Planet of the Vampires a great Mario Bava film

"Planet of the Vampires" is a very interesting, effective 1965 early Mario Bava film. It involves astronauts entering a seemingly deserted world and slowly being picked apart one by one by desperate aliens seeking new life forms.

Unlike many genre directors who thrive on gloomy, forbidding black and white images, Bava manages to convey fear and horror through the use of vivid, almost garish color. That is notable in his horror anthology Black Sabbath. In Planet of the Vampires, the color, particularly red, along with the claustrophobic atmosphere of the spaceship and even the colorful planet, add to the tension and terror the crew feels as they are picked off one by one.

The only major American star in the 86-minute film is the late character actor Barry Sullivan as the space crew captain. Brazilian Norma Bengall also stars. The rest are capable European actors. The story is similar in narrative and design to the later horror classic Alien.

Believe it or not, there are also similarities to the recent Stephenie Meyer book "The Host." Bava's "vampires" are not necessarily evil; they are desperate creatures trying their best to stave off extinction. They'll do anything to achieve their goals.
Planet of the Vampires is a must-have film for Bava fans and 1960s "space opera" fans. There's a "twist ending," but alert viewers will see it coming. Watch the trailer below.

-- Doug Gibson

Black Sunday – A Film To Make Your Skin Crawl With Goosebumps!

Review by Steve D. Stones

If someone were to ask me what I thought the top ten scariest horror films of all time are, I would definitely list the 1960 classic Black Sunday in the top five. The film certainly deserves to rank as the best horror film of the 1960s. If ever there was a film that fits the title “Gothic Horror,” Black Sunday is it.

Italian director Mario Bava is masterful at creating an eerie atmosphere of old world decay. Black Sunday marks his directorial debut and was also a first for the beautiful raven-haired English born actress Barbara Steele. After the success of Black Sunday, Steele went on to star in a number of 1960s European horror classics, such as Nightmare Castle, Terror Creatures From The Grave, Castle of Blood, The Long Hair of Death, and the Roger Corman classic The Pit & The Pendulum.

Steele plays a Russian princess named Asa living in 17^th century Moldavia. Asa and her companion Javutich are accused of witchcraft and making a pact with the devil. Both are executed at the stake with a spiked demon mask hammered into their faces. Before their deaths, Asa vows to return from the dead and seek revenge on all her descendants.

The film then takes us into the future to the nineteenth century. Dr. Choma and his young assistant Dr. Gorobec are traveling through Moldavia in a coach when one of the wheels breaks. The two stop to rest as the driver attempts to fix the wheel. They wander into an old crypt filled with bats and lots of thick, creepy fog. Choma is immediately drawn to a coffin with a glass window. The coffin is of witch Asa executed two hundred years ago.

Dr. Choma accidentally breaks the glass with his cane while trying to hit a flying bat. He reaches into the coffin to remove Asa’s demon mask and cuts his hand. Large scorpions crawl out of the empty eye sockets of the dead Asa. Her skin also reveals the spike punctures from the mask. This is one of the creepiest sequences in the entire film. Choma’s blood drips onto the face of Asa, bringing her back to life.

Another frightening sequence shows a young Russian girl strolling through the dark woods at night to fetch a pail of milk. While milking a cow next to an old cemetery, she witnesses Javutich crawl out of his two hundred year old grave as Asa summons him. He removes his demon mask to reveal a pasty, shriveled complexion covered in cobwebs. This scene makes my skin crawl with goose bumps every time I see it.

What follows for the rest of the film are attempts by Asa and Javutich to murder Asa’s descendants. One of the descendants is the beautiful Katia, also played by Steele, who resembles Asa perfectly.

