Aside from working on Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1959), Bava had partially directed other films without credit, including Caltiki and The Giant of Marathon (1959). This led to Galatea's president, Lionello Santi, offering him the opportunity to make a film for foreign markets. According to producer Massimo De Rita, an oft-repeated story suggesting that Santi approached Bava to make a film based on a story of his own choosing after being impressed with his work on The Giant of Marathon is apocryphal; De Rita claims that he was responsible for persuading Santi to allow Bava to make a film of his own and that he also begged Santi to increase the film's budget compared to what he felt would allow the film to turn a profit. Due to the recent success of Terence Fisher's version of Dracula for Hammer Film Productions, Bava decided to make a horror film. To compete with Dracula, Santi wanted the film to be shot in Technicolor, but Bava insisted on shooting in black and white; he justified this as both a stylistic and practical choice, as the makeup transformation sequences required special red and green lights that would have made them impossible to film with color. Bava chose to base his project on Gogol's short story, first published in the 1835 collection Mirgorod. Bava frequently read this story to his children before their bedtime. His first outline of the film, a four-page treatment titled Il Vij and closely follows Gogol's original story. Santi deemed Bava's treatment unsatisfactory and hired de Concini to help Bava turn the concept into a workable screenplay. According to Bava biographer Tim Lucas, while de Concini contributed many ideas to what would become the film, he did little of the actual scripting, which Lucas attributes to Marcello Coscia. During the scripting phase, the film's title was changed from Il Viy to La maschera del demonio to capitalize on the success of House of Wax (1953) (released in Italy as La maschera di cera) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) (La maschera di Frankenstein). The Ministerial Commission of Revision, through which all Italian film scripts were required to be submitted for review, remarked that Black Sunday's script "is so stuffed with witches, vampires, skeletons, ghosts, with its complement of murders and dead bodies, that [Fisher's Dracula] looks like a children's show when compared to it." Bava drew extensive storyboards, during which he developed the film's visual style based on his earlier works as cinematographer and co-director. Drawing on both of the films that he had co-directed with Riccardo Freda, I Vampiri (1957) and Caltiki, Bava used the film to develop his frequent use of backstories to expand the scope of his films beyond their narrative and budgetary constraints. By late March 1960, Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici and Antonio Pierfederici were cast. Bava felt that the film needed a British cast to convince the audience that they would be watching a film as strong as Dracula. Steele was cast in the dual role of Asa and Katia Vajda. There are two accounts describing how Steele came to be cast in the film: one suggests that Bava, while perusing through head shots of British actors under contract at Fox, selected Steele from these photos. Steele, however, recalled that Bava tracked her down after being captivated by photos of her in a Life magazine photoshoot. Bava later commented that Steele "had the perfect face for my films". Richardson was cast as Katia's love interest Andrej. A colleague of Steele's who had also appeared in Sapphire and Bachelor of Hearts, Richardson's Rank contract was similarly sold to Fox and he had come to Italy searching for film work; by this time, both he and Steele were represented by the same agent from William Morris Endeavor.
Principal photography took place at the studios of Scalera Film, with exteriors and some interiors shot at Castle Massimo in Arsoli. Govoni recalled the shoot to be a "very tiring" experience characterized by long work hours. Lucas believes that this was partially the result of the film entering production prematurely, without a thorough revision of the script or consideration for certain filming logistics, prompting Bava to rely on his instincts and improvise. Steele and Dominici were initially outfitted with prop fangs which do not appear in the final film: Bava recalled that he eventually asked the actors to discard them due to their clichéd appearance, while Govoni stated that the fangs were kept during the shoot, but "Serandrei cut around them" during editing. Most of the cast delivered their dialogue in English, with the exception of Checchi and the Dominicis; Govoni recalled that while the translation of the original Italian text the cast was given to work with was crude, they mostly stuck to it. Throughout the shoot, Steele proved to be difficult to work with. The actress frequently missed her call times or refused to arrive on-set due to misunderstandings. Critic and editor Martyn Conterio considers many of Steele's recollections of the film's production to be unreliable. This includes her claim that the film was shot in winter, and that everyone on set had worn black and white costumes, neither of which are true. Steele admitted to her misbehavior during the film's shoot later in life and noted that towards the end of the shoot, she and Richardson were prone to nervous fits of laughter due to the stress they had accumulated over the course of filming. Although Bava is credited as the film's cinematographer, Govoni stated that camera operator Ubaldo Terzano was the actual director of photography, and insisted he had lit the sets "so perfectly that Bava seldom had to correct him". Lucas concurs on this point, noting that while Bava would provide storyboards and occasionally adjust lights and lenses, Terzano was largely in control of which takes would be printed. The final week of the shooting schedule was reserved for special effects work and tracking shots. An English-dubbed version of the film created for international export, titled The Mask of Satan, was translated from the Italian-language script and directed by George Higgins III and recorded in Rome with the English Language Dubbers Association (ELDA). The music for the Italian and ELDA versions of Black Sunday was composed by Roberto Nicolosi and conduced by Pier Luigi Urbini. Lucas notes that both versions used the score sparingly, leaving the creation of much of the soundscape to the sound editor, although key dramatic scenes play with no music at all, suggesting the difficulties of creating music for a film in a genre that was in its infancy in Italy. In 1960, Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson of American International Pictures (AIP) were invited to Italy by their Roman talent agent, Fulvio Lucisano, to view the film. Arkoff was introduced to Bava after the screening, congratulating him. AIP acquired the film for approximately $100,000, recovering its production budget. For the film's release in the United States, AIP re-edited scenes, re-dubbed the soundtrack, and changed several of the characters' names. Arkoff deemed the ELDA version of the film to be "technically unacceptable", and had Lou Rusoff produce a new English version at Titra Studios in New York City, which was directed by Lee Kresel and edited by Salvatore Billitteri. In contrast to the embellishments of the ELDA version, Titra's dubbing was largely faithful to the cast's onscreen dialogue, although some phrases were softened. AIP removed or shortened the more violent and sexual scenes in the film. AIP's editing reduced the film's runtime to 83 minutes, compared to the 87 minute runtime of most Italian prints. Nicolosi's score was replaced with a new one by Les Baxter. Arkoff and Nicholas felt Nicolosi's score was "too Italian" and that American audiences would not like it.
The film stars Steele, Richardson, Checchi, Garrani, Dominici and Pierfederici. Steele is a menacing and complex presence who never lets the expected fangs and cape dominate.
A film which the passage of the years has managed to put in its place as one of the best horror titles of all time. Morbid and ghoulish though it is, the picture at least has the merit of taking its hideous story quite seriously. Both Bava as well as the cast have taken a serious approach to the macabre theme that adds up to lotsa tension and suspense.
Simon says Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio) receives:
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