Cheap Black Sabbath (DVD) (Mario Bava, Salvatore Billitteri) Price

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Customer Reviews of Black Sabbath

Good job Image!
People who complain about the average picture & sound quality of Image's Mario Bava Collection should be aware that some of these negatives had mushrooms growing on them. As for the movie...
This is, IMO, the best horror anthology ever. It is beautifully shot by Mario Bava (Mirroring the Poe/Corman productions of the time), has effective tales ("The Telephone" was hugely ripped-off by movies like "Scream" and "When A Stranger Calls", and "The Drop Of Water" is scary as hell, even for today), and nice music (Which is basically a reworked version of the "Black Sunday" music.
Image presents this gem in it's original European version, which is 10 times better than the terrible American version that A.I.P released in US teathers back in 1963. Altrough the American verion IS a good movie, it had the following list of "What you should not do while editing a movie":
-Gore and shocking images were cut.
-The stories were rearrenged, making the movie start with the strongest tale (In anthologies, the stronger tale should always be the last one).
-The "Telephone" segment was turned from a sensual suspenseful short thriller to a cheesy ghost story because it had some lesbian sub-plot (Coudn't they just change the lesbian thing on the dubbing?).
Now, it did have some good points:
-Extra-footage in "The Telephone" segment involving a man and his dog.
-Extra introductions by Kalloff.
Kalloff fans will be disapointed to know that the movie is presented in Itallian only, but I prefer it this way than with the poor English dubbing (See the "Black Sunday" DVD to see how "good" Italians dubbed their films in English). Besides, the american version of this movie should have never existed. It's just like removing nudity from Rodan paintings.
Picture: Good. There is a lot of spectacles, but the piscture looks great with very strong colors and detailed fragments.
Sound: Average. It's 1.0, but I wasn't expecting Dolby Digital 5.1. Good for a 40 year old movie.
Extras: Good for such a forgotten film. Liner Notes by Tim Lucas (Excellent ones, by the way), a trailer (That gives away the whole thing and should not be seen before the actual movie), and a large still gallery. Also, a bio on Bava and a Karloff filmography.

Chills aplenty
Italian director Mario Bava (1914-1980) is one of the giants of the horror film genre. Bava's big break into the field came with his 1960 black and white classic "Black Sunday" starring Barbara Steele. This was only the beginning, as Bava churned out a series of gruesome shockers over the next seventeen years; his films always promised great style mixed with scenes of murder and mayhem. Perhaps Mario's biggest contribution to the horror genre was his 1972 picture "Twitch of the Death Nerve," also known as "Bay of Blood." It doesn't take too long to realize "Friday the 13th" shamelessly cribbed from this slasher bloodbath. At least two of the murders in the film appear almost unchanged in the first installment of the Jason Voorhees franchise. That's right-- Mario Bava gave birth to the modern slasher film. But he also dabbled in non-horror films with projects like "Four Times That Night" and the immensely entertaining peplum classic "Hercules in the Haunted World" starring Reg Park as the muscle bound hero. After watching many of his films, I have to express further admiration for this amazing director; he could make an entertaining motion picture no matter what the subject.

"I trevolti della paura," known on these shores as "Black Sabbath," is a great contribution to horror cinema. In 1963, Bava filmed three short stories and packaged them under one title with Boris Karloff introducing each segment. The first tale, "The Telephone," is a claustrophobic tale of horror that takes place in the apartment of Rosy (Michele Mercier). Strange and horrifying phone calls begin streaming into the apartment at the same time Rosy's ex-husband Frank leaves prison. Alarmed that her hubby will try to hurt her, she dials up her pal Mary (Lidia Alfonsi), asking her friend to come over and comfort her. There's an interesting subtext to Mary and Rosy's phone call that the American version apparently cut out of the picture before releasing it that this Image Entertainment DVD restores. Watch to see what it is. Anyway, Mary arrives and, when Rosy falls asleep, writes something down on a piece of paper for her friend to read later. When Rosy wakes up, she learns a few painful truths about both her friend and her ex-husband.

The second story, "The Wurdulak," stars Boris Karloff as Gorca, the patriarch of a well to do Russian family in the eighteenth century. Wurdulaks, what we would call vampires, plague the countryside. Gorca sets out to slay one of them, a fellow named Alibeq, but leaves strict instructions to his family to destroy him, Gorca, if he returns any later than the stroke of midnight five days hence. Gorca reasons that he will be a vampire himself if he has not returned by that time, and his family agrees. Predictably, Gorca returns late and acts very, VERY weird. The family knows something is wrong but agonizes about doing what they know they must do. Their hesitancy has unfortunate results for several members of the family. This story is the best one on the disc; check out the scene where Karloff thunders around on a horse. Very creepy!

The final tale of woe, called "The Drop of Water," finds Nurse Helen Corey (Jacqueline Pierreux) receiving a weird phone call late at night. It seems an old medium died and her servant is too scared to move the body. Corey agrees to help the superstitious assistant but makes the mistake of stealing a valuable ring off the corpse. What follows is classic chills and thrills as a fly follows Corey around wherever she goes, continually alighting on the ring on her finger. The nurse tries to hide in her house where the sound of dripping water drives her to the point of insanity. Again, no reason to spoil the film for you, but wait until you see what happens to Nurse Corey as the tale winds to a close. Note to self: never steal anything from a deceased psychic.

All I can say here is that Mario Bava has done it again. While I still think "Black Sunday" is a better film, "Black Sabbath" nicely delivers the shocks. Getting Karloff to do double duty as the narrator and the star of one of the segments was a nice touch, too. Including this great actor in the project gives "Black Sabbath" a sort of homage feel, a nod to the earlier horror movies of the 1930s and 1940s. It's no mistake that Karloff's segment is the best one of the three. The weakest is "The Telephone," although even this tale works quite well in the suspense department. In "The Wurdulak," you know what's going to happen, but not so in "The Telephone." Plus, Michele Mercier is extremely easy on the eyes. I couldn't help but think of the seminal "Black Christmas" and "When a Stranger Calls" after watching "The Telephone." I wonder if Bob Clark and Fred Walton took Bava's creation as the inspiration for their own, later films. As for "The Drop of Water," well, it's a scary film that doubtless inspired its own imitators years later.

Horror fans would be remiss to pass up this delightful collection. They're not gory in any way, just as "Black Sunday" wasn't gory, but they are nicely done pieces well worth watching. A big thanks goes out to Image Entertainment for releasing the film in its original format. I am slowly working my way through all of Mario Bava's film, and "Black Sabbath" was a huge step towards completing my journey. After watching the movie, check out the production notes assembled by Bava historian Tim Lucas, the trailer, and the Bava biography. If you like horror, you will definitely want to give this one a few hours of your time.