Black Sabbath () is a 1963 horror anthology film directed by Mario Bava. The film consists of three separate tales that are introduced by Boris Karloff. The order in which the stories are presented varies among the different versions in which the film has been released. In the original, Italian print, the first story, titled "The Telephone", involves Rosy (Michèle Mercier) who continually receives threatening telephone calls from an unseen stalker. The second is "The Wurdulak", where a man named Gorca (Karloff) returns to his family after claiming to have slain a Wurdulak, an undead creature who attacks those that it had once loved. The third story, "The Drop of Water", is centered on Helen Corey (Jacqueline Pierreux), a nurse who steals a valuable ring from a corpse that is being prepared for burial and finds herself haunted by the ring's original owner after arriving home.
Being a low-budget horror film with multiple stories, an international cast and foreign financial backing, Black Sabbath follows numerous trends of 1960s Italian film productions. The film is credited to various writers, including Anton Chekov and Aleksey Tolstoy, but is predominantly based on several uncredited sources, and changes were made to the script after filming commenced. American International Pictures and Titra Sound Corporation suggested changes to Bava during filming to make the film palatable for American audiences, and created their own English-language version of the film, which replaced Roberto Nicolosi's score with music by Les Baxter, removed several depictions of graphic violence and made alterations to other scenes. This version greatly changed the plot of "The Telephone", giving it a supernatural element and removing all references to lesbianism and prostitution.
Black Sabbath was a commercial failure upon release in Italy, and performed below expectations in America. A spiritual sequel to the film, based on "The Dunwich Horror" and provisionally titled Scarlet Friday, was set to reunite Bava with Karloff and co-star Christopher Lee, but AIP distanced themselves from Bava following the failure of Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs and eventually produced the film without Bava, Karloff or Lee's involvement. Plans for a remake were announced in 2004 with Jonathan Hensleigh attached to write the script. Since its original release, Black Sabbath has received positive reviews from critics, and was placed at number 73 on a Time Out poll of the best horror films.
Plot
"The Telephone" Rosy, a French call-girl, returns to her basement apartment at night. She receives a series of strange phone calls. The caller eventually identifies himself as Frank, her former pimp who has recently escaped from prison. Rosy is terrified knowing that it was her testimony that sent Frank to prison. Rosy phones her friend and former lover, Mary for solace. The women have been estranged, but Rosy is certain that only Mary can help her. Mary agrees to come over that night. Seconds later, Frank calls again, promising that no matter what Rosy does he will have his revenge. Rosy doesn't realize that Mary is impersonating Frank on the telephone. Mary arrives at Rosy's apartment and attempts to calm Rosy's nerves. Mary provides Rosy with a large knife for protection before she goes to sleep.
As Rosy sleeps, Mary writes a confession explaining that she made the calls to force a reunion, knowing that Rosy would call on her for help. While she is writing Frank quietly enters the apartment and strangles Mary, believing her to be Rosy. The sound of their struggle awakens Rosy, and Frank realizes he murdered the wrong woman. Frank approaches Rosy's bed, but she seizes her knife and stabs Frank. Rosy drops the knife and breaks down in hysteria.
"The Wurdulak" In 19th-century Serbia, Vladimir D'Urfe is a young nobleman who finds a beheaded corpse with a dagger plunged into its heart. He takes the blade, and finds shelter in a small farmhouse. D'Urfe is approached by Giorgio, who explains that the knife belongs to his father, Gorca, who has not been seen for five days. Giorgio offers a room to D'Urfe and introduces him to the rest of the family: his wife Maria, their young son Ivan, Giorgio's younger brother Pietro, and his sister Sdenka. They all await the return of Gorca, who has gone hunting for a Turkish brigand who's actually a wurdalak, a type of vampire that is compelled to feed on the blood of loved ones. At midnight, Gorca returns to the cottage with a sour demeanor and unkempt appearance. After the family goes to sleep, Ivan and Pietro are attacked by Gorca, who flees the cottage with Ivan. Giorgio chases after Gorca but only returns with Ivan's corpse. Giorgio plans to stab Ivan in the heart as he has done for Pietro to prevent him from reviving as a Wurdalak, but is prevented from doing so by a frantic Maria. The two agree to give their son a burial.
That same night, Ivan appears outside and begs to be invited in. Giorgio is stabbed by Maria while she attempts to let in her son. On opening the door, she is greeted by Gorca, who bites her. Vladimir and Sdenka flee from the house and hide in the ruins of a deserted monastery. As Vladimir sleeps, Sdenka walks outside and finds Gorca and their family surrounding her. Vladimir awakens and searches for Sdenka, finding her lying in her bed at home. She begs him to leave but Vladimir refuses, saying he would rather die than lose her. As Vladimir embraces her, she bites his neck while the rest of her family watch through the window.
