HORROR-THON 2026 • NO EXIT
9/10
DIRECTOR: Mario Bava
STARRING: Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi
RELEASED: 1960
RUNTIME: 1 hr, 27 minutes
WATCH ON: Shudder, AMC+, Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, YouTube TV
SCARE LEVEL: Medium
OPENING OLD CRYPTS: Leave the cross alone.
A witch is tied to a stake in 1630. Her executioners take a bronze mask lined with spikes and hammer it onto her face. Before she dies, she curses the family that condemned her. That’s the first five minutes, and it was 1960.
Two hundred years later, two doctors traveling through Moldavia stop at an old crypt. The older one, Dr. Kruvajan, accidentally breaks the cross guarding the witch’s tomb and cuts his hand. A few drops of his blood fall on her.
Princess Asa starts to wake up. Nearby, the family she cursed is still living in their castle, including a young princess named Katia, who looks exactly like her.
MY HUMBLE OPINION
This was Mario Bava’s first movie as a director, and he was already this good. I’ve watched about four movies now across two years, and this is where it all starts.
Barbara Steele plays both Asa and Katia, and her face is the special effect. Those huge dark eyes did more than any makeup could.
The black and white is gorgeous: cobwebs, candlelight, fog over the graveyard…Kill, Baby…Kill! has the color, but this one has the shadows. It’s easy to see why it’s widely considered a Gothic masterpiece.
It’s honestly hard to dismiss Black Sunday’s influence on horror cinema. It’s undeniable. My one main note: if you are allergic to bad dubbing, be careful where you stream. Sometimes the English dub can be a lot, and not in a good way.
A FUN FACT FOR YOUR NEXT DINNER PARTY:
In 1960, Black Sunday was considered so gruesome that it was banned in the UK until 1968. Even when it was released, it was heavily edited. The full uncut version wasn’t released there until the 1990s.