Vampires Review: "Black Sunday"

The Gist:  A devil worshiping witch brought back to life needs to posses the body of a young girl.

Clarification:  As the movie starts Ava the witch is about to be burned alive by a group of villagers lead by her brother for devil worshiping.  Prior to her death she puts a curse on everyone.  They put a mask with deadly spikes on the inside on her prior to burning her but as soon as they start the fire a strong storm hits out of no where putting the fire out and scaring off all the villagers as a sign.  They eventually end up burying the body.  

Fast forward a few generations and a couple of doctors accidentally stumble upon the tomb of the which.  They then not so accidentally open it and of course one of them has to pull off the death mask, cutting himself in the process and bleeding into the mouth of the witches corpse bringing her back to life.  During this same time is when they meet the distant relative of the witch; Katia who looks exactly like her whom one of the doctors falls for.  From there you basically have two women who look exactly alike with one being good and one being evil.

Female Vampire Factor:  The vampirism in this film is implied meaning there are absolutely no bite scenes.  Much like the Bella Lugosi Dracula film you see the vampire coming toward the victim before the screen fades to black.

  The main characters of the film are played by Barbara Steele who is very attractive as Katia

but Ava the vampire/witch is seen mostly with holes in her face until she reaches the point where she can disguise herself as Katia.

This film was made with a high scare and gore factor in mind and is not a romanticized vampire film like most of this time period.  It gets a Vampire Beauty rating of 1 out of 5.  For a much sexier vampire film with a similar plot check out the 1971 film "The Vampire Happening".