Mario Bava's first film is gorgiously photographed and often eerie, but it fails to scare much by today's standards. Barbara Steele plays two roles -- one a long-dead witch and the other her princess descendent, for whom the witch is reborn after 200 years in the grave to, for no other reason than to kill her for eternal life, etc. Bava proved a real ability with the camera here, but the predictable and derivative story (with more than a few shades of Nosferatu) makes it decidedly dull.

Aka La Maschera del demonio.