Though there had been earlier efforts, like Ealing Studios’s Dead of Night from 1945, the horror anthology film came into its own in the 1960s with titles like Kobayashi Masaki’s Kwaidan and the Poe-centric Spirits of the Dead from directors Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini. Hammer Films’s rival Amicus churned out no fewer than seven of them in a 10-year period starting with Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors. But the one that really got the omnibus rolling was Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath from 1963, an Italian-American co-production that resulted in two different versions of the film.
After the success of 1960’s Black Sunday, American International Pictures took a more active hand in producing several of Bava’s later films, altering them in the process to suit American audiences that tended to skew younger. The Aip cut of Black Sabbath rearranges its three segments, tones down some...
After the success of 1960’s Black Sunday, American International Pictures took a more active hand in producing several of Bava’s later films, altering them in the process to suit American audiences that tended to skew younger. The Aip cut of Black Sabbath rearranges its three segments, tones down some...
- 10/16/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
Happy New Year, friends! I come bearing a belated gift featuring not one, but two horror icons in the form of the 1963, Mario Bava-directed, Boris Karloff-starring anthology film Black Sabbath. And in case you’re wondering, yes this title inspired a band that would go on to make some of the most well-known metal songs of all time (that’s good!) and whose lead singer kicked off the celebrity reality TV craze (that’s bad!). Oddly enough, I found the film in Shudder’s “Unhappy Holidays” section, even though after watching it I’m having trouble finding any connection to the holiday season. But I’m not here to start another “is it a Christmas movie?” debate. I just want to bone up on my Bava, as I’ve seen very little of his work and I also like the idea of getting more Karloff, who pulls double...
- 1/30/2019
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Black Sabbath is playing on Mubi in the Us through November 13, and Bay of Blood is playing on Mubi in the Us October 15 - November 14.Starting as a cinematographer and director of documentaries and shorts, Mario Bava would ultimately explore a variety of genres, from spaghetti westerns and sword-and-sandal adventures, to a modish detective film and even a romping sex comedy. It is his work within the horror genre, however, for which he is most widely, and justly, lauded. Among the Italian filmmakers who rose to prominence on the international horror scene of the 1960s and 70s, few would attain his degree of diverse stylistic virtuosity, nor would they cover the genre in such an expansive fashion. As the years of his career happened to fall, Bava ended up documenting the horror film in the process of profound transition.
- 10/14/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- MUBI
Stars: Boris Karloff, Michèle Mercier, Lidia Alfonsi, Jacqueline Pierreux, Gustavo De Nardo, Mark Damon, Susy Andersen, Massimo Righi | Written by Mario Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Marcello Fondato | Directed by Mario Bava
Mario Bava had been steadily working away in Italian cinema before he hit it big with 1960s Black Sunday, a film which introduced many to both his work and to Italian horror cinema in general. In fact his 1960 opus was such as success that a horror follow-up was eagerly demanded. An so came Black Sabbath, a three-part horror anthology blending modern and period stories, featuring the iconic Boris Karloff as host and star of one of the segments.
Black Sabbath opens with the Victorian-era ‘The Drop of Water’, in which a nurse steals a ring from the corpse of a dead spiritualist, who naturally tries to get it back. This is swiftly followed by the giallo-style ‘The Telephone’, where a...
Mario Bava had been steadily working away in Italian cinema before he hit it big with 1960s Black Sunday, a film which introduced many to both his work and to Italian horror cinema in general. In fact his 1960 opus was such as success that a horror follow-up was eagerly demanded. An so came Black Sabbath, a three-part horror anthology blending modern and period stories, featuring the iconic Boris Karloff as host and star of one of the segments.
Black Sabbath opens with the Victorian-era ‘The Drop of Water’, in which a nurse steals a ring from the corpse of a dead spiritualist, who naturally tries to get it back. This is swiftly followed by the giallo-style ‘The Telephone’, where a...
- 5/18/2013
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
★★★★☆ Mario Bava's playful portmanteau piece Black Sabbath (1963) is reissued by Arrow Video this week in a comprehensive two-disc set. Featuring three horrific tales of varying effectiveness, each introduced by the legendary Boris Karloff in tongue-in-cheek vignettes, the film owes a great deal to Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It also serves a great showcase for Bava's talents, all shorts being of a different tone and tackling different genre with assurance. Up first is The Drop of Water, a creepy piece focusing on Nurse Helen (Jacqueline Pierreux), called to tend the body of a recently deceased medium by her distraught maid.
While dressing the corpse for burial, Helen can't resist pilfering the old dear's ring, only to be haunted by the eerie sound of dripping and some unexpected visions upon returning home. Comprised of gorgeous sound and lighting design (deep reds, greens and purples glaze the screen throughout), this is atmospheric, unsettling...
While dressing the corpse for burial, Helen can't resist pilfering the old dear's ring, only to be haunted by the eerie sound of dripping and some unexpected visions upon returning home. Comprised of gorgeous sound and lighting design (deep reds, greens and purples glaze the screen throughout), this is atmospheric, unsettling...
- 5/14/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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