I tre volti della paura
Directed by:
Mario BavaCinematography:
Mario BavaCast:
Michèle Mercier, Boris Karloff, Mark Damon, Susy Andersen, Harriet Medin, Jacqueline Pierreux, Lidia Alfonsi, Glauco Onorato, Rika Dialina, Gustavo De Nardo (more)Plots(1)
Black Sunday was such a huge hit that a follow-up was swiftly demanded, and horror maestro Mario Bava duly devised this three-part horror anthology blending modern and period stories. In the giallo-style The Telephone, a woman is terrorised by her former pimp after his escape from prison, and tries to escape him with the help of her lesbian lover, who has a dark secret of her own. In the Victorian-era The Drop of Water, a nurse steals a ring from the corpse of a dead spiritualist, which naturally tries to get it back. But it's the 19th-century Russian story The Wurdalak that comes closest to Bava's earlier classic, with the great Boris Karloff as a much-loved paterfamilias who might not be entirely what he seems. (Arrow Academy)
(more)Reviews (2)
I’ve never been a fan of anthology films, and it seems that this is not about to change. Black Sabbath consists of one average psycho-thriller, one quite good Hammer-like gothic horror (but I’m not a big fan of it) and one average ghost story. Nothing that would be a must-see.
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Ebert's idiot plot concept (no plot development at all would occur if the characters weren't acting like idiots) perfected to virtual perfection in all the tales. However, the last tale ("The Drop of Water") unexpectedly turns out to be a genuinely creepy affair, even with a touch of directorial invention (a dead woman's house covered with cats and dolls), which with the help of classic genre proprieties (lights going out, dripping water, a rocking chair, and one rather gruesome corpse) manages to evoke the most classic sense of dread, for which I'm grateful to Bava. Oh, and the self-depreciating last shot was also quite pleasing.
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