Main Cast: Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Ivo Garrani, Andrea Checchi, Arturo Dominici
Release Year: 1960
Country: IT
Run Time: 83 minutes
Plot
Generally considered to be the foremost example of Italian Gothic horror, this darkly atmospheric black-and-white chiller put director Mario Bava on the international map and made the bewitching Barbara Steele a star. Steele plays Princess Asa, a high priestess of Satan who is gruesomely executed in 1600s Moldavia by having a spiked mask hammered into her face. Before she dies, Asa vows revenge on the family who killed her and returns from the grave two centuries later to keep her promise. In a striking resurrection scene replete with bats, scorpions and fog, Asa rises from the tomb to claim her bloody vengeance. With vampires, bubbling flesh, dank crypts, undead servants and torch-bearing mobs, the plot is a little ripe, but the visuals are Bava's primary consideration. The atmosphere is so heavy and the imagery so dense that the film becomes nearly too rich in texture, but the sheer, ghastly beauty of it all is entrancing. Although this was only the second of Bava's twenty-six films as director, it is undoubtedly his best and the one upon which most of his considerable reputation rests. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Review
La Maschera del Demonio was released in 1960, the same year as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and serves as a primary example of the divergent paths taken by European and American horror films of that era. Where Hitchcock was more concerned with the psychology of the characters in his horror story, Mario Bava seems more concerned with the psychology of the audience, creating a visual feast of the strange and forbidden that unleashes an adolescent-like interest in the unreal world. The film made a star of sorts of the stunningly beautiful Barbara Steele, who agreed to appear in the film without a salary, instead receiving per diem expenses. A note of caution: numerous version of this film exist under various titles, many of them adversely altered by distributors and censors. In whatever form you watch it, La Maschera del Demonio is easily among the most influential films of the Italian Gothic horror era. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Enrico Olivieri - Constantin; Antonio Pierfederici - The Pope; Clara Bindi - The Innkeeper; Germana Dominici - His Daughter; Mario Passante - Nikita; Tino Bianchi - Ivan; Amy Steel
Credit
Giorgio Giovannini - Art Director, Mario Bava - Director, Mario Serandrei - Editor, Les Baxter - Composer (Music Score), Roberto Nicolosi - Composer (Music Score), Ubaldo Terzano - Camera Operator, Mario Bava - Cinematographer, Ubaldo Terzano - Cinematographer, Massimo de Rita - Producer, Giorgio Giovannini - Set Designer, Mario Bava - Screenwriter, Ennio de Concini - Screenwriter, Mario Serandrei - Screenwriter
