MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical* BLACK SUNDAY proves a more evocative title for Mario Bava's first directorial effort and his first pure horror movie than the Italian original, translating to "Mask of the Demon." I doubt that the words "Black Sunday" even appear anywhere in either of two circulating English translations, much less in the original Italian. But because Sunday is the day consecrated to Christian worship in that religious tradition, speaking of a "black Sunday" is a parody of something sacrosanct, as with the Satanic "black mass." Further, the evocation of "blackness" connotes the darkness of a Manichean world, where even the redemption of Christ seems nearly powerless. The famous opening scene of SUNDAY, taking place in 17th-century Moldavia, shows a band of witch-slayers resorting to extreme violence to put down a pair of Satan-worshipping witches, Princess Asa (Barbara Steele) and her lover Prince Javutich (Arturo Domenici). Asa's own brother condemns the duo to damnation, rather poetically calling the already slain Javutich "the serf of the devil." The slayers intend to burn both Satanists, but only after killing them with metal masks that are hammered into their faces. However, after both are slain, a sudden storm interrupts the ceremony, and everyone flees. It's not clear why the storm keeps the Moldavians from burning the bodies later. The most one can imagine is that the locals are too spooked to do so, and so they merely inter the bodies as quickly as possible. Javutich, complete with mask, is simply dumped in a grave, presumably unconsecrated. For Asa the witch-hunters are more elaborate. Her body is interred within a sealed coffin inside a deserted chapel, but with a cross erected over the coffin and a glass panel that supposedly allows the dead witch to see the cross if she tries to come back to life again. This fear is later justified when a legend relates that a hundred years later, Asa's tomb split open and a female member of her family the Vadjas mysteriously died.
A hundred years later, Asa tries to resuscitate once again. and this time, she gets some help from two medical men journeying through Moldavia: Doctor Kruvajan and his young colleague Andrei. Nature, apparently controlled either by Satan or his dead servitors, seems to conspire to delay the two men, to lure them to the crypt, and then to cause Kruvajan to accidentally destroy the cross that binds Asa in her coffin. In addition, Kruvajan cuts his hand and spills some blood onto Asa's corpse. This doesn't immediately revive her, as would happen in some later Dracula films. But it apparently strengthens her enough that she can call Javutich out of his grave and make him appear to be a living man. Without playing down the impact of the opening scene, I found that the strongest horrific scenes were those taking place in the castle of the Vadjas, inhabited by the older Prince Vadja and his two grown children, Constantine and Katia. The latter is also played by Barbara Steele, and after Vadja relates the legend of the death of the young woman in the 1700s. Vadja fears that Katia will be Asa's next target. The dreary aspects of the castle are amplified by evil sendings-- a painting whose figures seem to change positions subtly, and the image of the Mask of Satan appearing in Vadja' wine-cup. Asa uses Javutich to trick Kruvajan into returning to the crypt. In a moment that seems like a homage to Poe's HOUSE OF USHER, Asa simply smashes her way out of her stone coffin and vampirizes Kruvajan to make him into her Renfield. However, Kruvajan's eminence as a doctor makes him even more helpful than simply a supplier of blood. Javutich, posing as a servant, seeks to attack Vadja at night, but the prince wears a cross and Javutich can't touch him. Under the guise of doctorly care, Kruvajan removes the cross, allowing Javutich to vampirize the older man. Later, Vadja himself is so overcome by the power of evil that he attempts to drink the blood of Katis. But since Asa has her own plans for Katia, Javutich kills Vadja and delivers Katia to Asa in her tomb. Apparently Asa still can't just leave until she changes places with the living girl, consigning Katia to death. The last third of Bava's film is the weakest, as the audience must follow young doctor Andrei around as he slowly puts the pieces together and calls upon the local priest for help. He encounters Asa, who has switched places with Katia to make her look like the corpse of the dead witch. However, Andrei sees through the deception and calls the locals to his aid. Soon Asa's body is getting burned as it should have been two hundred years ago, and Katia makes a full recovery Nevertheless, this "happy ending" still leaves quite a few people suffering grotesque demises, so in a broader sense, BLACK SUNDAY, while not a "win" for Satan, allows the fiend to score far more points than he did in a lot of other films prior to this one.
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