Cinema: Mario Bava's Black Sunday

Mario Bava's adaptation of Russian author Nicolas Gogol's fantasy tale Vij (1835), The Mask of the Demon, is one of Italy's earliest Gothic productions. The story takes place in the 17th century, at the height of the Inquisition. The witch Asa (Barbara Steele) and her lover Igor, accused of vampirism, are put to the rack but promise eternal vengeance to their torturers. Two centuries later, the curse has come true: the vampires have returned to life and are once again wreaking havoc and...