black and white film, it was in the color milieu that the director
The film that emerged,
Black Sunday (1960),
is one his most well known as well as one of his best. This widely
influential movie also started the horror career of a beautiful but
then unknown British actress named
Barbara Steele. While Black Sunday is a
black and white film, it was in the color milieu that the director
excelled. The projects which followed began to develop stunning
photography, making great use of lighting, set design, and camera
positioning to compliment mise-en-scenes bathed in deep primaries.
Through works such as
Hercules in the Haunted World (1961),
The Whip and the Body (1963),
and
Planet of the Vampires (1965),
Bava's films took on the look of works of art. In the films
The Evil Eye (1963)
and
Blood and Black Lace (1964),
he created the style and substance of the giallo, a genre which would
be perfected in the later films of
Dario Argento.