Available from Severin
A group of skiers falls into a crevice while out on the mountain where they awaken the spirit of a vengeful witch.
From a television series and hard to find until now, The Mask of Satan is one of those horror films that feels quintessentially 1980s and Italian at the same time. The work here is that of writer-director Lamberto Bava and writers Nikolay Gogol and Massimo De Rita, loosely based on the 1960 film Black Sunday. Here the story is expected these days (which may have felt more original in 1989) with a group of beautiful friends finding something they shouldn’t and facing the consequences of their actions when they mess with that something they found. The film plays with a lot of expected story beats but also has a few surprises. While it is cheesy at many moments, it also has some really good bits and pieces here and there.
The cast here is ok. No one here was bypassed by mistake for an Oscar or a BAFTA or anything like that. The cast does their best which is just ok overall. Some performances are ok-er than the others while some are so much worse. The cast as a whole is a bit messy but a lot of this can easily be connected to the writing and the direction. The acting is normally something that would see more virtual ink here, but it’s not memorable enough here to be doing much more than this.
In terms of special effects, there is quite a bit and most of it has not aged well. However, fans of 1980s horror should be happy here with mostly practical effects, some of them looking a bit homemade, with plenty of goo, gore, and blood. The effects team did decent work for the material at hand but definitely could have used more budget.
The set decoration here is interesting in that some locations were definitely found, but most were most definitely sound stage builds that don’t all look real. That snow cave? Really? The castle/main location is also iffy at best on many fronts. Once again, the budget is showing and the last of details comes barging through the sets like an Italian version of the Kool-Aid Man. The set looks cheap and requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. Wardrobe on the other hand looks very much like it came from a mall in the late 1980s which is perfect here.
The film here is one that did not age well but is still fun to watch for the cheesy goodness of its story and practical special effects. There is a good amount of overacting and underacting from the cast, but it’s sort of expected for this film. Overall, the film is nothing to really write home about, but it’s entertaining enough to watch or rewatch.
The new release from Severin looks and sounds good as their releases usually do. The image quality here may actually be a hindrance to the film in that it allows the viewer to see all the issues in the effects and the decor which could be either good or bad depending on each viewer’s preferences and their inclinations toward bad movie. The extras here aren’t particularly numerous while being a good quality. Found on this Blu-ray release are interviews with Lamberto Bava, actress Mary Sellers, and actress Debora Caprioglio.