Lamberto Bava decides being his own man isn't going to cut it and remakes one of his father's best known films, Black Sunday (1960). Because what was Mario Bava's film really in need of? Teen skiers! A group of 8 teens go skiing and fall into a huge hole after an earthquake. Once inside they discover a woman encased in ice wearing an iron mask. Naturally, they pull it off and it causes another earthquake with one of their friends being impaled by a huge ice shard (literally no one cares). The group of now 7 find the earthquake has unearthed some ancient city where a blind priest, who killed the witch centuries ago, lives with his dog. The kids soon start acting possessed and David and Sabina, the two virgins of the group, must fight to survive. This is Bava doing Black Sunday mixed with Demons (1985) to so-so effect. On the plus side, there is some good design work and cinematography. They also have some great snow in this. The downside? Pretty much everything else. Bava would have fared better just doing a teen horror flick rather than a weak attempt at the Nikolai Gogol story, which will only draw comparisons with his father's superior work. Look for Michele Soavi as one of the kids.
Review of The Mask of Satan
