Regular Price $14.99

Starring: Michèle Mercier,  Lidia Alfonsi,  Boris Karloff,  Mark Damon,  Susy Andersen, 
Directed By: Mario Bava,  Salvatore Billitteri, 
Rated: Unrated
Release Date: 1964-05-06
Studio: Image Entertainment
Format: Anamorphic,  Color,  DVD-Video,  Widescreen,  NTSC, 

Editorial Reviews and DVD Information about Black Sabbath

Description
Experience Mario Bava's horror classic "Black Sabbath" (original Italian title: "Three Faces of Fear")--as it's never been seen in America before! A beautiful woman is terrorized by calls from an ex-lover who has escaped prison for the pleasure of killing her... A family becomes a feeding ground when their father returns home wounded after ridding the countryside of a hideous vampire... A nurse is haunted by reproaches from the Beyond after stealing a ring from the finger of a dead medium! Join Boris Karloff as he hosts (and stars in) this trilogy of terror tales--presented in its original aspect ratio and in Italian with English subtitles, with every shock intact!

Amazon.com
When American audiences first saw Mario Bava's 1963 horror trilogy, it wasn't the same film he had made in Italy. Finding it too terrifying for kids (imagine that!), AIP pictures trimmed it of violence and intensity, rescored it, and renamed it in order to cash in on the success of Black Sunday. New tongue-in-cheek introductions with costar Boris Karloff were added, the segments were rearranged, and one segment was completely rewritten in the dubbing. It was a good film even in its butchered form, but the original Italian version is excellent. The correctly ordered stories begin with "The Telephone," a gripping, ornate thriller that anticipates Bava's later "giallo" horror classics such as Blood and Black Lace. (In the American version, lesbian overtones were removed and the escaped criminal killer was turned into a vengeful ghost.) Karloff stars as a demonic, wild-haired patriarch in the eerie "The Wurdulak," a gorgeous vampire tale shot on misty, menacing sets. The masterpiece of the collection is "The Drop of Water," a chilling ghost story with shiver inducing imagery: the piercing dead eyes of the restless corpse will haunt you long after the film is over. Bava's original framing sequence ends with a playful tribute to the magic of moviemaking and storytelling, a sweet coda to remind us that it's only a movie.

The print suffers slightly from wear and tear and water damage but the colors are sharp and vivid. It's a bit disconcerting to hear Karloff dubbed in Italian, but that's a small price to pay for seeing the film in its original, uncut form. The DVD also features an extensive gallery of production and promotional stills, biographies, and liner notes by Bava historian Tim Lucas. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews for Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath
I had seen this movie a number of times on tv...It is a few different stories...I love the old B-movie scary, vampire legends...only when I viewed the movie on tv, it was dubbed in english...I had no idea this would be in Italian with subtitles...disappointed with that...I really think the voice of Boris makes the whole vampire story stand out...oh well...thumbs down on this version....Black Sabbath

A mixed bag of horrors
Mario Bava's entry in the Cormanesque compilation horror stakes, The Three Faces of Fear aka Black Sabbath suffers the format's common problem - the variable quality of the individual stories. In this case, in the Italian cut at least, that's somewhat exacerbated by having the best of the three in the middle of the picture, leaving it somewhat anticlimactic. The stories' heritage isn't in doubt, based on stories by Chekhov, Tolstoy and Maupassant, but neither opener The Telephone, about a woman harassed by phone calls that may be from the lover she betrayed to the police, or A Drop of Water, about a nurse who finds herself terrorized by her imagination after stealing a ring from a dead woman she laid out, offer much in the way of surprise or chills. Neither, it's true, does the central and longest story, The Wurdalak, yet that tale of a family gradually picked off by vampires cursed to drink the blood of those they love most in the world is executed with enough panache, striking visuals and unexpected nastiness (a child is the first to die) to keep you intrigued even though you know exactly where it's going.

