Film Adaptation of Gogol's "Viy"

[David Powelstock]

Dear SEELANGers,

I just read in the NY Times today about this schlocky-sounding 1960 horror movie that is based on "Viy" (see the info on the director pasted in below). Has anyone seen this? Probably of very limited instructional value, but it could be a real hoot for the students as an after-hours amuse-oeil. [more info by searching "Black Sunday" on imdb.com]

Cheers,
David

P.S. I just watched the delightfully lurid trailer at netflix. Not sure if you need to be a netflix member to see it.

David Powelstock 
Asst. Prof. of Russian & East European Literatures 
Chair, Program in Russian & East European Studies 
Brandeis University 
GRALL, MS 024 
Waltham, MA  02454-9110 
781.736.3347 (Office) 

<snip>
The son of Eugenio Bava, a cinematographer whose credits go back to Giovanni Pastrone’s 1914 “Cabiria,” one of the first great epics of Italian cinema, Mario Bava was himself a successful cinematographer, with a reputation for saving troubled international co-productions, when he was invited to direct a project of his own. The result, based on a story by Nikolai Gogol and influenced by the new line of Gothic horror films being produced by Hammer in Britain, was “La Maschera del Demonio,” starring an unknown British actress, Barbara Steele <http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=67811&inline=nyt-per> , whose burning black eyes immediately made her one of the very few women to achieve stardom in horror movies. Released in the United States as “Black Sunday” by American International Pictures, it became, Mr. Lucas says in his detailed commentary, the highest grossing film in that company’s tawdry history, and a new career was born for Mr. Bava. 
<snip>



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