Black Sunday was also known in European markets as La Maschera del Demonio (The Mask of The Demon), House of Fright and Revenge of The Vampire. Sinister Cinema in Medford, Oregon sells a beautiful widescreen print with scenes cut from the American release. The film was banned for nine years in England because of some of the intense, graphic scenes of horror and violence. Director Bava went on to direct many less effective cult horror classics, such as Planet of The Vampires, Kill Baby Kill, Blood & Black Lace and Baron Blood. None of these films achieve the stylish gothic horror atmosphere that makes Black Sunday such a great classic of the horror genre.

Black Sunday is a film I would highly recommend as part of your Halloween festivities this season. Happy viewing and Happy (upcoming) Halloween!

Danger: Diabolik - A Fun, Kitsch Laden Crime Caper

By Steve D. Stones

Danger: Diabolik (1967) is Italian director Mario Bava's most kitsch laden film. Bava is best known for his atmospheric horror and suspense themed films - such as Black Sunday and Kill Baby Kill.  Diabolik, however, is pure tongue in cheek, psychedelic era entertainment. The viewer might even mistaken it for a 1960s TV episode of Batman. The character of Diabolik even has an underground, secret headquarters filled with computers and other electronic devices - just like Batman's bat cave.  Diabolik dresses in a skin tight black outfit, similar to a diver's suit.

After stealing ten million dollars from under the noses of government agents and a priceless emerald necklace, Diabolik (John Phillip Law) confronts an Italian crime boss named Ralph Valmont - who has kidnapped Diabolik's girlfriend Eva (Marisa Mel) in exchange for the ten million dollars and the necklace.

Diabolik and Valmont fall out the bottom of a plane during a fight and land safely on the ground, as government agents quickly close in on the two. Valmont is killed by gun fire, while Diabolik swallows a capsule to give the appearance of being dead, allowing him to live in suspended animation for twelve hours.

Diabolik escapes while on the examination table at the hospital morgue, then plans his next big heist - the robbery of a 20-ton gold bar being transported by train. 

He blows up a bridge the train travels across carrying the giant gold bar and retrieves it underwater. He takes the gold bar back to his secret headquarters. 

The ending of the film may be giving a parody reference to the 1964 James Bond film - Goldfinger. Diabolik melts down the gold bar, but is accidentally solidified in the hot gold while wearing a protective suit.  Although the government agents think he is dead, he winks at the viewer through his helmet to indicate he's still alive.

The coolest aspect of Diabolik is that he does summersaults across the hood of his Jaguar when he's in a hurry to get away, and sleeps in a giant bed piled with money. The strange psychedelic score by Ennio Morricone adds greatly to the kitsch quality of the film. Opening credits give the impression of being spun in the spin cycle of a clothes washer.  Happy viewing!

(Art by Steve D. Stones)

Orgy of the Living Dead trailer ... great '70s kitsch

Here's a dose of 70s cheesiness. This unique trailer was used to pitch three Harry Novak (Boxoffice International) European retread imports -- Revenge of the Living Dead, Fangs of the Living Dead and Revenge of the Living Dead -- as a cheap triple feature for non-discriminating audiences. (All those Living Dead titles were not, of course, the original titles. Rumor has it that one of the films was a Mario Bava production, so I guess the triple bill would not have been a complete waste.

So, back from the dead, courtesy of YouTube, is the trailer that featured a man gone mad from the movies with an offer for free care in a mental asylum if needed! For the record, Revenge of the Living Dead is the 1966 film La Lama Nel Corpo, Fangs of the Living Dead is the 1969 film Malenka, and Curse of the Living Dead is the Bava-directed 1966 film better known as Kill, Baby, Kill.
-- Doug Gibson

A look at Mario Bava's 'Black Sunday'

By Doug Gibson

Black Sunday, 1960, Italy, 83 minutes, B&W. Directed by Mario Bava. Starring Barbara Steele as Princess Asa Vajda/Katia Vajda, John Richardson as Dr. Adrej Gorobec, Andrea Checchi as Dr. Tomas Kruvajan, Arturo Dominici as Javutich, Ivo Garrani as Prince Vajda. Released in the U.S. by American International Pictures. Schlock-Meter rating: 9 1/2 stars out of 10.

