Les trois visages de la peur

Black Sabbath is one visually stylish flick, courtesy of one of Italy's finest; Mario Bava.

The first story, The Telephone, is light on suspense but heavy on looks. The first Giallo in color, I believe, to some extent, with sexual overtones featured very prominently. Although it only takes place in one apartment Bava's crazy color schemes work beautifully and thanks to the two stunning ladies this episode goes down very well.

The Wurdulak scores heavy because of it's visuals and it's magnificent Gothic atmosphere. This should give a good example of how Black Sunday might have looked in color. However, this episode feels stretched quite a bit, it's relatively short running time seems longer than it is and therefore, in my opinion, is the weakest of the bunch.

The Drop of Water is the final, and best, episode. Bava was fond of the kind of horror that deals with a person who's totally alone in his/her surroundings. He goes into supernatural territory and creates a highly stylish (again) and quite the scary episode.

Black Sabbath is not the best Mario Bava has to offer, it could have been more scary but thanks to studio involvement he had to keep things light and not too scary. Under such restrictions I think Bava did extremely well and Black Sabbath is most definitely a must for Bava fans.

This terrifying film with plenty of vampires , weird deeds and murders is formed by three stories proceeded in some memorably horrific set-pieces : 1) ¨The telephone¨ by author Snyder : A prostitute (Michele Mercier) terrorized in her flat by phone calls from a broken-out inmate (Milo Quesada) receives visit her lover (Lidia Alfonsi). 2) ¨The Wurdalak¨ by Aleksey Tolstoi : In a night of nightmare during the early 1800s , a Russian noble (Mark Damon, usual in Spaghetti Western) and a family (exceptional Boris Karloff, a gorgeous Susy Andersen, and Massimo Roghi) stumble vampires who must kill those love and go after their descendants ; the undead vampires of hell terrorize the house in a orgy of stark horror. 3) ¨The drop of water¨ by Chekhov : In the early 1900s , a nurse (Jacqueline Pierreux, mother of actor Jean Pierre Leaud, 400 blows) steals a ring from a medium dead and she seeks avenge , then a ghastly specter arises , exacting cruel revenge for past robbery.

Bava's second great hit (the first was Black Sunday or Mask of the demon) surprisingly realized with startling visual content and well scripted by Marcello Fondato and Albert Bevilacqua . This omnibus terror is plenty of thrills and chills in glimmer color and in lurid paste with sensational results . This genuinely creepy tale is photographed by Ubaldo Terzano and Bava himself with magentas , shades of ochre , translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red reflecting paleness on the victims . Eerie and suspenseful musical score by Roberto Nicolisi , though in American version was composed by Lex Baxter , Corman's usual. The motion picture was stylishly and strikingly shot by Bava , filmed in parallel orbit to those Roger Corman ( Edgar Allan Poe cycle) and produced by American International (James H. Nicholson , Samuel Z. Arkoff) . Bava along with Riccardo Freda are fundamental kings of Italian horror , in fact collaborated deeply among them , as Bava terminated two films of Freda, ¨Il Vampiri¨ and ¨Caltiki¨ and they created the Giallo sub-genre. Rating : Good , acceptable atmospheric direction from genre master MarioBava , this is one more compelling horror ventures in which his camera stalks in sinister style throughout a tale with extraordinary visual skills . A must see for terror buffs.

Boris Karloff is the host of three scary tales of terror: In the Italian version, the sequence is the following: 1) "Il Telefono" / "O Telefone" ("The Telephone"): Rosy (Michèlle Mercier) receives several phone calls threatening her life. She believes her former lover, who has just escaped from prison, is the man that is calling her. She denounced his crimes some time ago and he was convicted and imprisoned. She calls her lesbian girlfriend Mary (Lidia Alfonsi) to stay with her during the night. Soon a secret is disclosed and a tragedy happens in the middle of the night. In the ridiculous American version, Frank is a ghost and not a fugitive, destroying the tension. My vote is seven.

