've ever seen. Director Mario Bava uses black-and-white masterfully to create the haunting, fog-swept landscape of an Eastern Europe full of ancient ruins, haunted castles, and two hundred year old blood feuds carried out from beyond the grave.

Barbara Steele is magnificently alluring as an evil princess condemned in the 17th century for vampirism and witchcraft, unknowingly resurrected two hundred years later by a pair of doctors on their way to a medical conference.

This film looks like the best of Tim Burton's black-and-white renderings, but the story is pure pulp horror, without Burton's frilly sentiment and overwrought outcast sensibility. Really a glorious, glorious film.