Friday

It's St. George's Day again in medieval Moldavia, and time to do away with all of the satanic vampires dotting the landscape. Evil minion Javuto is already dead, all that remains is to burn the brand of evil into the back of his master, the vibrant young Asa. After being marked, she rants while they position the Mask of Satan (1960)* over her face. The iron mask has inward-pointing spikes, and when the witch has uttered her last words, it is pounded into her face by a priest with a wooden mallet. It is this image that first greets the viewers of Mario Bava's Italian masterpiece. The whole film seethes with an enriched, full-blooded gothic horror that transforms every frame into a stunning presentation of mood and menace, but it's this first thing that I find lingering in my head long after the movie has drawn to a close. With last night's movie, the After-Midnight October Movie-Thon also draws to a close after thirty movies in twenty-seven enjoyable days. For the rest of the month I will be away from the computer, celebrating Halloween and El Dia de los Muertos elsewhere. So the chairs will be on the tables here at the Update Sidebar for the next week or so. Those interested in revisiting the capsule reviews I've presented here can do so without picking back through a month of posts. They can be found collected, sometimes slightly expanded, into a three-part omnibus here, here and here. Be warned: some are less spoiler friendly in the omnibus. A reminder: set your clocks back on Sunday morning at two; the extra hour created is special. For the rest of our lives, the month of October will be one hour shorter than the Octobers we've grown up with. Happy Halloween! [Cavin]