Black Sunday

Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio, 1960) is Mario Bava's cult Italian horror you can watch online on iFILM. Inquisitors brand the young princess Asa a witch and hammer a spiked iron mask onto her face. As the flames rise, she curses her executioners' bloodline for seven generations.

Two centuries on, descendants of that same family stir the dead woman back to life. Asa reaches for her living double, the beautiful Katia — also played by Barbara Steele — hoping to steal her flesh and her youth. A young doctor and a few terrified relatives are all that stand between the witch and her prize. The story takes its spark from Gogol's tale "Viy," though little of the source survives the journey.

This was Bava's directorial debut and a cornerstone of Italian gothic horror. The black-and-white camerawork matters more than the plot: fog, a ruined crypt, shadows that seem to crawl — Bava builds dread out of light and texture alone. One for viewers who love old-school horror where mood cuts deeper than gore. Stream Black Sunday (1960) online on iFILM.