119) Black Sabbath (1963) - The More Horror There Is...

"As you will see from one of our tales, vampires - wurdulaks - abound everywhere."

Director

Mario Bava

Cast

Boris Karloff - The host

The Drop of Water

Jacqueline Pierreux - Helen Chester

Milly Monti - the Maid

The Telephone
Michèle Mercier - Rosy
Lidia Alfonsi - Mary

The Wurdulak
Boris Karloff - Gorca
Mark Damon - Count Vladimir D'Urfe
Susy Andersen - Sdenka
Massimo Righi - Pietro
Rika Dialina - Maria
Glauco Onorato - Giorgio

I've mentioned the book "The Top 100 Horror Movies" by screenwriter and film historian, Gary Gerani, several times throughout this blog. It's the book that initially inspired me to do this blog in the first place. 

My initial plan was to review all 100 of those movies listed, beginning with "The House of Dark Shadows" (1970). But that's not how this all went down. 

Anyways, one of those movies in Gerani's top 100 - entered at number 40 - is the 1963 horror anthology "Black Sabbath," not to be confused with the 1960 movie "Black Sunday." That's also in his book, by the way. 

The title has caught my attention each time I've flipped passed that section. Part of the reason is my curiosity as to whether the heavy metal group "Black Sabbath" took their name from this movie. 

A quick Google search says they did. 

The other reason being that this is an anthology film. The title strikes me as unique and certainly darker a title than most, especially for such a movie. 

I wanted to know what stories did this movie tell that necessitated such a grim, almost blasphemous label. 

I mentioned in my previous review of "To the Devil...a Daughter" that I generally don't go for horror movies centering around Satan and the Occult. That's not to say there aren't good movies I do like with such content. 
The title "Black Sabbath" is misleading. It has nothing to do with Satan nor the occult. It doesn't even have anything to do with the sabbath day. 
This Italian film was released under the title "I tre volti della paura" which Google translates to "The Three Faces of Fear." That's much more appropriate a title for a movie like this. I watched the American version available through Hoopla streaming app. I don't yet know where I can watch the Italian version.

It's truly a product of its time.

"Black Sabbath" begins with Boris Karloff as our story teller. He glares underneath his brow into the camera as different shades of colored lights alternate on his face while he introduces the audience through three separate tales. 

The Drop of Water 

The first story takes place back in the early twentieth century. Nurse Helen Chester (Jacqueline Pierreux) gets a call from the maid (Milly Monti) of an elderly medium asking her to come over immediately. 

When she arrives, the medium has already passed away. Her face is frozen in a warped and eerie expression.

As Nurse Chester dresses the corpse for burial, she notices a sapphire ring on her finger.

She pulls it off with effort as it's on there rather tightly, causing her to bump the bedside table and knock over a glass of water. A fly then lands on the spot where the ring was worn. 

When the nurse gets home, strange things begin occurring in her flat. The lights start acting funny. She then keeps hearing dripping water coming from various parts of her apartment. And she's also tormented by a fly. Soon, Chester sees the body of the medium lying on her bed. 

It rises into the air, and soon floats right towards her. 

The scene shifts to investigators searching the apartment for clues as to the nurse's death. All they find is a small bruise on her ring finger. Her face is frozen in a manner similar to that of the medium's. 

Michèle Mercier as Rosy in the story "The Telephone."

The Telephone

In the next story, a French call-girl named Rosy (Michèle Mercier) is tormented by a series of mysterious phone calls after she returns to her apartment one night from an outing.

After a couple calls, the caller identifies himself as "Frank." Rosy thinks it's a prank because the Frank she knows, who I'm guessing a former lover, is dead. But the caller makes it clear he's out for revenge, and promises she'll be dead by morning. He swears that no matter what she does, she won't be able to escape his wrath. 

Rosy calls her friend Mary (Lidia Alfonsi), asking her to come over.
When Mary arrives and gives Rosy a little peace of mind. Rosy tells her everything that's going on. 

She gives Rosy a sedative to help her sleep, and a large knife to put under her pillow for protection.

As Rosy sleeps, Mary writes out a confession that she set up the phone calls for the sake of establishing a reunion. She knew Rosy would call on her to come over. 

While she's writing, someone sneaks into the apartment. The intruder comes up to Mary from behind and strangles her.

He then goes for Rosy who is just waking up. Rosy recognizes him right away, and calls out his name... Frank. 

Boris Karloff as Gorca in "Black Sabbath."

The Wurdulak 
This is the story were the movie really shines. 

