# Mask of the Demon
**Mask of the Demon** (*La maschera del demonio*, also released as **The Mask of Satan** and, in the United States, **Black Sunday**) is a 1960 Italian black-and-white gothic horror film directed by [Mario Bava](https://www.edgepedia.org/mario-bava), loosely based on [Nikolai Gogol](https://www.edgepedia.org/nikolai-gogol)'s short story "The Vij". It was Bava's first fully directed feature film and made an international star of [Barbara Steele](https://www.edgepedia.org/barbara-steele), who plays both a condemned witch and her descendant.[1](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/414448/) • [2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/) • [3](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-4320/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *La maschera del demonio*; international title The Mask of Satan; US title Black Sunday[1](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/414448/) • [4](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-the-mask-of-satan-1960-online) |
| Director / debut | Mario Bava's first fully directed feature; he also shot the film and worked on the screenplay[1](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/414448/) • [5](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/it/37-torino-film-festival/film/la-maschera-del-demonio/40909/) |
| Source | Loosely based on Gogol's short story "Il Vij"[6](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/la-maschera-del-demonio_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/) |
| Cast | Barbara Steele (Asa/Katia), John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici[5](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/it/37-torino-film-festival/film/la-maschera-del-demonio/40909/) |
| Release | Italy 12 August 1960; France 29 March 1961; UK June 1968[1](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/414448/) |
| Runtime | 87 minutes (Italian cut); the US version ran about 83 minutes[1](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/414448/) • [7](https://eofftv.com/la-maschera-del-demonio-1960/) |
| Production | Massimo De Rita for Galatea Film and Jolly Film; music Roberto Nicolosi (Italian edition), Les Baxter (American edition)[6](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/la-maschera-del-demonio_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In the 17th century, Princess Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) is condemned for witchcraft along with her lover and co-conspirator Javutich (Arturo Dominici). Before execution a spiked metal mask is hammered onto her face; a rainstorm prevents the villagers from burning her body, and she curses her accusers, her own brother among them.[2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/)
Two centuries later, two traveling doctors, Andrej Gorobec (John Richardson) and Choma Kruvajan (Andrea Checchi), stumble into the family crypt and accidentally revive Asa. She and the reborn Javutich begin a campaign of revenge against the descendants of those who condemned her, seeking to possess the body of Katia Vajda, Asa's lookalike descendant, also played by Steele.[2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/) • [3](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-4320/)
## Production
Mario Bava (born in San Remo in 1914, died in Rome in 1980) worked as a cinematographer until 1960, directing only a few shorts in the 1940s, and had often finished films uncredited for producers whose directors had abandoned them. After completing *Caltiki, the Immortal Monster* and *Giants of Marathon* in 1959, he was given the chance to develop and direct a film of his own choosing.[5](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/it/37-torino-film-festival/film/la-maschera-del-demonio/40909/) • [2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/)
He chose Gogol's "Vij" and built the film as an homage to the Universal horror pictures of the 1930s. [The Italian](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-italian) title was a play on the Italian release title of Hammer's *The Curse of Frankenstein*, which had been *La maschera di Frankenstein* in Italy. The modestly budgeted film was shot at the [Cinecittà](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinecitta) studios in Rome, with Bava serving as his own cinematographer and his father Eugenio Bava sculpting the masks uncredited.[2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/) • [7](https://eofftv.com/la-maschera-del-demonio-1960/)
## Censorship and release versions
The film ran into censorship in several countries. Italy's film review board approved public screening on condition that it not be shown to anyone under 16.[8](https://cinecensura.com/lungometraggi/la-maschera-del-demonio/) For the United States, Samuel Z. Arkoff of American International Pictures trimmed a few gore shots to satisfy the Los Angeles MPAA board, commissioned a new score from Les Baxter, and retitled the film *Black Sunday*, releasing it in 1961 about four minutes shorter than the Italian cut.[2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/)
