Simply Perfect

How sad is this?

Good movie but grossly overrated

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is the best movie I've seen by Bava. I didn't like Black Lace. Bay of Blood had some decent scenes, but a mess of a story. Five Dolls, was a mess, except for Fenech.I saw the American version, and have not seen the original Italian, which I've read has different plots and scenes. The best story here is the first, The Drop of Water. The acting and suspense is all there. The dead witch/old lady was great.The Telephone, 2nd piece was decent, but was also slow. Maybe the Italian version was much better.The 3rd, "The Wurdalak" with Karloff as a vampire was creepy and had some decent scenes, but it was mostly slow and it died like the undead.I'll rate this as a B-, or 5 or 6 stars. It's worth checking out for a few scenes. I hated the intro of each segment with Boris Karloff, all this takes you out of the movie and into documentary nonsense. I'm not a fan of trilogies. Better to make one long movie. The Drop of Water should have been the movie. Maybe adding some of the telephone nonsense and the vampire tones. Jacqueline Pierreux was the best actress here. Karloff was decent as the vampire, but take out the stupid intro segments. The other actors were decent.I don't know why Bava is praised so much. What is missing from this film is a director. His job here looks like he delivered a product, very mechanical. But where was the direction of the actors, and their interactions? Not much. The reason The Drop of Water works so well here is because it's mostly one actress. A truly great director would have gotten more performance from the actors, not just put up set pieces, add color, set cameras, and yell action.

Hosted by Boris Karloff, three tales of supernatural horror and terror are presented.The good Stories: The Drop of Water-Called to a remote house, a caregiver asked to prep a body for an upcoming ceremony incurs the supernatural wrath of the owner's spirit when she steals the dead woman's prized ring for herself. This here is one of the most chilling and utterly suspenseful entries in the film and perhaps of the genre as a whole. The atmosphere of this one is incredible as the ornate, elaborate house is Gothic splendor that looks even better with all the gorgeous lighting and photography utilized to showcase it all, leaving the setting here effective enough on it's own right before taking into account all the other supernatural action to get into play here. The exploits of the fly buzzing around the woman's finger before becoming a vital part of the torment against her later on, the continuous and nearly incessant dripping water from the faucets and drips of her house where there's the brilliantly atmospheric section of her attempting to turn of everything in the house before it gets to her and there's the masterful sequences in her house of the banging noises and thudding footsteps wandering around after her while being confronted with the lightning storm and that absolutely spectacular first appearance of the ghost woman. Though it does end on a whimper here, this one is still an utterly enjoyable and effective effort.The Telephone-Inundated with strange telephone calls, a woman comes to believe that her jealous boyfriend has come back to haunt her and tries to survive a frightening nightmare with her friend watching her while being assaulted by the madman. This here was quite the enjoyable and satisfying entry here mainly in the way this one really works over the then-burgeoning giallo motifs into a solid and workable variant here by focusing on so many of the lurid tropes of the style so early into the genre's creation. The elaborate set-up of the degenerate killer stalking the beautiful young woman and tormenting her in sexually-explicit actions before going for the kill at the finale, marking quite an impressive and stylized tone here that works rather well with the utterly spectacular amount of atmosphere present. The apartment setting here is quite striking with the clean white space and sensual actions featured, all quite prominent aspects of the style and more than worthwhile enough to make this interesting enough. There's a slightly hokey manner in which the final resolution plays out which isn't all that impressive or enjoyable as it comes off rather familiar in how it plays off, but it's not enough to really hurt this one.The Wurdulak-On the hunt for a deranged killer, a huntsman traveling in the remote woodlands finds the family residing in his chosen shelter are plagued by the very wurdurlak he is chasing and bands together with them to stop him. This here was quite a fun and enjoyable effort that works really well here in the context of the other stories. Not only is this the longest one in here which makes it absolutely more chilling by being able to really sell the change and how it/s affected him overall, from the irrational behavior about his beloved pets to the eerie manner his lifeless eyes continually stare out at everyone and the confusing manner of which he seems to heel from his injuries, this one superbly builds up the feel that something isn't right so well that it scores some great shocks once it starts in on the slaughter of the family. The old- school Gothic-styled pacing and set-up don't hurt either, with this one really making such a strong atmosphere about it through those scenes, the hunting abduction of the grandchild or the effectively eerie and chilling approach in the woods over the bridge that it manages to cultivate a really dynamic and incredible sense of fun even in the finale as it moves into the grand, glorious Gothic- fueled encounter deep in the bowels of the castle dungeon. It does overstay somewhat with it's length coming into play and the characters here show some rather lame actions in order to move this along, but overall it's still quite a bit of fun.Today's Rating-PG-13: Violence and children-in-danger.

Excellent horror anthology film from Mario Bava with three stories as well as linking segments with Boris Karloff. The first story is "The Drop of Water," about a nurse who steals a ring off the finger of a medium's corpse. If you guessed that won't end well for her, you're right. This is a suspenseful story with fine atmosphere. That corpse is one of the creepiest-looking things I've ever seen on film. The next story, "The Telephone," is about a woman receiving mysterious taunting phone calls. A nice-looking segment, and Michele Mercier is definitely attractive, but this is the weakest of all the stories. That isn't to say it's bad, though. It's interesting enough just not as good as the other two. The final, and best, story is "The Wurdulak," about a family awaiting the return of their father (Boris Karloff) who went out to kill a vampire. When the father returns, he's very different. Karloff is lots of fun in this story as well as the linking segments.This review is mainly for the dubbed American version. The original Italian version differs from the American with the order of the stories changed as well as some violent and suggestive content that was cut for American release. I give both versions the same score because, to me, the differences aren't enough to make one better than the other. "The Telephone" has the most significant changes but remains the weakest story in both versions. The Italian version has a score by Roberto Nicolosi and the American score is by Les Baxter. I preferred the Baxter score personally but I can see where others would prefer Nicolosi's more subtle score. I recommend you try both versions if you have the time. It's a colorful and beautiful-looking film that ranks high on the list of horror anthology movies I've seen. Karloff and Bava fans will love it.

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.