BLACK SABBATH
(1963)
Dir - Mario Bava
Overall: MEH
Anthology horror almost always produces uneven results and two of the three tales in Mario Bava's Black Sabbath, (I tre volti della paura), indeed suffer greatly. Not surprisingly, it is the two that were tweaked with by American International Pictures afterwards for the U.S. version. "Telephone" is by far the weakest and also got the short end of the stick with the most editing against Bava's original. Michèle Mercier's Rosy may be the most textbook "dumb broad" in all of horror cinema as a menacing guy keeps calling her, giving her play-by-play details as to clearly announce that he is watching her every move, and she just continues to get ready for bed, makes a drink, and of course answers the phone each and every time. In other words never once calling the police or running to her neighbor screaming "There's a guy watching me who's gonna kill me!". The most beloved segment here is Boris Karloff's sole-vampire portrayal in "The Wurdalak" but this one is botched up by laughable melodrama and further, typically stupid behavior from people in horror movies. "The Drop of Water" on the other hand is Bava in peak form. Short, almost comically creepy, and to the point, it is masterfully paced and uses a minimal soundtrack to wrack up the tension.
THE RAVEN
(1963)
Dir - Roger Corman
Overall: GREAT
The previous year's anthology Tales of Terror had featured "The Black Cat" which went in a comedic direction and both Roger Corman and writer Richard Matheson fancied doing an entire film with a more funny tone. Taking the title of Poe's most famous work The Raven, they rightly figured you could go anywhere with that for roughly ninety-minutes and a story of dueling sorcerers was born. As good and funny as the script is and as wonderful as the final showdown between Price's Erasmus Craven and Boris Karloff's more diabolical Scarabus likewise is, the sets are truly exceptional. They were later used in The Terror which was shot immediately afterwards to cash-in on production being wrapped-up early and everything from Craven's father's old layerd-in-dust work-shop to Scarabus's sprawling, main interior, (with an indoor, gargoyle-guarded fire pit no less), are just fascinating to look at. When everything looks so goddamn good, you have Price and Karloff delivering nothing but class, Peter Lorre adlibbing hilarious silliness, Corman's effortlessly tight direction, and Matheson's splendid script, you simply cannot lose.
(1963)
Dir - Roger Corman/Francis Ford Coppola/Jack Hill/Monte Hellman/Jack Nicholson
Overall: MEH
One of the strangest productions ever which involves a multitude of known talent, The Terror is quite the fascinating dull movie. Roger Corman is as known for his haphazard and rushed production jobs as he is for anything else and this is more or less the benchmark example. The far superior by ask-anyone's-standards The Raven was wrapped up early so instead of tearing down the impressive castle interior sets that were built for it, (as well as the same year's The Haunted Palace, likewise with Vincent Price and likewise a light-years-better film), Corman decided to shoot some scenes with Boris Karloff, Richard Miller, and a young Jack Nicholson of all people. By the way, this was all done with no script. Various other future filmmakers shot some scenes, (including Francis Ford Coppola), and really quickly and really cheaply, a sort-of-competent full-length movie was made. If the results would have been a jumbled, ridiculous mess then it probably would endure as a laugh, but unfortunately it is just lousy. There are some silly twists and one or two not-bad horror moments including face melting and eyeball pecking scenes, but the pacing bogs the mystery down considerably, said mystery reeking of being hammered out in about an hour or so on a typewriter. Considering that that is probably exactly what happens, one can hardly be surprised.
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