Review of Black Sabbath (1963) by Cazzandra J — 09 Aug 2009

Three short horror stories that lack any real novelty (perhaps the twists weren't cliched back in 1963) but still first rate. I give this 4 stars because of the brilliance of the direction and cinematography. "Telephone" is a Tales of the Unexpected story mixed with some lesbian psycho-drama. "The Wurdelack" is a boring, drawn out and highly uninspiring story about ghouls that follows a standard formula. Finally "The Drop of Water" is an Edgar Allen Poe style tale which is truly chilling.

As said before, the stories are hardly original. You can see what is going to happen from the start of each one (except for "The Telephone", which is too short for any real development anyway). However, each one contains enough chilling direction to make it worthwhile. It's also possible to see where many directors found their inspiration (I suggest watching "Drop of Water" followed by Argento's "Suspiria" if you want to see how Bava's use of colour and sound was so splendidly adapted).