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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 31, 2024

[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

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

Rose the bar for all directors of the horror genre.

| Aug 2, 2019

Bava's cinematography and Serandrei's montage make this one of the best paced films ever. [Full review in Spanish]

| May 25, 2016

A tremendous start to what would end up being one of the most brilliant careers in all of horror.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Oct 29, 2013

Bava's sumptuous visuals remain, with the director innovative in his employment of multiple side lights to give scenes a luminous quality and make playful use of shadows.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2013

Swirling chiaroscuro, viscous rhapsody

| Apr 8, 2013

[UPDATED 2024 REVIEW] Bava's employment of unique camera angles, heavily atmospheric sets, and startling moments of violence combine to create a trendsetting picture that has influenced generations of filmmakers.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 26, 2012

Although Italian director Bava is somewhat overrated, this is his one undisputed masterpiece.

| Oct 19, 2009

...a melodramatic, thoroughly overwrought horror flick that's aged incredibly poorly in the years since its 1960 release.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 6, 2008

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

| Original Score: A- | Feb 5, 2008

Though shot in black-and-white, it demonstrates Bava's extraordinary skill with light and motion and shadow, used to suggest unholy things.

| Apr 12, 2007

The most influential figure in Italian exploitation horror movies would never again match the success of this venture.

| Original Score: A | Sep 17, 2006

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 | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 8, 2005

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

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 10, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 12, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 29, 2004

The gorgeous black-and-white imagery is so remarkable that it overrides the bad acting, barely coherent story and the awful dialogue.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 4, 2003