"The Drop of Water" In 1910s London, Nurse Helen Chester is called by the maid of an elderly medium to prepare the latter's corpse for burial. As she dresses the body, she notices an expensive sapphire ring on its finger. Chester steals it, accidentally tipping over a glass of water which drips on the floor; she is then annoyed by a fly. Chester takes the ring home to her flat and witnesses strange events. The fly returns and continues to pester her and the lights in her apartment go out as the sound of the dripping water is heard from various locations. Chester sees the woman's corpse lying on her bed. It rises and floats towards her. Chester begs for forgiveness but the corpse appears to strangle her - in reality she strangles herself. The next morning, the concierge discovers Chester's body and calls the police. The pathologist arrives to examine the body and only finds a small bruise on her left finger where the ring had been. As the doctor announces this observation, the concierge appears distressed and hears the dripping of water.
Cast
The Telephone Michèle Mercier as Rosy Lidia Alfonsi as Mary Milo Quesada as Frank (uncredited)
The Wurdulak Boris Karloff as Gorca Mark Damon as Count Vladimir D'Urfe Susy Andersen as Sdenka Massimo Righi as Pietro Rika Dialina as Maria Glauco Onorato as Giorgio
The Drop of Water Jacqueline Pierreux as Helen Chester Milly Monti as the Maid Harriet Medin as the Concierge Gustavo De Nardo as the Police Inspector Alessandro Tedeschi as the Coroner (uncredited)
Production
Development In 1958, American International Pictures founders James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff hired Italian talent agent and producer Fulvio Lucisano to look for commercially viable Italian films for them after the large success of the Italian feature Hercules (1958). In February 1963, American International Pictures made a deal with the Italian film production company Galatea that they would contribute to a minimum of nine co-productions in the next eight years.Heffernan, 2004. p. 140 Black Sabbath follows many production trends of Italian films of the era.Heffernan, 2004. p. 141 These co-productions were influenced by the lack of big film stars in Italy. To avoid high costs or big stars, producers created anthology films involving three or four short narratives whose combined running time was that of a regular feature film, as in Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963). A second trend was to match an up-and-coming actor or a much older actor with a European ingenue actress, as in Spy in Your Eye which paired Pier Angeli and Dana Andrews. The third trend was the move towards making Westerns and horror films which were less expensive to produce than the earlier sword-and-sandal films.
Pre-production The casting and crewing of Black Sabbath was divided between the film's three main production partners: Galatea cast actress Susy Andersen while retaining Mario Bava, who had directed several of their films, including Black Sunday, American International Pictures secured Mark Damon and Boris Karloff, and Societé Cinématographique Lyre secured Michèle Mercier and Jacqueline Pierreux (the latter is credited under the pseudonym "Jacqueline Soussard" on American prints). Mercier had previously worked with Bava on The Wonders of Aladdin (1961), for which he had directed its second unit.
Bava is credited as writing the film's script along with Alberto Bevilacqua and Marcello Fondato. The film's opening credits credit the stories as "The Drop of Water" by Anton Chekov, "The Telephone" by F.G. Snyder and "Sem'ya vurdalaka" by Aleksey Tolstoy. Bava later took credit for the original story of "The Drop of Water", but Italian critic Antonio Bruscini traced its origins to a story titled "Dalle tre alle tre e mezzo" ("Between Three and Three-thirty") that was included in a 1960 anthology book titled Storie di fantasmi (Ghost Stories).Curti, 2015. p. 78 British historian Julian Granger identified the author of the story as Franco Lucentini. "The Wurdulak" is loosely based on The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. The story of "The Wurdulak" was found in the 1960 anthology I vampiri tra noi.Curti, 2015. p. 81 Other parts of the story were inspired by the Guy de Maupassant story "Fear" and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Bevilacqua stated that Bava wanted to create stories about how terror can strike mankind in different time periods and asked his screenwriters to get him stories from books. After Bevilacqua finished his draft the screenplay, Marcello Fondato was brought in to work on it. Bevilacqua claimed that he was recalled for later rewrites but that most of his added material was cut from the final film. American International Pictures approved of Bava's thematic idea but encouraged him to look for public domain titles.
It was decided early in production that Boris Karloff would not only star in one of the tales, but also act as the film's host; he had recently hosted his own anthology television series, Thriller. Karloff was under contract with American International Pictures, and had just completed filming The Raven for them. The film's cinematographer is credited as Ubaldo Terzano but Bava shot several scenes himself without credit.
Filming Black Sabbath was made at the end of production of The Girl Who Knew Too Much during an eight-week period between February and March 1963.Smith, 2009. p 25 American International's involvement with the film allowed Salvatore Billitteri of Titra Sound Corporation to be on set to supervise the film for dubbing on its English-language release. As the film was going to be dubbed in different languages, actors could no longer phonetically pronounce their dialogue as it had to be done rhythmically to match various languages. Billitteri was also on set to give suggestions to Bava on how to make his film more appropriate for American audiences, which led to decreasing the amount of violence in the film. The film was first conceived under the title The Fear.