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Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sickeningly scary!
Review: I remember seeing this movie as a teenager on television, during daylight hours, and with a friend. We were both on edge during and after the movie. As we got older, we would refer to it often and it would become something of an inside joke to us! What makes this movie so scary is that usually love will overcome all evil, but in this case, love is evil! Very chilling and well made movie. It literally made me sick to my stomach!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unforgettable till this day
Review: I was 7 when my mom took me to see this movie. It scared me so much, I never forgot the look on the dead womans face and dripping water always has me looking over my shoulder.....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bone-chilling
Review: I was born in 1970, New Jersey, and the last time I saw this was with my brother and to this day, he's 32 and I'm 29, we still are constantly referring to it and it's magnitude of horror! The only other mortifying movie to us in those days would have been Burnt Offerings (sp?) with the coffin being slammed up the stairs. I personally thought the little doll in Trilogy of Terror was amusing, while my Mom and brother hugged and clawed each other in fright.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Plenty Scary, especially 'Drop of Water.'
Review: If nothing else gives you the willies from this movie, then you'll never forget the face of Magdalena, the dead spiritualist in "A Drop of Water" who seeks revenge on a nurse who theived her ring. I still see her body -- drifiting and floating forward toward the camera, a half smile on her contorted face with dead, bulging eyes -- then arms slowly reaching out for her victim -- a truly horrifying memory from childhood and one I carry until this day. I loved this video, baby!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bava-lite, but still wonderful
Review: It's a shame that the Americanized version is the only one available, since the original Italian print is quite different and much better. Not only is the order of the segments changed, but The Telephone is a much more disturbing tale of erotic psychosis in its original form. This is more comic book like than most of Bava's other horror films, but it's beautiful to look at, of course, and still very effective, one of the very few artistic anthology horror films ever made. It's movies like this that should play in every city around Halloween.Karloff is brilliant in his only vampire role.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Still Scared After 30 Years
Review: The dead spiritualist in the second story, "Drop of Water", scared the wits out of me when I was 8 years old. Watching it again at age 22 still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. Something to be said for the effects used in the 60's and long-term chills on a kid.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A good rainy night old scary movie.
Review: I enjoyed this movie when viewed in 1963 or 64 and enjoyed it almost as much when I recently saw it again. You have to place youself back into that time period to really enjoy it since today's movies are so full of violence, sex and terror. The first and third tales in this movie are a little better that the second tale (The telephone) though I always remembered all three tales as being scary. If you enjoyed the old sci fi movies such as Kronos, The Crawling Eye, The Giant Behemoth, etc., you will enjoy this movie with the great Boris Karloff as both narrator and appearing in the third tale.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 2 of 3 ain't bad
Review: Film is 3 tales of terror, and 2 are atmospheric and effective. "Drop of water" is classic spook tale of dead woman avenging the thief who stole her ring; "The Telephone" is not as satisfying--story concerns ringing phone and a call-girl. The final story is only segment with Karloff, as he plays patriarch of family attacked by vampire relatives. Karloff is also narrator. This film should be seen by horror enthusiasts.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Chills aplenty
Review: Italian director Mario Bava (1914-1980) is one of the giants of the horror film genre. Bava's big break into the field came with his 1960 black and white classic "Black Sunday" starring Barbara Steele. This was only the beginning, as Bava churned out a series of gruesome shockers over the next seventeen years; his films always promised great style mixed with scenes of murder and mayhem. Perhaps Mario's biggest contribution to the horror genre was his 1972 picture "Twitch of the Death Nerve," also known as "Bay of Blood." It doesn't take too long to realize "Friday the 13th" shamelessly cribbed from this slasher bloodbath. At least two of the murders in the film appear almost unchanged in the first installment of the Jason Voorhees franchise. That's right-- Mario Bava gave birth to the modern slasher film. But he also dabbled in non-horror films with projects like "Four Times That Night" and the immensely entertaining peplum classic "Hercules in the Haunted World" starring Reg Park as the muscle bound hero. After watching many of his films, I have to express further admiration for this amazing director; he could make an entertaining motion picture no matter what the subject.

