Davide (Giovanni Guidelli) and his friends (including Mary Sellers, Debora Caprioglio and fellow Italian director Michele Soavi) are skiing in the mountains when they accidentally fall into a crevasse in the snow, finding themselves trapped in some kind of ice cave. Inside this cave, they discover the frozen body of a woman with a strange mask on her face. What they don’t realize is that this is the frozen body of the witch Anibas (Eva Grimauldi), and when the skiers remove the witch’s mask (a spike-studded execution device), not only does the witch come back to life but most of the skiers begin to go insane as they are swept under the thrall of the mighty Anibas. Only a mysterious priest (Stanko Molnar) knows the secret of the witch and possibly how to combat her ancient evil.

What director Lamberto Bava may lack in the subtlety and wonderful gothic atmosphere of his father, Mario Bava, he at least partially makes up for it by really going gonzo with whatever material he gets his hands on, most notably in the Demons films. You have to hand it to LamBava for having the guts to do a loose remake of one of his father’s most revered films, Black Sunday. But Lamberto really does take the premise and make it his own. He cakes the film in layer upon layer of weird craziness. For instance, the skiers after being unable to climb out of the crevasse decide to go deeper into the cave where they eventually finds themselves in some kind of underground nearly deserted and frozen over village only populated by an eccentric priest. Molnar as the priest really nails the tone of the movie perfectly. And speaking of actors who truly embrace the crazy here, a special shoutout to Mary Sellers who goes full tilt nutso and embodies everything Bava is going for, writhing, moaning and screaming like there’s no tomorrow. Mask of Satan very much strikes a similar tone to other over-the-top Italian classics like Bava’s Demons and Michele Soavi’s The Church and The Sect. Honestly the weakest link here is Guidelli in the lead protagonist role. While he has conventionally good looks, his performance is pretty wooden and uninteresting. It feels like everyone else in this movie is dialed up to 11, and he’s sitting comfortably at like a 3. While the movie certainly needs a straight man to anchor the ridiculous proceedings, that doesn’t mean they have to be lifeless. Still, Mask of Satan is a lot of fun with Lamberto finding his own groove separate and distinct from his father’s.

Severin brings Mask of Satan to blu-ray for the first time in a very nice transfer mastered in 2k from the original camera negative. It has consistent grain levels and the color grading done on the transfer really makes it pop. Bava, in perhaps a nod to his father, uses a rich color palette for this film, and the bright reds, blues and greens of the interiors juxtaposed against the chilling icy external locations looks great. For audio options we get both an Italian and a Spanish mono track and both sound quite nice and clean with little to no distortion in the audio. For extras, we have a series of interviews with Lamberto Bava and actresses Mary Sellers and Debora Caprioglio. Bava’s is certainly the most enlightening, clocking in at nearly 40 minutes, he talks about the conception of the film, the conflicting feelings about remaking his father’s classic and how it all came together as a TV movie in a series on witches. The extras feel a bit light for a Severin disc but are appreciated nonetheless.

Mask of Satan is a HELL of a fun ride and illustrates how to do a remake right, taking the basis premise and making it your own. Plus Severin has delivered the film with excellent tech specs and a nice set of extras. Highly recommended for Euro horror fans!