A dubbed Boris Karloff provides the star power for this sequence as well as the introduction and epilogue, which features an initially inept shot that turns into a truly delightful in-joke by the time the end credit is ready to appear (the new intros he filmed for the US version of the film are not included on Anchor Bay's DVD of the original Italian version, although they can be glimpsed in the disc's US trailer, part of an actionably misleading US advertising campaign that included a poster of a headless horseman that doesn't appear in either version of the film!).Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath
OK.. so the movie is really good.. A really good watch, but buyers should be aware, the language is not always in English.. Some versions of the movie are only subtitled in English.. You spend more time reading than you do watching the movie..Black Sabbath

Buyer BEWARE! NOT the English Version
BUYER BEWARE! Although the Product Details are specific, the language part in not correct. This DVD version is the Italian with English sub-titles. If you are like me and remember seeing the U.S. release in the
Theatres or on TV as a kid, and would like to have the English version for your collection - DO NOT order this DVD from this seller. If you do want the Italian with sub-titles, then go ahead and place your order from this seller. You'll be very happy with this DVD.
Good, now that I got that out of the way. I really like this 3 tales of suspense and horror flick. I remember seeing this film on a Friday late-night TV show called Creature Feature back in the late 60's. My Dad would wake me up minutes before Midnight to watch the movie of the night and "Black Sabbath" would be the regular film in the weekly rotation of Horror and/or Monster movies. So, this film made an impact on me and has sentimental value as well.
The first tale "The Telephone" was my least favorite of the 3 stories in this film. Since the U.S. version was heavily edited for American audiences, I found this story more fasicinating with the vengeful Lesbian twist in the original Italian version. Of course, Michelle Mercier is a delight to watch and easy on the eyes. Boris Karloff plays a Wurdulak (vampire who drinks the blood of his loved ones) in the second tale of the film called "The Wurdulak" - of course. Even though there are no graphic scenes of biting or blood spurting everywhere (like todays vampire movies), this story still has some eerie and chilling atmosphere and Mr. Karloff does a wonderful acting performance as a vampire hungry for blood. The last story "The Drop of Water" is the one that made the most impact on me. For the time when this was filmed, it really scared me as a child. The face of the dead medium was enough to give me nightmares and make it hard for me to fall asleep...I was 8. I never forgot that pale, scary and frightening look with the wild white hair floating across the room to kill the woman who stole her valuable Jeweled Ring near the end of the film.
If you like old horror flicks like this one, get both versions. I did and I'm glad they still make copies of this movie for us fans of Old School Horror. Great memories! - Roland GonzalesBlack Sabbath

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.........
It's Black Sabbath! And I'm not talking about those crazy hippies who play that heavy metal devil music either-Mario Bava's Black Sabbath! It's considered one of the high points in Bava's career, and easy to see why. It's an anthology horror film made up of three seperate stories. The first is about a woman alone being terrorized by threatening phone calls. The second story with Boris Karloff is a slight variation of the vampire myth with a stranger meeting a family in the woods who are involved in some spooky stuff. The third is another great example of why you should never attempt graverobbery if you're in a horror film. A woman steals the ring off the hand of a dead woman and soon comes to realize that the dead woman is dreadfully attached to it. The story with Karloff is the best of the bunch, and I'm sure most would agree. Bava really shows us how good he is with visuals. It'll remind you of a Hammer film, but with some of Bava's trademark wacky colors. The first story isn't bad, but you'll have that ending figured out long before it happens. The third story is quite short and it's easy to see why. It'll remind you of a Tales From The Crypt story. Nothing too earth shattering, but the corpse of the old woman looks kinda creepy. Alot of Bava's flashing, colorful lights set the mood in this one. A movie definitely seeing if you like, or are interested in Bava's style. Yes, this is the Italian version as so many have said before me. Most horror fans don't mind(or just downright prefer) films with subtitles. I certainly don't mind coz I can eat my Cornuts without missing dialogue or having to turn it up. But if you don't like them, just be forwarned that there is no English Audio option. So, you people better all beware!Black Sabbath