Black Sunday

La maschera del demonio (1960)

Timing: 1:26 (86 min)

7.397/10
584

6.751/10
2339

7.1/10
20000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 25

Actors and characters

Release date

1960-08-11

Country

Italy

Production

Jolly Film, Galatea Film

Genre

Horror

Budget

$100 000

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

Mario Bava

Actors

Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Arturo Dominici, Ivo Garrani, Andrea Checchi, Enrico Olivieri, Antonio Pierfederici, Tino Bianchi, Clara Bindi, Germana Dominici
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Massimo De Rita, Lionello Santi

Operator

Mario Bava

Composer

Roberto Nicolosi

Artist

Audition

Editing

Mario Serandrei
All team (18)

• By the standards of the 60s, the film was considered too violent, and as a result, it was banned in the UK until 1968. In the US, the film was subjected to censorship.
• Despite his love for Russian classics, Mario Bava didn't bother to check a map to see where the story would take place. As a result, a curious situation arises – everything happens near Mirgorod, but it is said to be territory of Moldova, yet from there one can reach Moscow by carriage in about a day.
• The film has different titles in different languages – the English version is called «Black Sunday», the German version is «Die Stunde, wenn Dracula kommt» ("The Hour When Dracula Comes"). However, neither Black Sunday nor Dracula are mentioned in the film.
• Mario Bava was, at that time, the savior of the "Galatea" studio – he quickly and relatively efficiently completed projects that had gone out of control and were handed over to him, meeting deadlines. As a result, "Galatea" was generous to Bava and made him a gift, allocating six weeks for filming "Black Sunday", whereas the standard shooting period at the time was three to four weeks.
• Barbara Steele was given one page of the script per day.
• Initially, the characters of Barbara Steele and Arturo Dominici were equipped with vampire fangs, but Bava later abandoned this idea.
• The credits state that the film is based on a story by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. However, since the main antagonists of the film are vampires, the influence of Bram Stoker’s novel and the classic films made from it is evident.
• The film has different titles in different languages – the English version is called 'Black Sunday,' the German version is 'Die Stunde, wenn Dracula kommt' ('The Hour When Dracula Comes'). Yet neither Black Sunday nor Dracula are mentioned in the film.
• Mario Bava was, at the time, a savior for the 'Galatea' studio – he quickly and relatively efficiently completed projects that had gone out of control and been handed over to him. As a result, 'Galatea' was generous with Bava and made him a gift, allocating six weeks for filming 'Black Mask,' while the standard shooting period at the time was three to four weeks.