Black Sabbath, 1963, Italian, released in the United States by American International, color, 99 minutes. Directed by Mario Bava. Starring Boris Karloff, Michele Mercier, Mark Damon, Susy Andersen, Jacqueline Pierreux. Schlock-Meter rating: Nine stars out of 10.
Famed Italian director Mario Bava once said that which fascinated himself was one human, alone in a room, confronting their own fears. Anyone who watches Black Sabbath alone will seek company quickly afterwards. It's a very scary trilogy of tales hosted in a tongue-in-cheek manner by horror legend Boris Karloff. In Black Sabbath, characters succumb to their fears. As in previous films, Bava uses color to great effect to produces shocks and scares.
The first tale, A Drop of Water, (based on a story by Chekhov) concerns a condescending nurse who is summoned to prepare a dead woman for burial. At the home, she steals an expensive ring from the dead woman (who in color looks truly horrifying). Later, at the nurse's house, the corpse returns to reclaim her stolen property. This is the most chilling of three tales. The second, The Telephone, while spooky and worth watching, lags a bit in the middle. It concerns a beautiful woman (Mercier) who receives repeated phone calls from a man she believes dead. He may or may not be calling. It may be imagination brought on by guilt. I've heard on the Web that this tale was the inspiration for the opening sequence of Scream, where Drew Barrymore is killed by a harassing caller. The premise is the same, but the tale takes different plot turns.
The Wurdalak, the final tale (based on a story by Tolstoi) may be the most structured of the trilogy. It concerns the head of a household (Karloff) who returns from a vampire hunt a vampire himself. Without remorse or affection, he coldly goes about turning his large family into vampires, starting with his young grandson. Karloff, who was only a few years from death in this role, is startingly chilling. He still has the capacity to bring shivers to the spine. A lover (Damon) of one of the daughters (Andersen) tries to stop Karloff, with tragic results. The final choice proves perhaps that love can extend beyond the grave. By all means buy this film, watch it late at night with Black Sunday, another Bava classic. But make sure you hold the one you love tightly after the viewing.