Bava Film Fest

I’m behind in Jim Groom’s Mario Bava Festival — put it down to an intermittent Internet connection, … and other stuff.  In getting caught up, here’s an initial contribution (albeit tardy) for the Week 1: Black Sunday (1960).

“Asa Untombed” animated GIF by aforgrave from Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (1960)

I did spend quite a bit of time on this GIF, getting rid of some lighting artifacts. There were actually three cuts back and forth from the tomb to Kruvajan (Andrea Checchi), and by removing him from within the sequence the inconsistencies were immediately apparent. So I was creative with the frames to create something that tells the story of the moment, while removing some of the distractions.

Can you see the tension build as Asa increases her efforts to get out of the tomb?

Things to remember in the future, should you find yourself dealing with a witch such as Asa.

1. Stick to the script. If you’re going to burn them (as Monty Python would be quick to remind you), DON”T try to do it during a thunderstorm. The rain puts out the fire, and they don’t get burned. Which means they can come back to life later on.
2. If you are going to entomb them in a tomb with a window in the tomb that lets them see the cross that is mounted on top of the tomb to keep them in place because you didn’t finish burning them due to a thunderstorm, DON’T break the cross and leave it un-replaced. Dumb.
3. If you are going to entomb them in a tomb with a window in the tomb that lets them see the cross that is mounted on top of the tomb to keep them in place because you didn’t finish burning them due to a thunderstorm, AND you break the cross and leave it un-replaced, DON’T also break the glass window at the same time. Doing that gives the witch access to the outside, where they might come in contact with some energy-providing substance, like, oh, I don’t know, blood?
4. If you are going to entomb them in a tomb with a window in the tomb that lets them see the cross that is mounted on top of the tomb to keep them in place because you didn’t finish burning them due to a thunderstorm, AND you break the cross and left it un-replaced, AND you also broke the glass window at the same time which gives the witch access to the outside, where they might come in contact with some energy-providing substance, like, oh, I don’t know, blood, DON’T cut your hand on the glass window that you broke and let your blood drip in through the open window. If you do, you’re just asking for it.
5. And, if all of that isn’t enough, DON’T go back into the crypt, at night, alone.

So yeah. Definitely formative stuff for a lot of the subsequent horror genre films that have come along since 1960. For sure. 

Moving forward, today I did manage to get some decent bandwidth and was able to get ahold of both Hercules In the Center of the Earth (Hercules in the Haunted World, 1961) as well as La Ragazza che Sapeva Troppo (1963, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, in Italian), and so I’ll see if I can’t get caught up over the next day or so. I’ve also got Jim’s comments about the American movie trailer to use for a bit of comparison — and also Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) original, to which Bava was paying homage (homage?)

The Fest continues ….