Posted By Michelle Ealey on October 31, 2013

Halloween may be one day, but I celebrate the entire month of October by watching as many horror movies as possible. Forsaking other genres for spooky, scary thrills, and filling the month with films I haven’t seen or haven’t seen in a while. So, let’s grab some popcorn, turn off the lights, and get our fright on with Black Sabbath (1963)!

Black Sabbath is a horror anthology film with three tales: “The Drop of Water,” “The Telephone,” and “The Wurdalak.” Mario Bava directed each tale, but each was written by different writers. I watched the American version.

“The Drop of Water” begins with a nurse, Helen Chester (Jacqueline Pierreux), being called to the home of an elderly medium who has died. Helen is told by the maid (Milly Monti) to not touch anything besides getting the woman dressed for her funeral. The medium wears a beautiful ring. Helen can’t resist the ring, so she takes it. After she gets home, Helen hears water dripping and sees visions of the dead woman, her wide eyes boring into Helen’s guilty heart. Helen pays the price for her crime, but when the police arrive, the ring is gone.

The Drop of Water

I’ve gotten late-night phone calls from a stranger, so “The Telephone” has an extra layer of scariness for me. Alone in her apartment, Rosy (Michele Mercier) gets phone calls from a man she thinks is dead. When they talk, he is upset that she isn’t wrapped in a towel, meaning he can see her. Frantic, Rosy calls Mary (Lydia Alfonsi) and Mary comes over to help her friend. Mary thinks Rosy is suffering from a mental breakdown, but the threat is real, and death is the result.

The Telephone

“The Wurdalak” is a spin on a vampire tale. A young nobleman, Vladimire d’Urfe (Mark Damon), finds a decapitated body with a knife in the back. Vladimire takes the knife and arrives at the home of a family. Giorgio (Glauco Onorato) tells Vladimire that the knife belongs to his father, Gorca (Boris Karloff). The family tells the tale about being plagued by a Wurdalak, a creature that is a corpse who feeds on blood. Their father left to kill the Wurdalak tormenting them. They are to deny him entry if he arrives after 10 o’clock on the fifth day. Gorca barely makes the deadline. The family doubts the humanity of Gorca, but Karloff’s eyes are piercing, and those around him are too afraid to directly oppose him. The Wurdalak wants to be surrounded by loved ones, so love is the path to one’s destruction. As the family falls, Vladimire tries to save Sdenka (Susy Andersen), but her family finds her and she cannot resist the call of “Why did you leave us?” Vladimire attempts to save his love one last time, but she now has the power to lure and Vladimire cannot pull away.

The Wurdalak

Black Sabbath has a great creepy atmosphere and tone. The film relies on practical effects and the performances of the actors. The cast does a phenomenal job of conveying the terror their characters feel, especially Mercier in “The Telephone.” The film could be considered “old school” because of how it targets our fear of how what we do can ruin our lives. Many don’t want to admit how we can be lured by pretty things, feel guilty about how we’ve treated someone, and can’t see the dark truth about our loved ones, but it happens. The consequences in real life can be devastating, but in fiction, the results are memorable tales of horror.

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Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: Black Sabbath, Boris Karloff, horror anthology, horror film, Mario Bava, The Drop of Water, The Telephone, The Wurdalak