In cinema history class this past week, we started the new session with Mario Bava's Black Sabbath. This was a 1963 API French/Italian anthology of three short stories. Though this is an iconic film, it was in some ways a letdown after the deeply disturbing Andy Warhol's Dracula that we saw in the prior week.
The film starts off strong with a revenge/ghost story called "A Drop of Water." This was, by far, the best of the three films. Unfortunately, it went down from there. "The Telephone," which was more of a giallo was longer and less good. The final installment, "The Wurdalak," is a vampire story, and the only one to include Boris Karloff (though Karloff also served as an MC of sorts). "Wurdalak" was interesting, but it just went on too long.
In some ways I think this movie would have worked better if the order were different. "A Drop of Water" was short and snappy, and would have served better as the final installment. Joe disagreed with that assessment; since Karloff is in "Wurdalak," he feels that had to come last. I find that interesting given that the European release had "Drop" in the final slot.
And, yes, the heavy metal band took their name from this movie. I just wish I knew what the name has to do with the movie.
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