Le Masque du démon

The crushing atmosphere of Bava’s cult horror film is indisputable. It retains its charm even fifty years after being made – the old palaces, the crumbling graves, the waking witches, the secret entrances – but the naivete of the story and the behaviour of characters, very different from modern standards of film logic, prevent me from being drawn into it. I appreciate the atmosphere and everything else, but I will never be enthusiastic about this type of “gothic” horror, unlike, for instance, the more realistic horror thrillers from the same era. (2010-11-28)

It’s startling how very naïve it is. His decades-older genre brothers are no match for this. But even more startling is that, (not only) thanks to Bava’s visual sensitivity which makes your heart sing and flutter in your rib cage, it doesn’t matter one bit. So in the end the most startling thing is the fact that back then Andrea Checchi looked exactly the same as what Martin Shaw looks like today. (2013-02-01)