Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Ehirerapp Waste of time

GazerRise Fantastic!

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Nigel P This is an anthology film directed by Mario Bava, and contains three stories framed by direct-to-camera pronouncements from Boris Karloff.The first segment, 'The Telephone' is a very entertaining, if rather contrived, giallo-styled thriller featuring Rosy (Michèle Mercier), a French prostitute, her friend Mary (Lydia Alfonsi) and pimp Frank (Milo Quesada). An excellent mish-mash of broken friendships healed, relentless abusive phone calls and murder. In number two, 'The Wurdalak', a family is plagued by a curse that appears to have afflicted the father Russian nobleman Gorca (Boris Karloff), which he brings home with him. Finally, 'The Drop of Water', set in 1910, features Nurse Helen Chester (Jacqueline Pierreux) who pays the price for stealing a ring from the finger of a corpse in her care.I am not a huge fan of the colourful, darkly gaudy cinematography championed either by Bava, or later Dario Argento for projects like 'Suspiria (1977)'. Such an approach reduces the reality of the horror, which itself is difficult enough to convey with any measure of authenticity anyway. You are never allowed to forget you are watching a professional production, with actors rather than people, so heightened is the ultimate effect. This is just my opinion of course, and who cares about that?Having said that though, I thoroughly enjoyed 'Black Sabbath' a lot more than I expected to. Possibly Bava's approach works for me here so well because the stories, by their nature, are concise and bite-sized: each story is being relayed as opposed to being 'real'. And the wonderful use of primal colours here gives each tale a ghostly fairy-tale look which is very evocative.Much tinkering with the format befell this production for various around-the-world sales. The American version, for example, changes the order of the stories and removes all mention of prostitution from 'The Telephone' (Frank is merely a ghost rather than a pimp). Bava wanted the final scene to have been Nurse Chester's corpse, but this was also changed before production wrapped. So an utterly ingenious idea was had to feature Karloff signing off (just as he had opened the film), but in character as Gorca, before the camera pans away to reveal the horse he is riding to be nothing more than a prop, and the production crew running round waving branches to simulate the animal's motion. Such a jarring 'to camera' reveal has spoiled many horrors in the past (Bela Lugosi's 'Mark of the Vampire' and 'Return of the Vampire', for example), but works really well here because it merely accelerates the heightened reality rather than pull it out of thin air. An excellent, highly recommended anthology.

Fella_shibby I first saw this in the early nineties on a VHS. Revisited this recently on a blu ray. This film is an anthology of three tales of terror.The first one is about a woman who is stalked by a caller while in her apartment. It is revealed that her ex-boyfriend has escaped from prison n that she was the one responsible for turning him in. Her female friend comes to her apartment to give her company. Nice twist, nice angle.... This segment was OK. It was shot in jus one apartment n the tension is not that high. In the second segment a Vladimir while riding on a long journey discovers a corpse by a river. The corpse is decapitated and has been impaled with a knife. He approaches the nearby house n finds out something weird n sinister about the dead corpse n the killer of the corpse. This is the best segment of mine. The trademark of Bava missing in the earlier segment is covered very well in this one. The Gothic imagery n cinematography! This segment reminded me of Black Sunday. The atmosphere in this segment is laid on thick with winds howling through a purple-lit night, and a roaring log fire illuminating an old wooden peasant's house. The mountains, the valleys n the river is captured very well. The ruined fort/castle was creepy. The atmosphere was so cold that i pulled up my blanket while watching this. The cottage in the middle of nowhere looked straight outta creepy paintings. One of the best part in this segment is Boris Karloff's acting n get up. Very creepy. One very creepy scene has Boris Karloff standing outside a window peeping. The third one is of a nurse who robs a ring while preparing the body of a recently deceased woman who was involved with the occult and seances. A really spooky one.

Hitchcoc The stories in this anthology, narrated by Boris Karloff, are wonderful. They are full of atmosphere and terror. It is a masterful use of classic stories, presented in a nice way. The acting is excellent and the selection of stories fits the theme of darkness. One of them involves the effects of something that causes a person to kill only those who are the most meaningful to them--their loved ones. Another involves the stealing of a jewel from a psychic which leads to serious circumstances. Often these multi-story films have a single good one and the others are wanting. Here, with the help of Boris Karloff, things move naturally from one to the other, with an implied theme.

Dr_Drew_Says Black Sabbath (1963) - The Good, the Bad and the Cinematic BeautySynopsis: A trio of Italian cinema giallo/horror shorts: "Il Telefono" - the story of a woman driven to madness by disturbing phone calls, "I Wurdelak" - a period piece of a family driven to destruction by a vampire-like being, "La Goccia d' Acqua" - translated as a "A Drop of Water", it centers around a nurse who steals a ring from a corpse who comes back for revenge.The Good: A beautifully crafted set of films that each show unique qualities, yet somehow feel cohesive. All three shorts are set in different time periods, yet the atmosphere of the film in its entirety feels familiar and establishes continuity, so you never feel like you're starting a brand new movie. It's a quality that is rare, so I am endeared to few anthology-type movies, but this one succeeds. As for each of the shorts independently, for me, "La Goccia d' Acqua" was by far the best and most effective. Few movies created in the 1960's hold any sort of true scariness to them in present day, but this segment does just that. It's a very creepy piece and can challenge most modern horror in its ability to raise the hair on your arms. It's something about the look of the corpse and how the suspense of the scene builds to a fever pitch and ultimate reveal. While I enjoyed the other two segments as well, this segment really made the movie for me. It finished the film on a high note and made me momentarily forget a few of the things that were lacking in the first hour of the film.The Bad: While the entire film is good, I felt that the first two segments didn't quite hold up as well over time. "Il Telefono" is a very straight up giallo, which I felt that Bava perfected over time, but is somewhat lacking in it's bite here. The piece is relatively tame and the ending was predictable. I found it rather boring in spots as well. "I Wurdelak" is a step in the right direction for the film, but it drags on a tad too long (which is not something you should feel with short films). Karloff is good in the part of Gorca, but otherwise, the acting is period-piece over-the-top. This is fine if the story is grand in scale, but with roughly a half hour of screen time, there simply wasn't enough material for the "Gone with the Wind" dramatic acting. The tale is essentially a love story, but with so much happening so fast, it loses its believability and that takes you out of the story. I feel like these are minor gripes in the grand scheme, though. The Cinematic Beauty: The film in its entirety is gorgeous. For what the "I Wurdelak" story lacks in depth, it makes up for in its beautiful set pieces. The Old World ruins and the chilling brutality of the winter landscape embraces the viewer. Each segment has excellent use of lighting and color, specifically "La Goccia d' Acqua". A simple strobing green light outside a window gives this segment ten times the atmosphere and sets up a very suspenseful ending. In addition to the light, the dripping water effect is palpable, heightening your senses and creating massive tension in a very simplistic way. Bava always had this sort of attention to detail and it is what makes his films so easy to watch. Sometimes it is hard to pinpoint exactly why you like to watch a movie. On the surface, the individual segments of Black Sabbath are not ground-breaking in concept at all (aside from the last possibly). The vampire concept, even in 1963, has been done hundreds of times. The difference is Bava's superior attention to detail and the creation of an atmosphere within each of the films to draw the viewer in. In doing that, you create a movie that is successful in its execution.