Black Sunday drips in atmosphere, creating a dark, brooding tale of slain advocates of Satan rising from the grave 200 years after being executed in Moldavia and trying to exact revenge on their descendants. Director Bava uses images, sounds and nature to exact mood from his first (and some argue best) chiller. Cobwebs, dark shadows, fog, hanging branches, dense forests, decaying graves, spiked masks being driven into faces, a decayed face infested by bugs, stakes being driven in eyes, death by fire, dark nights with sound trailing away, and always the wind blowing ominously in the background, exploit our senses while watching Black Sunday.

Another example: Bava manages to produce chills by shooting a horse carriage in slow motion and soft focus. It creates a ghostly image. Later, after a hapless doctor is carried in the carriage, it rides faster than is humanly possible, adding a contrast just as creepy as the first glimpse of the carriage.

The plot involves a beautiful princess/witch named Asa (Steele), and her demonic assistant, Javutich (Dominici), who are executed early in the 17th century. Asa utters a curse against her brother (who is overseeing the execution) and his family. Asa and Javutich are executed by having iron, spiked “masks of Satan” driven into their face, a striking image. They are set to be burned, but heavy rain prevents that, and instead Asa is put in a crypt, and Javutich buried.Two hundred years later, and Asa’s descendants still live on the land. They are a depressed, but still noble lot: Prince Vajda, his son Constantin and beautiful daughter Katia (Steele) who looks just like Asa. The Prince is worried, because it’s Black Sunday, the one day where evil spirits are allowed a chance to wreck havoc. He fears Asa and Javutich will try to avenge themselves on his family. As the plot unfolds, he has good reason to be worried.

Two doctors, one old (Checchi), one young (Richardson) are sidetracked on a journey to a medical convention when their carriage breaks down. They stumble upon the crypt with Asa in it, and the skeptical Checchi tears off her mask, revealing a rotted face infested with bugs. A bat attacks the doctor. Before killing it, he cuts his hand, dripping blood into Asa’s face. That revives her, and she calls Javutich from the grave. The pair then plot the death of the noble family, and Asa is determined to possess Katia’s youth.

This film -- with its gruesome images and tale of disciples of Satan rising from the dead -- must have been quite daring for 1960s audiences. There are still scenes that shock. A couple include Javutich rising from his grave, and a resurrected Asa’s cloak being torn from her body, revealing a decaying skeleton underneath. I was chilled by the scene where Katia’s father, possessed by Satan, matter-of-factly tells her that her being his daughter is of no relevance any more, and his only desire now is to eat her blood! Also, despite that much of the last half of the film takes place in the Vajda castle, Bava doesn’t neglect the countryside or its inhabitants. There are scenes of locals in an inn and another creepily amusing scene of a teenage girl milking a cow. In the final scene, hundreds of locals in pursuit of Asa are led by a priest.

This version is the U.S. American International Pictures release, which reportedly is inferior to the European release. Also, the dubbing by most of the cast is flat and annoying at times. I would love to see the uncut Italian version with English subtitles. Also, the plot development appears a bit thinner in the U.S. version, and some shock scenes last only a split second, which means perhaps AIP censors trimmed the violence and gore a little. Nevertheless, Black Sunday -- in any version -- is an above-average shocker that deserves its cult status.

Black Sunday is a masterpiece. It kicked off a stellar career for Bava, who would later show how well he could use color to invoke terror in audiences. There is a long, interesting essay on Black Sunday in Danny Peary's first volume of "Cult Films."

