Smoreni Zmaj The first one is great, although more falls under the thriller genre, the second is an average vampire story, and the ghost story at the end is lousy. On average ... mediocre. The original title of the film is in Italian, director is also Italian, actors are Italian, French and English, it's written everywhere that the film is Italian, but either I'm crazy or this film was filmed in English and synchronized to Italian, which is so irritating that it can not be described in words. The Italian language does not fit the genre and synchronization makes it completely ridiculous and totally kills the tension of the original story. Why they did this I have no idea, and if someone knows what the matter is, I would be grateful to hear the explanation.6/10

Rainey Dawn This is a pretty good older horror anthology - a trilogy of stories. Boris Karloff hosts and also stars in one segment called "The Wurdalak".The first story is "The Drop of Water". A nurse ends up stealing a ring off the hand of a deal spiritualist... but the corpse seeks revenge. An OK story - the worst of the trilogy.The second story is "The Telephone". A female prostitute is terrorized with phone calls from a man who is dead - what does he want? A pretty creepy story.The third story is "The Wurdalak". This one stars Boris Karloff. Karloff is a lead vampire.. he feeds on the blood of those he loves the most. This is a good Gothic vampire segment (and would have been a great full film). The best story of the trilogy.Overall, this a good horror anthology to watch on a dark and stormy night.7/10

poe426 Mario Bava bats a thousand this time around. There's not a single segment of this three-parter that's not topnotch. The first story is truly unsettling, and features one of the scariest-looking corpses to ever haunt a child's dreams; her rictus grin is truly the stuff of nightmares- and the thought of somebody actually handling her corpse (even to steal from it) is even more unsettling. The sets are superb (especially the apartment) and superbly shot and beautifully lit; Bava was a Stylist Supreme, and BLACK SABBATH is a Prime Example of it. The second segment has a harrowing ending, with the voice of the murdered man, coming from the phone even as he lies dying on the floor, promising more of the same. The third and final segment has yet another chilling scene: the scene where the young boy returns from the grave and kneels outside the house, scratching on the door and begging to be let in. "I'm cold," he pleads: "Let me in- please..." Boris Karloff and Mario Bava- a match made in Horror Heaven.

Dr_Drew_Says Black Sabbath (1963) - The Good, the Bad and the Cinematic BeautySynopsis: A trio of Italian cinema giallo/horror shorts: "Il Telefono" - the story of a woman driven to madness by disturbing phone calls, "I Wurdelak" - a period piece of a family driven to destruction by a vampire-like being, "La Goccia d' Acqua" - translated as a "A Drop of Water", it centers around a nurse who steals a ring from a corpse who comes back for revenge.The Good: A beautifully crafted set of films that each show unique qualities, yet somehow feel cohesive. All three shorts are set in different time periods, yet the atmosphere of the film in its entirety feels familiar and establishes continuity, so you never feel like you're starting a brand new movie. It's a quality that is rare, so I am endeared to few anthology-type movies, but this one succeeds. As for each of the shorts independently, for me, "La Goccia d' Acqua" was by far the best and most effective. Few movies created in the 1960's hold any sort of true scariness to them in present day, but this segment does just that. It's a very creepy piece and can challenge most modern horror in its ability to raise the hair on your arms. It's something about the look of the corpse and how the suspense of the scene builds to a fever pitch and ultimate reveal. While I enjoyed the other two segments as well, this segment really made the movie for me. It finished the film on a high note and made me momentarily forget a few of the things that were lacking in the first hour of the film.The Bad: While the entire film is good, I felt that the first two segments didn't quite hold up as well over time. "Il Telefono" is a very straight up giallo, which I felt that Bava perfected over time, but is somewhat lacking in it's bite here. The piece is relatively tame and the ending was predictable. I found it rather boring in spots as well. "I Wurdelak" is a step in the right direction for the film, but it drags on a tad too long (which is not something you should feel with short films). Karloff is good in the part of Gorca, but otherwise, the acting is period-piece over-the-top. This is fine if the story is grand in scale, but with roughly a half hour of screen time, there simply wasn't enough material for the "Gone with the Wind" dramatic acting. The tale is essentially a love story, but with so much happening so fast, it loses its believability and that takes you out of the story. I feel like these are minor gripes in the grand scheme, though. The Cinematic Beauty: The film in its entirety is gorgeous. For what the "I Wurdelak" story lacks in depth, it makes up for in its beautiful set pieces. The Old World ruins and the chilling brutality of the winter landscape embraces the viewer. Each segment has excellent use of lighting and color, specifically "La Goccia d' Acqua". A simple strobing green light outside a window gives this segment ten times the atmosphere and sets up a very suspenseful ending. In addition to the light, the dripping water effect is palpable, heightening your senses and creating massive tension in a very simplistic way. Bava always had this sort of attention to detail and it is what makes his films so easy to watch. Sometimes it is hard to pinpoint exactly why you like to watch a movie. On the surface, the individual segments of Black Sabbath are not ground-breaking in concept at all (aside from the last possibly). The vampire concept, even in 1963, has been done hundreds of times. The difference is Bava's superior attention to detail and the creation of an atmosphere within each of the films to draw the viewer in. In doing that, you create a movie that is successful in its execution.