The Gothic atmosphere is thick as clam chowder and so is the fog in this classic and influential Italo-chiller from director Mario Bava. It’s all about a seventeenth century condemned witch who puts a curse on her ancestors when her own brother executes her by hammering a spike-filled Satanic mask to her face. Two hundred years later, she manages to come back to life and wreak havoc.
This was an international hit that launched the careers of Bava and big-eyed brunette actress Barbara Steele, who plays both the evil witch and her innocent descendant. In the US, distributor American-International Pictures originally censored several moments of harsh violence, including a hot iron branding on human skin, Barbara Steele’s ghastly spiky mask death with blood that squishes out of the eye and mouth holes, and a few eyeball stabbings. Meanwhile, The United Kingdom banned the film outright until 1968. Most current issues restore all of the blood and the film survives the years as a gory and moody good time.