Hatchet For The Honeymoon – Bava’s 1970 Horror Feature

By Steve D. Stones

After Italian director Mario Bava created his horror masterpiece in 1960 – Black Sunday, he was never really able to create another horror film equal to the suspenseful elements of that one. Many die-hard Bava fans may disagree with this analysis, but critics over the years have identified Black Sunday as his greatest work.  His 1970 film – Hatchet For The Honeymoon, is a study in Bava’s fluid visual style that is a trademark exhibited in many of his films. A rapid zooming in quickly on characters during key scenes is a style Bava continues with in this film.

A young wedding dress designer named John wants to get a divorce from his wife but she refuses to agree on their separation, even though she too is bored with their marriage. In a secret room, the designer keeps mannequins with wedding dresses, and occasionally wears a dress himself. One of his dress models informs him that she cannot work for him any longer because she is getting married. He asks her to stay after work one evening when all the other models have gone home so he can let her choose a wedding dress as a gift. After she chooses a dress and puts it on for him, John murders her in the secret room and burns her body in an incinerator.

For much of the film’s screen time, John murders and hacks up brides on their wedding night. This is likely because of his frustrations in not being able to get a divorce from his wife. In an opening sequence, he kills a couple on their wedding night on a train. The reflection of John’s boyhood image is seen on the door leading to the couple’s train room. Apparently, John witnessed the killing of his mother when he was a boy. This may also have something to do with his murderous tendencies.

John eventually kills his wife while dressed in a wedding veil as the local police try beating down his door. At the time of his wife’s murder, director Bava’s film Black Sabbath is seen playing on a TV set in the couple’s living room. When the police are let into the home, John explains that the screaming the men heard was from a scene playing on the TV set from the film.  One of the detectives later discovers that the scene playing on the TV at that moment did not have screaming involved in the scene.

After his wife’s murder, John’s friends are able to see the spirit of his wife sitting next to him at public places, but he is unaware of this. Eventually the police take him away in a police truck, and he is able to see the spirit of his wife in the truck. She mentally tortures him on the way to the police station, driving him to complete insanity.

Actor Stephen Forsyth, who plays the murdering dress designer, looks very similar to another Bava actor – John Phillip Law from Bava’s 1968 film – Danger Diabolik. Despite the title of Hatchet For The Honeymoon, the murder weapon is not a hatchet. A meat cleaver is used to kill victims. Next up was Bava’s 1972 horror feature – Baron of Blood starring the aging Joseph Cotton. See Baron of Blood and Hatchet For The Honeymoon together. Happy viewing!

Kill, Baby, Kill Another great Mario Bava classic

By Steve D. Stones

In 1966, Italian director Mario Bava made this gothic supernatural classic – Kill, Baby, Kill! The film was also marketed as Curse of The Living Dead and under its Italian title – Operazione Paura. Bava is considered a master of the Italian “Giallo” genre in film-making.

A coroner, played by Italian actor Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, arrives in a small 19^th century Carpathian town to conduct an autopsy. He discovers that the death of a child is haunting locals, who were responsible for her death. The ghost of the girl seeks her revenge on the locals by driving them mad enough to commit suicide. A local witch is also spinning evil sorcery in the town. Gold coins are found embedded in the hearts of villagers who are found dead. The coroner realizes that the dead child has put a curse on the village. He encounters the ghost of the child while visiting her mother, the Baroness Graps.  The Baroness has a strange painting of the girl covered in spider webs on her castle wall.

Bava uses a number of filming techniques that have become characteristic of his directing style. For example, a number of scenes show a character peeking through a window or standing in a doorway as the camera quickly zooms in closely to the character, and then quickly pulls out and away from the person. In one very surreal sequence, a child is swinging back and forth on a swing as if the camera is in her lap, zooming closely to a tombstone off in the distance as the child swings forward.  Bava also uses strange red or blue lightning in a number of scenes, which he also repeats in Planet of The Vampires (1965) and Danger Diabolik (1969). In another scene, actor Rossi-Stuart runs through the baroness’ room over and over again, as his duplicate catches up behind him.

