Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 5 out of 5!
Mario Bava Scared The S**T Out Of Me
Black Sunday(The Mask of Satan) has all the elements of a great horror film. Good story, pacing, simple, but extremely effective special effects, gorgeous black and white photography and Barbara Steele. I saw the showing here in the cut, Les Baxter score, etc. etc. version which was great, I must admit, but seeing the uncut version was not so much an eyeopener as finally seeing a wonderful scarefest the way it should of been seen many years ago. If only current "horror" filmmakers could learn how to make a good horror film like Bava, then life would be "GOOD". It’’s not MONEY, expensive special effects, big names, or color, but IMAGINATION, a good sense of film composition and a sense of what makes a good story that count. Cut the budgets for some of these films like the remake of "The Haunting", all the Freddy-Jason films and make the directors use their brains and creative imagination and we might have some decent films to talk about 25 years from now. Black Sunday stands the test of time.- Rated 5 out of 5!
BAVA - HAMMER : 1 - 0
At least, one scene of italian director Mario Bava’’s BLACK SUNDAY will haunt your memory for a long time : Javutich, played by a sepulchral Arturo Dominici, kidnaps a doctor and drives him to the castle’’s chapel in a diligence. The hellish trip is partly filmed in slow-motion without any sound. Astounding ! and a great homage to the german director F.-W. Murnau who shot the same scene in 1922 for his NOSFERATU but in a slightly different manner.In 1961, the British Hammer Films reigned over the horror movies genre and the audience was accustomed to the Gothic made in England. So let’’s appreciate Bava’’s courage ; with a screenplay vaguely inspired by a story of Nicolaï Gogol, he was aiming at the same goal than Terence Fisher & Co. : frighten the audience ! In my opinion, Mario Bava is clearly the winner of this cinematographical battle. BLACK SUNDAY is the masterpiece of this director and deserves to stay in any curious movie lover’’s secret library. An excellent copy and edifying bonus features will complete your pleasure. A DVD dedicated to Tim Burton.
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