Black Sunday (Italian:La mascher del demonio) - also known as The Mask of Satan and Revenge of the Vampiere - is a 1960 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava. from a screenplay by Ennio de Concini Mario Serandrei and Marcello Coscia (who was uncredited) The film stars Barbara Steele John Richardson Arturo Dominici and Ivo Garrani It was Bava's directorial debut although he had completed several previous feature films without credit Based very loosely on Nikolai Gogol's short story Viy the narrative concerns a witch who is put to death by her own brother only to return 200 years later to seek revenge on her descendants.