Black Sabbath (A.K.A. I tre volti della paura, or The Three Faces of Fear) is a 1963 horror Anthology Film directed by Mario Bava and starring Boris Karloff.
Two versions of the films exist, the original European version and the American cut released by American International Pictures. The latter version has a different order for the segments, different introductory segments from Karloff and in some cases alterations to the stories themselves. The colour scheme of the movie is also slightly less vivid in the American cut.
- The Telephone: A woman is terrorized by threatening phone calls from someone from her past.
- The Wurdulak: A man returns to his family as a wurdulak, a vampire that feeds on its loved ones.
- The Drop of Water: A nurse steals the ring from the body of a deceased medium only to be haunted by its spirit.
And yes, the band named itself after this movie.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Nationality: D'Urfe in The Wurdulak was French in the original story, but is Russian in the film.
- Covers Always Lie: One poster for this movie (not the article image) shows what appears to be the severed head of Aribek from The Wurdulak being brandished by a Headless Horseman as several horrified women look on. Nothing like this happens in the movie.
- Death by Irony: After effectively terrorizing Rosy by pretending to be Frank in an attempt to get closer to her, Mary is killed by the real Frank.
- Decapitation Presentation: Gorca brings the severed head of Aribek, the vampire he killed, home, hanging it outside the inn so that everyone will know Aribek is finally dead and that it was he who killed him.
- Dies Wide Open: The dead medium has her eyes open, to terrifying results.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: In The Wurdulak a dog won't stop barking when Gorca returns home, indicating that he has become a Wurdulak. Gorca orders his son to shoot it, and the son complies.
- Evil Old Folks: Both The Drop of Water and The Wurdulak have terrifying elderly undead.
- Ghostly Goals: All three stories involve someone ostensibly coming back from the grave to do something. The Telephone and The Drop of Water are the clearest examples of this trope, however, as both of their undead creatures want the same thing: revenge.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Gorca at one point says "Can't I fondle my own grandson?"
- Horror Host: Boris Karloff introduces the individual segments, as well as playing Gorca in "The Wurdulak".
- Hide Your Lesbians: The lesbian subplot from The Telephone is removed from the AIP version and the segment is significantly altered to make it a ghost story. See Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane below.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In The Drop of Water, it's left ambiguous whether there was really a ghost at all, or if Helen is simply being driven mad by fear and guilt. The AIP cut also turns The Telephone into this: in the Italian version Frank had escaped from prison to torment Rosie, while in the English dub Frank is supposed to be dead and has ostensibly returned from the grave.
- Nightmare Face: One of the most memorable visuals in the movie is the face of the dead medium in The Drop of Water. Look at the
Nightmare Fuel page for this film if you're curious. - Non-Indicative Name: There's nothing in this movie about sabbaths, black or otherwise. The English title was presumably an attempt by AIP to market it as a companion piece to Bava's earlier film, Black Sunday. There were even plans to complete the "trilogy" with another film called Scarlet Friday - see
What Could Have Been on the trivia page for more. - Our Vampires Are Different: The vampires in The Wurdulak only feed on those that they love.
- Staking the Loved One: The family in The Wurdulak are unable to bring themselves to kill the youngest after he is turned by Gorca. Consequently, The Bad Guy Wins and they all end up as wurdulaks.
- Undead Child: Gorca turns his own grandson into a vampire, who in turn turns his parents. See Staking the Loved One above.