Kill, Baby, Kill is not the masterpiece of Bava’s 1960 film – Black Sunday, but it is still an effective horror film worthy of your viewing. Happy Viewing. 

All about Mario Bava's Black Sunday

By Doug Gibson

Black Sunday, 1960, Italy, 83 minutes, B&W. Directed by Mario Bava. Starring Barbara Steele as Princess Asa Vajda/Katia Vajda, John Richardson as Dr. Adrej Gorobec, Andrea Checchi as Dr. Tomas Kruvajan, Arturo Dominici as Javutich, Ivo Garrani as Prince Vajda. Released in the U.S. by American International Pictures. Schlock-Meter rating: 9 1/2 stars out of 10.

Black Sunday drips in atmosphere, creating a dark, brooding tale of slain advocates of Satan rising from the grave 200 years after being executed in Moldavia and trying to exact revenge on their descendants. Director Bava uses images, sounds and nature to exact mood from his first (and some argue best) chiller. Cobwebs, dark shadows, fog, hanging branches, dense forests, decaying graves, spiked masks being driven into faces, a decayed face infested by bugs, stakes being driven in eyes, death by fire, dark nights with sound trailing away, and always the wind blowing ominously in the background, exploit our senses while watching Black Sunday.

Another example: Bava manages to produce chills by shooting a horse carriage in slow motion and soft focus. It creates a ghostly image. Later, after a hapless doctor is carried in the carriage, it rides faster than is humanly possible, adding a contrast just as creepy as the first glimpse of the carriage.

The plot involves a beautiful princess/witch named Asa (Steele), and her demonic assistant, Javutich (Dominici), who are executed early in the 17th century. Asa utters a curse against her brother (who is overseeing the execution) and his family. Asa and Javutich are executed by having iron, spiked “masks of Satan” driven into their face, a striking image. They are set to be burned, but heavy rain prevents that, and instead Asa is put in a crypt, and Javutich buried.
Two hundred years later, and Asa’s descendants still live on the land. They are a depressed, but still noble lot: Prince Vajda, his son Constantin and beautiful daughter Katia (Steele) who looks just like Asa. The Prince is worried, because it’s Black Sunday, the one day where evil spirits are allowed a chance to wreck havoc. He fears Asa and Javutich will try to avenge themselves on his family. As the plot unfolds, he has good reason to be worried.

Two doctors, one old (Checchi), one young (Richardson) are sidetracked on a journey to a medical convention when their carriage breaks down. They stumble upon the crypt with Asa in it, and the skeptical Checchi tears off her mask, revealing a rotted face infested with bugs. A bat attacks the doctor. Before killing it, he cuts his hand, dripping blood into Asa’s face. That revives her, and she calls Javutich from the grave. The pair then plot the death of the noble family, and Asa is determined to possess Katia’s youth.

This film -- with its gruesome images and tale of disciples of Satan rising from the dead -- must have been quite daring for 1960s audiences. There are still scenes that shock. A couple include Javutich rising from his grave, and a resurrected Asa’s cloak being torn from her body, revealing a decaying skeleton underneath. I was chilled by the scene where Katia’s father, possessed by Satan, matter-of-factly tells her that her being his daughter is of no relevance any more, and his only desire now is to eat her blood! Also, despite that much of the last half of the film takes place in the Vajda castle, Bava doesn’t neglect the countryside or its inhabitants. There are scenes of locals in an inn and another creepily amusing scene of a teenage girl milking a cow. In the final scene, hundreds of locals in pursuit of Asa are led by a priest.

This version is the U.S. American International Pictures release, which reportedly is inferior to the European release. Also, the dubbing by most of the cast is flat and annoying at times. I would love to see the uncut Italian version with English subtitles. Also, the plot development appears a bit thinner in the U.S. version, and some shock scenes last only a split second, which means perhaps AIP censors trimmed the violence and gore a little. Nevertheless, Black Sunday -- in any version -- is an above-average shocker that deserves its cult status.