Theme: Continental Gothic

Continental Gothic is a term applied to films that emerged Europe, principally from Italy, during the 1960s and into the 1970s. The genre was kicked into high gear with Mario Bava’s extraordinarily moody and stylish Black Sunday (1960), the most influential work of the genre (although it was not the first).

The films of the Continental Gothic cycle drew undeniable influence from Hammer Films and Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations around the same time. The Italian films created their own unique style almost always shot in moody black-and-white, featuring supernatural retributions and resurrected witches, all taking place in beautiful decaying castles and old mansions. Many of the films also featured British actress Barbara Steele whose haunting wide-eyed beauty became an indispensable fixture of the genre.

There were other efforts from other countries, including France, Germany and in particular Spain. These often imitated Corman and the Hammer Films, including a number of Poe adaptations and several Hammer-like vampire films. The opening up of censorship standards in the late 1960s saw greater permissiveness on screen and these films featured far more erotic content than English-language counterparts, most notedly when it came to the series of lesbian vampire films during the early 70s.