Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 15
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 3
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 1
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 1
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 5,914
Generally considered to be the foremost example of Italian Gothic horror, this darkly atmospheric black-and-white chiller put director Mario Bava on the international map and made the bewitching Barbara Steele a star. Steele plays Princess Asa, a high priestess of Satan who is gruesomely executed in 1600s Moldavia by having a spiked mask hammered into her face. Before she dies, Asa vows revenge on the family who killed her and returns from the grave two centuries later to keep her promise. In a
Dec 31, 1960 Wide
Dec 14, 1999
American International Picture
All Critics (16) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (3) | DVD (19)
It will leave its audiences yearning for that quiet, sunny little motel in Psycho.
Although Italian director Bava is somewhat overrated, this is his one undisputed masterpiece.
A unique piece of Gothic visual poetry that retains its power to thrill and entertain with all the tenacious vivacity of its centuries-dead vampire-witch, who refuses to lie quietly in her grave.
...a melodramatic, thoroughly overwrought horror flick that's aged incredibly poorly in the years since its 1960 release.
One of the cinema's preeminent examples of gothic horror.
Though shot in black-and-white, it demonstrates Bava's extraordinary skill with light and motion and shadow, used to suggest unholy things.
The most influential figure in Italian exploitation horror movies would never again match the success of this venture.
The visual style still impresses, but the story beneath it has become too formularised for the film to retain all its original power.
The gorgeous black-and-white imagery is so remarkable that it overrides the bad acting, barely coherent story and the awful dialogue.
Hypnotic and compelling.
Mario Bava's first film is gorgiously photographed and often eerie, but it fails to scare much by today's standards.
Visually stunning, black and white creeper.
Bava's influential tale of gothic horror has aged far better than other horror movies from the time. This is thanks to Bava's atmospheric direction, along with a good use of good ol traditional movie sets. The story gets a bit erratic in the second half, and the resolution is not as thrilling as it could be. Neverless,
September 30, 2007
Super Reviewer
The story here concerns a (vampire) witch who, in 1630 is sentenced to death along with her male accomplice. Just before dying she vows revenge. Two centruies later, some guys go stumbling around in a decrepit castle crypt and accidentally bring the woman back from the dead, who proceeds to go aroudn feasting upon her
September 11, 2011Super Reviewer
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