The AIP version of Mario Bava’s 1963 THREE FACES OF FEAR, renamed BLACK SABBATH, has recently been issued by KL Studio Classics This release features a high quality transfer but is not fully restored. No matter, it’s still nice to have Boris Karloff speaking in his own voice. The earlier Image and/or Anchor Bay editions are in the original Italian and contain several changes. The Italian order of the stories is 1) THE TELEPHONE, 2) THE WURDALAK, and 3) THE DROP OF WATER while in the AIP version, the order is 1) THE DROP OF WATER, 2) THE TELEPHONE and 3) THE WURDALAK.
AIP’s also has different inserts as Karloff’s narration was expanded to make it seem more like his old THRILLER TV series. His Italian segments are confined to an intro and an epilogue and are much more humorous in nature. The original ending to the Italian version involving Karloff riding a fake horse inside a movie studio was cut entirely. In addition to rearranging the order of the stories, AIP makes a number of alterations to THE TELEPHONE changing it from a Giallo theme to a supernatural one and eliminating a lesbian subplot. This makes it shorter and more confusing.
In A DROP OF WATER a nurse steals a dead medium’s ring only to have her corpse come back for it. THE TELEPHONE has a woman terrorized from phone calls by the ghost of her betrayed lover. Finally THE WURDALAK features Boris Karloff and Mark Damon in a period tale of a family stalked by its patriarch who has become a vampire. WATER is the scariest with the face of the dead woman hard to forget. THE WURDALAK is the most atmospheric. The Italian version of THE TELEPHONE, which has a revenge motive, is far more suspenseful.
The 2015 release contained no subtitles for the hard of hearing but that has been remedied. Now the movie is easy to follow with Karloff’s segments tying it all together. On a sad note, it was while filming this movie that Karloff developed pneumonia which left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his career. Still this remained one of his favorite movie experiences and he loved the original Italian finale. BLACK SABBATH comes with commentary from Mario Bava specialist Tim Lucas.
The Capsule Critic 