MovieChat Forums > La maschera del demonio (1961) Discussion > Average at best apart from the visuals

Average at best apart from the visuals


The camera and the effects are pretty good but the rest of the movie is a mess. The story is a mishmash of Gogol's Viy and Universal monster movie cliches, characters are one dimensional at best, and the pace is painfully slow. If this got out in the '40s I might cut is some slack, but it came out the same year as "Village of the damned", a movie miles ahead of this one in aspect of horror and innovation. 5/10

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It's Italian gothic horror from the 60s. What did you expect?

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I can see why some wouldn't like it. I found it to be slow and dull the first time I watched it as well. In fact, it took about three viewings for me to really appreciate it's atmosphere. It's nothing new plotwise but it's exactly what I normally like so I don't care. The more I watch it, the more it becomes one of my favorite films. So in other words, at least for me, it's one of those that took multiple viewings for me to like it.

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I agree with the original poster. The black and white visuals were well done. The slowness does not bother me. But the characters and the plot were such cliches, that the overall result is a rather mediocre movie.

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