In Black Sabbath, Boris Karloff hosts three short horror stories under the direction of the great Mario Bava. First, a nurse is tormented after she steals a ring from the corpse of a medium. Then, a woman is tormented by phone calls from someone who claims to be her dead boyfriend and eerily knows exactly what's going on in the house. Finally, a family is tormented by a wurdurlak - a vampire-like creature that can take the guise of a loved one and always kills those whole he loves.
Black Sabbath is a bit uneven, story-wise. In the English-language version that I watched they placed "The Drop of Water" first, effectively showing the best one first, then the kinda boring "Telephone," then the atmospheric "Wundurlak." I might have been better off with the original Italian version, which gets "Telephone" out of the way first, then "Wurdurlak," and then ends on a high note with "The Drop Of Water." Oh well.
Boris Karloff is funny as the host of the anthology, and he also gives a strong, chilling performance in "Wurdurlak." Every segment made clever use of lights, shadows, and color, which I understand is a staple of Mario Bana's work. Everything looked gorgeous in a 60s sort of way. And "The Drop of Eater" was seriously one of the scariest things I've ever seen. It was tense and shocking in equal measure. I'll not soon forget the face of the dead medium - it is astounding, especially given the limitations of making movies at that time.
Black Sabbath is worth watching for that first segment alone, Whoo! However, the dull and kinda silly second story brings things down quite a bit, and the last story, while good, doesn't end the movie with the proper bang. It's a good movie, but I know I will only be revisiting "The Drop of Water" in the future.
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