1960's Black Sunday: Possession Never was so Beautiful

An evil witch (Katia Vajda) and her servant (Javutich) are tortured and killed by villagers. They are then forced to have
metal masks of Satan nailed to their faces and buried. Before she gets nailed (no ideas!), Katia puts a curse on everyone.
They're then, later, put into catacombs with crosses over their faces.

A doctor, Dr. Thomas Kruvajan, and his protégé, Dr. Andre Gorobec, travel past the catacombs when their stagecoach's wheel
breaks. They go inside and accidentally awaken Katia.

Katia & Javutich return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike
descendant, Asa Vajda. Only the girl's brother, Javuto, and Dr. Andre Gorobec stand in her way.

An interesting yet simple and effective story of possessing descendants.

The characters are not that complex and actors are mediocre but it's overshadowed by the atmosphere.

Barbara Steele stands out though. She's macabre beautiful and not a bad actress. She's a 60-70s legendary horror actress. I
cannot state enough how beautiful she was then, with her big soulful eyes and statuesque face and body. I better stop. Hey,
you girls can describe "hot" actors! :)

John Richardson is the young playboy doctor but comes across as rather shallow.

Enrico Olivieri as Constantine Vajda, the father of Asa Vajda, gives a pretty good performance.

This is simply a gorgeous set. It's filled with lavish and creepy sets, props, and costumes. It's has such a rich atmosphere
you can cut it with a chainsaw! Everything about this film reeks of horror. The camera work is great and purposeful. The
sound is good, some great atmospheric music.

I just love this movie! It's the first Italian horror I actually liked. The set alone is fantastic. The story isn't bad. Definitely worth a view, if even just to see the set and props...and Barbara Steele!