Black Sabbath

BLACK SABBATH Directed by Mario Bava. Starring Boris Karloff (1963)

 Boris Karloff hams it up as he introduces each of the stories in this Mario Bava anthology. I have yet to review any of my favorite Bava movies, and I think I probably should be putting those out there. This is not one of those, it's fairly middle-of-the-road, much like "Lisa and the Devil" and "House of Exorcism".

The Drop of Water
    Don't steal things from people who died during seances, or they will fuck your shit up. That's the moral of the story when a scary-faced corpse haunts the woman who took her ring. The segment is made around one moderately entertaining special effect, the fake corpse. In a brief denouement, the police find the victim-thief with her hands wrapped around her own neck, and we get a hint that the neighbor who found the body stole the ring... will the terrible cycle repeat? Pretty straightforward.

The Telephone
    Like just about everyone in a Mario Bava movie, Rosie has a pretty cool homestead and really stylin' clothes, or in this case underwear. Unfortunately she's also got a stalker who won't stop calling her and asking her to take her clothes off. Next he slips a note under her door, with a message that is written supernaturally while she watches -- apparently it's someone named Frank, who is dead. She calls in some backup... her only friend, the woman that she stole Frank from. This just seems like a bad idea, but what do I know.
    Frank shows up, looking quite alive, and strangles his first girlfriend. Rosie stabs him dead, but his voice informs her over the phone that he will be calling her every night, wherever she goes. Also pretty straightforward. A ghost stalker would really suck.

The Wurdalak
  Speaking of sucking (smooth, huh?) we next have the story of a type of vampire that must feed on what it loves. Karloff plays a grandfather who has returned from the grave and is acting really, really strange. Everyone in the family seems to know what is going on, but nobody seems to want to do something about it, or at least take some sensible precautions. They just let Karloff order them to do unhinged things like shoot the family dog. Then vampire-Karloff takes off with his grandson in the dead of night. Junior returns but in a very "Pet Semetary" kind of way... he's hungry, and he's come back for his mother. One by one, the whole family is consumed by the ones they love.
    This is by far the best segment in the movie. It has an interesting premise, there's a lot of drama, cool sets, plus Boris Karloff.
Reviewed By Goat Scrote!

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