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Black Sunday

Play trailer Poster for Black Sunday 1960 1h 23m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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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.
Black Sunday

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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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Critics Reviews

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Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness One of the cinema's preeminent examples of gothic horror. Rated: A- Feb 5, 2008 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Steven M It’s got that ancient look to it. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/20/24 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review sean s It is sad to say that this old black and white movie from 1960 is still better than most of the offerings that I see on Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu currently. This film has neat old, spooky black and white photography and sets. Mario Bava is a great atmospheric director and was ahead of his time. Barbara Steele usually puts on a good show and does in this one. What cracks me up about these old movies is that they let the villain, usually a witch or evil wizard, ramble off this long curse upon the village and it's people instead of quickly dispatching them. It is worth a watch. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Black Sunday

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

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