La maschera del demonio (1989) (TV)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Lamberto Bava

Writers:

Lamberto Bava (story)
Massimo De Rita (screenplay)

Genre:

Horror

Plot Keywords:

Nudity | Beautiful Woman | Female Nudity | Remake | Based On Novel

Cast

Giovanni Guidelli	...	Davide
Deborah Caprioglio	...	Sabina (as Debora Kinski)
Stanko Molnar	...	Priest
Mary Sellers	...	Alessandra
Alessandra Bonarotta
Laura Devoti
Michele Soavi	...	Bebo
Stefano Molinari
Ron Williams
Eva Grimaldi	...	Anibas

Also Known As:

Black Sunday (International: English title)
Demons 5: The Devil's Veil (USA) (video title)
La máscara del demonio (Spain)
Le masque de Satan (France) (TV title)

Country:

Italy | Spain | West Germany | France | Portugal

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Company:

ANFRI S.r.l.

Movie Connections:

Remake of La maschera del demonio (1960)

Some good ideas and a Lovecraftian touch

This is one of the many made for cable horror films that Lamberto Bava directed at the end of the 1980s and that sadly disappeared in oblivion short after their making. Of course, these TV-productions don't belong to Bava junior's best works, but most of them are decent (except for the tedious "Dentro il Cimitero" and "La Casa dell' Orco"), and "La Maschera dell' Demonio" belongs to the best ones.

Even though the title suggests a remake of Mario Bava's 1960 landmark gothic horror film of the same title, this one has not much to do with it. Only the "historical background" is the same: the protagonists stumble over an old body of a witch with a mask on her face - and as soon as the mask is removed, evil things happen. The rest of the film is quite different to Bava senior's masterpiece. The setting is in the snowy mountains, and it's about possession, a hapless love relationship, demonic seduction (including a really nasty "date with a demoness") and surreal happenings. The surreal effects work by Italian master Sergio Stivaletti is very well done, remarkable for a rather low budgeted TV-production.

The film suffers a little bit from a slow pace halfway through it, but the climax which boosts some fine Lovecraftian ideas (that spawn most of the surreal effects work) makes up for it and is the real highlight of the movie. Add to that comparably decent acting (especially from Klaus Kinski's ex-girlfriend Deborah Caprioglio) and a good score by Simon Boswell, and You have a surprisingly good film that would have deserved far better distribution than it suffered a decade ago. 6 out of 10, and let's hope that "La Maschera del Demonio" won't be completely forgotten in the years to come.