2) "I Wurdulak" / "O Wurdulak" ("The Wurdulak"): The young Vladimire d'Urfe (Mark Damon) is riding a horse in the night and finds a man stabbed on the back. He withdraws the dagger from the man and finds a house close to the place where he found the body. There, he meets a family composed of two brothers, one sister, one sister-in-law and one nephew, and he falls in love at first sight with the beautiful Sdenka (Susie Andersen). He realizes that the dead man was a criminal, probably killed by the head of the family Gorca (Boris Karloff), and he is advised to leave that place, if Gorca does not arrive until midnight. The family informs that there is a chance that Gorca might have been transformed in a Wurdulak, a kind of vampire who drains blood from the living persons. A few seconds after midnight, Gorca comes back home, and the afraid family does not know whether he was transformed or not. The family will discover later what happened in a tragic way. In the American version, there are modifications and the scene that Gorca takes a head from his bag is cut. My vote is nine.

3) "La Goccia d' Acqua" / "A Gota d' Água" ("The Drop of Water") The nurse Helen Chester (Jacqueline Pierreux) is summoned to prepare the body of a countess for her funeral. She steals the worthy ring from her finger. The countess comes back from beyond to retrieve her ring, scaring the frightened greedy woman. There are few modifications in the American version. My vote is eight.

These three tales are excellent. With the direction of Mario Bava, this film explores themes related to fear, anxiety, greedy and guilty in a splendid scary way. Unfortunately the American version is terrible compared to the Italian version. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil):"Black Sabbath - As Três Máscaras do Terror" ("Black Sabbath - The Three Masks of Terror")

Originally titled I TRE VOLTI DELLA PAURA (THREE FACES OF FEAR), this horror anthology made it to the U.S. with a new title to remind viewers of how good Bava's BLACK Sunday (1960) was. It also gained an excellent Les Baxter soundtrack and Boris Karloff as a host, though the tales were reversed in order and the strong lesbian subtext of one segment and some violence were omitted, but that's good ole' American censorship for you (both have since been restored, anyway). In any case, this anthology is a classic of its kind.

"Drop of Water" (based on a story by Checkov) is a chilling tale of a nurse (Jacqueline Pierreux) who gets her just desserts after stealing a diamond ring from the hideous-looking corpse of a psychic. "The Telephone" (based on a story by F.G.Snyder) was the least satisfying of the bunch for me personally, yet is still above average. In it, a lascivious, unstable and bisexual young beauty (Michele Mercier) receives threatening phone calls that seem to be coming from a man who has a personal vendetta against her. Final tale is "The Wurdalak," which was based on a Tolstoy. Boris Karloff stars as Gorca, a man turned into a vampire by the curse of Wurdalak, which makes him attack and kill only those he loves (namely his extended family, including child). It's astonishing to look at and very suspenseful. All three are colorfully, creatively done, drenched in Bava's trademark rich atmosphere and bring something a little different to the table. "Drop" (last in the Italian version) has the most chilling central image, "Wurdulak" (middle in the Italian version) has the boldest color palette and most vivid art direction and "Telephone" (first in the Italian version) is a very early giallo. Horror regulars Mark Damon (from Corman's HOUSE OF USHER), Massimo Righi and Harriet White Medin (usually typecast as a stern housekeeper in Italian horror films) co-star in this one.

Score: 8 out of 10 (only because I'm reserving a point until I get to watch the original Italian version).

"Tre volti della paura " is a movie made up of three sketches,linked by Boris Karloff's comments -he plays the lead in the second segment - and all dealing with death following a logical progression:fear of death in the first sketch,some kind of "night of the living dead"cum vampires in the second one and terror around a dead woman in the third.Mario Bava did not need any special effects that mar so many horror films today:his baroque settings (Michele Mercier's flat in the first sketch,the countess's Gothic mansion in the third,and the lunar landscapes in the middle one),his knowing lighting effects,his color research,his incredibly effective use of the depth of field (visually stunning in the final segment)are as impressive today as they were forty years ago and were a strong influence on other Italian directors such as Dario Argento.Worth the price of admission.