The story opens as a nobleman living in the 19th century named Vladimir D'Urfe (Mark Damon) finds a decapitated body with a knife plunged right into its heart.

Despite being shocked by the discover, Vladimir seems to recognize the knife. So, he takes it out and holds onto it while he rides off to find shelter.

He comes upon a house where he meets Giorgio (Glauco Onorato). Vladimir asks to stay for the night, and shows Giorgio the dagger he found. 

Giorgio recognizes it right away, claiming it belongs to his father whom he hasn't seen for several days. He allows Vladimir to spend the night and introduces him to his wife and child, Ivan, as well as his brother Pietro (Massimo Righi) and sister Sdenka (Susy Andersen).

They've all been waiting for Giorgio's father, Gorca, to come home as he's been hunting down a Turkish outlaw who is really a wurdulak, or vampire in Slavic mythology. This type of vampire only feeds on the blood and flesh of those he loves. 

Gorca (Boris Karloff) finally returns, but looks angry, disheveled, and pale. 

They're all rather worried and hesitant around Gorca.

As they all adjourn for the night, Gorca attacks Giorgio's brother, Pietro (Massimo Righi) and kidnaps young Ivan.

He flees with the boy, and returns hours later with Ivan's dead body. Giorgio realizes Gorca is now a wurdulak and will soon become one of the undead. 

So, plans to steak and behead him. But his wife refuses to let him do that. She eventually kills Giorgio to save her walking-dead child. The child is seen walking after his death.

Vladimir and Sdenka run and hide in the nearby remains of a monastery. But their not as safe as they think.

My Thoughts... 

The entire production, including the acting, feels like I'm watching a stage performance thanks to the setup of each scene, and the setting the stories take place in. That's not to say the acting is bad. It doesn't feel like a movie until the third story.  

This movie utilizes supernatural horror, psychological horror, and horror that was on its way to being classical horror, even at that time. 

Each time I've seen the title "Black Sabbath," the claim that it's one of the greatest horror anthologies seems to follow.

While it's not necessarily a terrible film, I wouldn't raise it on such a lofty horror pedestal. I even think it's unfair to call it campy. "Black Sabbath" is certainly a dated film. I have yet to find out what this movie as contributed to the genre all together. There's nothing foundational nor groundbreaking about it. It doesn't have to be so. But to bear the claim of "greatest," I would think it would need to bring something to the horror genre. I can't imagine what that would be. Honestly, nothing really stands out about it other than Boris Karloff's appearance in the movie.

I wonder what sort of audience the writers had in mind back in 1963. Considering the kind of horror movie it is, and what tropes are used to scare the audience, I get the impression the adults who were scared by Frankenstein and Dracula 30-plus years before this movie's release is who the film was intended for. 

By 1963,  the era of Universal monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein was making room for the atomic age of horror with gigantic, nuclear monsters like Godzilla, oversized man-eating creatures, and space aliens looking for a planet to invade.

So many older horror tropes (well, "old" by today's standards) are used in "Black Sabbath" such as foggy terrains, squeaky doors, quick zoom-ins, secluded cottages, and dark and stormy nights. That's really all the stories offer. Aside from Karloff's performance as Gorca, none of the stories leave the audience much else to walk away with. 

Karloff's character in the final story is unsettling and memorable, especially amidst the uneasiness of seeing Gorca kidnap a child because, as the audience uncomfortably understands, he's going to turn the child into a vampire. That's pretty horrific to say the least. Of course, we don't see that actually happen.

Speaking of "Black Sunday" as I did up above, Gerani points out in his book that the movie's success encouraged American International Pictures to hire director Mario Bava to make another movie that would be similar, and in color this time.

He also mentions that the story "The Telephone" in the original version had some stronger lesbian overtones which were diminished with dubbing and editing in the U.S. release. 

The music by Les Baxter doesn't fit the mood of the stories. It's bland, cliché' and unintentionally comical. Evidently, American International Pictures switched Roberto Nicolosi's original soundtrack used in the Italian film with Baxter's for the U.S. Bad choice, in my opinion. 

There's nothing to take away from any of these stories. The last story is the only one I found entertaining, but that's all I got out of it. I guess it accomplished that much, which is what movies are supposed to do. The rest is dry. 

Fans of classic horror, and especially of Boris Karloff, will surely find a fair amount to appreciate in "Black Sabbath." I feel I need to watch the original Italian production to be fair to director Mario Bava and to the movie. Otherwise, I found the American version sadly underwhelming.