Feb 221963
 
two reels

Three stories introduced by Boris Karloff. (1) A woman steals a ring from a corpse that may have died due to the actions of ghosts. (2) A woman receives a series of threatening phone calls from a dead man. (3) A vampire hunter (Boris Karloff) returns to his family after a hunt, and after the maximum time he told them that it would be safe to let him in.

I’m a fan of good anthology films, and this one is… OK. Shot by Mario Bava, Black Sabbath looks like the Italian horror films of the time: colorful, stage-bound, and filled with fog. Think Hammer Horror, but better. This is gothic horror, with an emphasis on atmosphere and very little concern for story.

If you watch horror only for primordial frights, then Black Sabbath will probably work for you. I evaluate a horror film like any other, looking at plot, character, and theme and in all of those, it falls down. The first segment has a minute or two’s worth of story and the ending is set as soon as it begins. So I can watch a woman in fear at sounds around her apartment; that’s all there is. The second has no story at all. What it does have is an attractive, buxom woman in her nightgown running about. That’s something, but not enough. The last section has a plot and characters, and it could have used more time to develop them. The love story comes out of nowhere, even with the obvious charms on display. Since it is clear this is going to be an intimate segment, with a good number of deaths, I’d like to have gotten to know these folks better.

Black Sabbath is a better film to watch than to think about later. It tastes good, but it lacks substance. It is fitting that its greatest impact came as the inspiration for the name of the heavy metal band.