The British board of censors refused to certify the AIP version, so the film could not be shown in licensed UK cinemas; it was banned there for eight years, and a more censored version finally opened in 1968 under the title *Revenge of the Vampire*.[2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/) • [7](https://eofftv.com/la-maschera-del-demonio-1960/) A Spanish festival catalog notes that the film was prohibited for years in many countries, with the largely Catholic censorship of the period objecting to Bava's depiction of the [Inquisition](https://www.edgepedia.org/inquisition).[9](https://externos.uma.es/cultura/fantastico/2004/fantastico_04.pdf)
## Style and influence
Bava pushed atmosphere, mood, and violence ahead of story and characterization: gnarled trees, fog, a decaying castle, a carriage gliding through moonlit forest, and the resuscitation of Asa, whose rotting corpse regrows skin and eyes as her crypt cracks apart. The opening execution scene, with the spiked mask hammered onto the witch's face, entered film history as one of the most iconic in horror cinema.[2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/) • [10](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv13842j2)
The film's international success demonstrated that horror stories could be built with an aesthetic different from the Victorian gothic style of Britain's Hammer Films, then highly successful, and it kickstarted the new wave of Italian gothic horror of the 1960s.[6](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/la-maschera-del-demonio_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/) • [11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-italian-gothic-horror-films) Its success immediately generated a fashion for gothic horror in Italy, with a series of films drawing on 19th-century literature and romantic myths.[12](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/16/l-horreur-gothique-a-l-italienne-a-l-honneur-dans-trois-films-reedites-en-blu-ray_6621586_3246.html) Later Italian genre directors such as [Dario Argento](https://www.edgepedia.org/dario-argento) and [Lucio Fulci](https://www.edgepedia.org/lucio-fulci) followed Bava's approach of privileging atmosphere and striking imagery, and filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, and [David Lynch](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-lynch) have publicly acknowledged Bava's camera work and use of light as influences.[2](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/)
## Legacy
Despite a reputation as one of the most influential of all horror films, the picture received little dedicated literature until a single-author book on it appeared in the Devil's Advocates series.[10](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv13842j2) The BFI lists it among the great Italian gothic horror films and presents the original English-language European cut, *The Mask of Satan*, on its streaming service; the film remains a fixture of [Halloween](https://www.edgepedia.org/halloween) viewing lists and of critical reappraisals of Bava, whose work underwent a major reassessment in the decades after his death.[4](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-the-mask-of-satan-1960-online) • [11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-italian-gothic-horror-films) • [5](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/it/37-torino-film-festival/film/la-maschera-del-demonio/40909/)
## References
1. [La maschera del demonio, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/414448/)
2. [Mario Bava's Black Sunday aka The Mask of Satan, Senses of Cinema (Christopher J. Jarmick, 2003)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/black_sunday/)
3. [La máscara del demonio, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-4320/)
4. [The Mask of Satan (1960), BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-the-mask-of-satan-1960-online)
5. [La maschera del demonio, Torino Film Festival](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/it/37-torino-film-festival/film/la-maschera-del-demonio/40909/)
6. [La maschera del demonio, Enciclopedia del Cinema, Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/la-maschera-del-demonio_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/)
7. [La maschera del demonio (1960), EOFFTV](https://eofftv.com/la-maschera-del-demonio-1960/)
8. [Cine Censura: La maschera del demonio, Fondazione CSC](https://cinecensura.com/lungometraggi/la-maschera-del-demonio/)
9. [Fantástico 2004 festival catalog, Universidad de Málaga](https://externos.uma.es/cultura/fantastico/2004/fantastico_04.pdf)
10. [Black Sunday, Devil's Advocates series, Liverpool University Press via JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv13842j2)
11. [10 great Italian gothic horror films, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-italian-gothic-horror-films)
12. [L'horreur gothique à l'italienne, Le Monde (2025)](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/16/l-horreur-gothique-a-l-italienne-a-l-honneur-dans-trois-films-reedites-en-blu-ray_6621586_3246.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Gothic horror films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license