Black Sabbath (1963)
- Original title
- I tre volti della paura
- Directed by
- Mario Bava
- Genre
- fantasy film, horror film, anthology film, vampire film, supernatural film, LGBTQ-related film
- Country
- France, Italy
- Runtime
- 1h 32m
- Rated
- 16
- Rating
- 7.2 of 10 from 485 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
Three horror stories are linked together by host Boris Karloff. In one, a woman is terrorized by threatening phone calls. Another follows a family who is visited by a returning patriarch who claims to have killed a vampire. The last story is about a nurse who steals a ring from a dead body and then is haunted by the ghost of its owner.
creepyuneasymoodygothicatmospherictensesupernaturalhaunting
What happens
Black Sabbath (Italian: I tre volti della paura, lit. 'The Three Faces of Fear') is a 1963 horror anthology film directed by Mario Bava. The film consists of three separate tales that are introduced by Boris Karloff. The order in which the stories are presented varies among the different versions in which the film has been released. In the original, Italian print, the first story, titled "The Telephone", involves Rosy (Michèle Mercier) who continually receives threatening telephone calls from an unseen stalker. The second is "The Wurdulak", where a man named Gorca (Karloff) returns to his family after claiming to have slain a Wurdulak, an undead creature who attacks those that it had once loved. The third story, "The Drop of Water", is centered on Helen Corey (Jacqueline Pierreux), a nurse who steals a valuable ring from a corpse that is being prepared for burial and finds herself haunted by the ring's original owner after arriving home. Being a low-budget horror film with multiple stories, an international cast and foreign financial backing, Black Sabbath follows numerous trends of 1960s Italian film productions. The film is credited to various writers, including Anton Chekov and Aleksey Tolstoy, but is predominantly based on several uncredited sources, and changes were made to the script after filming commenced. American International Pictures and Titra Sound Corporation suggested changes to Bava during filming to make the film palatable for American audiences, and created their own English-language version of the film, which replaced Roberto Nicolosi's score with music by Les Baxter, removed several depictions of graphic violence and made alterations to other scenes. This version greatly changed the plot of "The Telephone", giving it a supernatural element and removing all references to lesbianism and prostitution. Black Sabbath was a commercial failure upon release in Italy, and performed below expectations in America. A spiritual sequel to the film, based on "The Dunwich Horror" and provisionally titled Scarlet Friday, was set to reunite Bava with Karloff and co-star Christopher Lee, but AIP distanced themselves from Bava following the failure of Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs and eventually produced the film without Bava, Karloff or Lee's involvement. Plans for a remake were announced in 2004 with Jonathan Hensleigh attached to write the script. Since its original release, Black Sabbath has received positive reviews from critics, and was placed at number 73 on a Time Out poll of the best horror films. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
The Whip and the Body (1963)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
8½ (1963)
Fantasmagorie (1963)
The Haunting (1963)
The Raven (1963)
The Black Abbot (1963)
The Blancheville Monster (1963)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.