BLACK SABBATH (aka I tre volti della paura/1963). Director: Mario Bava.
A trio of horror stories from the director of Blood and Black Lace. In "The Telephone" a young lady is bedeviled by an old boyfriend who escaped from jail, or is it really a woman friend [or lover] who is causing the turmoil behind the scenes? This segment is interesting but half-baked, bordering on stupid. In the best and second segment, "The Wurdalak," starring Boris Karloff and Mark Damon, a family must wonder if their returning patriarch has become a vampire. The best scene has a dead little boy crying out pathetically for his grieving mother. In the final sequence, "The Drop of Water," a woman steals a ring from a hideous corpse that haunts her. Like most of Bava's films, the art direction is excellent, but sometimes the garish color works against the film's atmosphere. Frankly, the first and third sections should have been dropped and the middle segment expanded into a full-length feature.
Verdict: One out of three ain't bad. **1/2.
Saw this at a drive-in as a kid & it scared the shit outta me, esp. the Karloff episode & the one about stealing the ring off the corpse. Very Euro, pretty much dated, but I'd play it at Halloween for camp value.
ReplyDeleteAside from watching the DVD, I last saw it when my college film club showed it at our famous annual Halloween bash -- which always ended with out having to clean up the puke caused by some students' over-indulgence in our special spiked punch!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I saw this on its first run at about 9 yrs old, as I remember that first segment (in the American version), THE DROP OF WATER, as being one of the most horrifying things I'd ever seen. That godawful dead witch and her horrendous, contorted face with her clutching hands rolling mannequin-like at the camera. AAGH! I watched it through my popcorn box. The last story was like a color episode of THRILLER (from TV) but scarier, and I think it contains Boris' last great horror performance. He's genuinely terrifying and the idea of kindly old "Uncle" Boris the vampire staring in the window while I slept actually gave me nightmares. The middle episode with the red telephone (again in the AIP version in the US) was a total bore, but I needed it after being scared so badly by the first episode. It really shook me up!
ReplyDeleteSo I have to respectfully disagree on this one! ;)
--Mark
This is one that I've got to see again. Pretty sure I have it on DVD here or a video file on one of my external drives. Then I'll re[review it on my other blog, B MOVIE NIGHTMARE. Thanks for your comments; they've ignited my curiosity over this one.
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