"I trevolti della paura," known on these shores as "Black Sabbath," is a great contribution to horror cinema. In 1963, Bava filmed three short stories and packaged them under one title with Boris Karloff introducing each segment. The first tale, "The Telephone," is a claustrophobic tale of horror that takes place in the apartment of Rosy (Michele Mercier). Strange and horrifying phone calls begin streaming into the apartment at the same time Rosy's ex-husband Frank leaves prison. Alarmed that her hubby will try to hurt her, she dials up her pal Mary (Lidia Alfonsi), asking her friend to come over and comfort her. There's an interesting subtext to Mary and Rosy's phone call that the American version apparently cut out of the picture before releasing it that this Image Entertainment DVD restores. Watch to see what it is. Anyway, Mary arrives and, when Rosy falls asleep, writes something down on a piece of paper for her friend to read later. When Rosy wakes up, she learns a few painful truths about both her friend and her ex-husband.

The second story, "The Wurdulak," stars Boris Karloff as Gorca, the patriarch of a well to do Russian family in the eighteenth century. Wurdulaks, what we would call vampires, plague the countryside. Gorca sets out to slay one of them, a fellow named Alibeq, but leaves strict instructions to his family to destroy him, Gorca, if he returns any later than the stroke of midnight five days hence. Gorca reasons that he will be a vampire himself if he has not returned by that time, and his family agrees. Predictably, Gorca returns late and acts very, VERY weird. The family knows something is wrong but agonizes about doing what they know they must do. Their hesitancy has unfortunate results for several members of the family. This story is the best one on the disc; check out the scene where Karloff thunders around on a horse. Very creepy!

The final tale of woe, called "The Drop of Water," finds Nurse Helen Corey (Jacqueline Pierreux) receiving a weird phone call late at night. It seems an old medium died and her servant is too scared to move the body. Corey agrees to help the superstitious assistant but makes the mistake of stealing a valuable ring off the corpse. What follows is classic chills and thrills as a fly follows Corey around wherever she goes, continually alighting on the ring on her finger. The nurse tries to hide in her house where the sound of dripping water drives her to the point of insanity. Again, no reason to spoil the film for you, but wait until you see what happens to Nurse Corey as the tale winds to a close. Note to self: never steal anything from a deceased psychic.

All I can say here is that Mario Bava has done it again. While I still think "Black Sunday" is a better film, "Black Sabbath" nicely delivers the shocks. Getting Karloff to do double duty as the narrator and the star of one of the segments was a nice touch, too. Including this great actor in the project gives "Black Sabbath" a sort of homage feel, a nod to the earlier horror movies of the 1930s and 1940s. It's no mistake that Karloff's segment is the best one of the three. The weakest is "The Telephone," although even this tale works quite well in the suspense department. In "The Wurdulak," you know what's going to happen, but not so in "The Telephone." Plus, Michele Mercier is extremely easy on the eyes. I couldn't help but think of the seminal "Black Christmas" and "When a Stranger Calls" after watching "The Telephone." I wonder if Bob Clark and Fred Walton took Bava's creation as the inspiration for their own, later films. As for "The Drop of Water," well, it's a scary film that doubtless inspired its own imitators years later.

Horror fans would be remiss to pass up this delightful collection. They're not gory in any way, just as "Black Sunday" wasn't gory, but they are nicely done pieces well worth watching. A big thanks goes out to Image Entertainment for releasing the film in its original format. I am slowly working my way through all of Mario Bava's film, and "Black Sabbath" was a huge step towards completing my journey. After watching the movie, check out the production notes assembled by Bava historian Tim Lucas, the trailer, and the Bava biography. If you like horror, you will definitely want to give this one a few hours of your time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A terrifying vampire tale
Review: Black Sabbath is one of those movies that made a horrifyingly-indelible impression on me when I first saw it. In "The Drop of Water", I can still see the contorted visage of the dead spiritualist as she fixes her malevolent stare on the woman who has robbed her in death. "The Telephone" was the weakest of the trio. But the third segment--The Wurdalak--gave me insomnia for days. As a lover of the vampire genre, I was struck by the twist in the old legend: a Wurdalak returns from the dead to attack those whom he loved best on earth. Boris Karloff plays the title character, a paterfamilias who sets out to destroy a local bandit-turned-Wurdalak. If he has not returned in exactly three days, the family will know that he has been victimized, and must be destroyed. Of course, he returns just after the three day mark. The sheer horror comes from the fact that the family knows the truth, but can't admit it. The scene of Karloff cuddling and stroking his young grandson is enough to make you want to call Child Protective Services! Really good stuff, and a clarion call to those who insist that one needs massive special effects or blatan, on-screen gore to succeed. Kudos!


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