Italian filmmaker Mario Bava is born in Liguria, Italy in 1914. The writer/director/cinematographer and special effects artist was a giant of the “giallo” horror film movement from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Bava co-directed what is considered the first Italian horror film I Vampiri in 1956 and Italy’s first sci-fi film The Day the Sky Exploded in 1958. He also directed Black Sunday, Black Sabbath, Planet of the Vampires, A Bay of Blood, and Shock. He died in 1980.
This Day in Halloween: Pioneering Italian giallo filmmaker Mario Bava -- director of "Black Sunday" -- is born in Liguria, Italy in 1914. / Illustration by Wynter Malone