Black Sunday

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Black Sunday

1960

1h 23m

Horror

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Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

24 Reviews

78%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Burned at the stake, a vampire witch princess (Barbara Steele) wakes up centuries later with her undead henchman.

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Critics Consensus

Mario Bava's official narrative debut is a witchy nightmare steeped in gothic splendor, shot in chiaroscuro black and white and punctuated with startling gore.

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Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

One of the cinema's preeminent examples of gothic horror.

Rated: A-

Feb 5, 2008

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Derek Adams

Time Out

The visual style still impresses, but the story beneath it has become too formularised for the film to retain all its original power.

Feb 9, 2006

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Eugene Archer

New York Times

It will leave its audiences yearning for that quiet, sunny little motel in Psycho.

Rated: 2/5

May 10, 2005

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Alan Jones

Radio Times

A masterpiece of the macabre that showed Bava's sheer mastery of the terror medium, it had censors worldwide up in arms over its still powerful opening torture sequence, in which a mask of nails is hammered onto Steele's screaming face.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 31, 2024

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Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

[Mario Bava's] vivid style—gliding camerawork, dramatic lighting, striking compositions, and atmospheric sets cobbled together from limited resources—set the standard for Italian gothic horror ...

Oct 21, 2024

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Howard Waldstein

CBR

Black Sunday is surprisingly gruesome and tastefully terrifying in all the right ways. It's an essential of Italian horror that begs to be seen.

Jun 27, 2023

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Insomniac X

Mario Bava's eye for composition and spooky atmosphere elevate what might otherwise have been another run of the mill Dracula knock-off. This period chiller is rich with beautifully framed gothic imagery: windswept ruins, foggy graveyards, secret trapdoors, witches, vampires, villagers with pitchforks -- this movie has it all, along with a few moments of startling brutality. Perfect viewing for halloween season.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/25

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Steven M

It’s got that ancient look to it.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

11/20/24

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steve d

Cool creepy old movie with brilliant use of light and shadow and great atmosphere. I have a crush on Barbara Steele now.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

10/21/24

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Vito P

It's really exciting to see how such effective visual effects are achieved with limited means in a film that really is an inspiring gothic gem.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

09/22/24

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Joseph D

Came upon this gem thanks to Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments of all time. Normally I'm not one for B&W stuff, but this film holds up as a suspenseful thriller.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/10/23

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martin f

One of the best Gothic horror (and Italian horror) out there with a perfect use of Black & white, melancholic dialogues and a surprising amount of gores. The very contrasted black and white puts so much emphasis on the actors' beautiful eyes that you can feel their emotion with their stares alone. It also works very well with the gloomy decors. There is just one short scene filmed differently (with a regular black and white) that took me out for two minutes. There is a lot of old school special effects there, some may feel outdated but they are still captivating and don't spoil the creepy atmosphere.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Mario Bava

Director

Barbara Steele

Katia Vajda

John Richardson

Dr. Andre Gorobec

Ivo Garrani

Prince Vajda

Andrea Checchi

Dr. Thomas Kruvajan

Arturo Dominici

Igor Javutich

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Synopsis

Burned at the stake, a vampire witch princess (Barbara Steele) wakes up centuries later with her undead henchman.

Director: Mario Bava
Producer: Massimo De Rita
Screenwriter: Ennio De Concini, Mario Serandrei
Production Co: Galatea Film
Genre: Horror
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 8, 2017
Runtime: 1h 23m

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