Black Sabbath, Full of Praise, Colors and Spoilers

 

Black Sabbath is a typical Mario Bava movie, a beautiful palette of colors, bad girls in compromising situations, damsels in distress and tragic heroes. 

***Warning!!! Spoilers Below!!!***

The Drop of Water, it’s like a sucker punch to the senses.  The colors and the visuals in this story are incredible, from the bright red neon light bathing Nurse Helen’s face, to the squalor of the mansion, and the unsettling corpse of the elderly medium.  Not only that, but to take very common household noises, water dripping and a fly buzzing, and associating them to such a terrifying image, its genius!!!

The Telephone is more of the “good girl gone bad” situation.  You can feel the anxiety and anguish just build every time the phone rings, and when you think the girl has a finally gotten rid of her tormentor, on the phone, which is off the hook, she hears his voice telling her “you will never be rid of me”. MESSED UP!

The Wurdalak is the most beautiful visually. It’s like Jamie tweeted, “a vibrant bruise in varying stages of healing…” I couldn’t agree more! The purples, greens and yellows give this story a sense of a deep trauma.  The stranger stumbling upon the tragic family, the return of the patriarch, the suspicion and the fear, it just sucks you into the story, which can be summarized with, he dies, she dies, everybody dies, and it doesn’t leave you feeling empty but makes you sympathize.

This is one of my favorite Bava films. It’s fun, colorful and just good story telling with the lens. A definite recommend as a gateway film to classic Italian horror. If you do watch the original Italian film, I Tre Volti Della Paura, the story sequence is different, and wraps up the stories a little better, but still loads of fun.

Open House, 1987

Nothing says 80's horror flick like Adrienne Barbeau. Add bad acting, big hair, cheesy lines, a synthesizer soundtrack and you got Open House, a nostalgic trip into the 80's. It's about a psychopath that is killing real estate agents. Dr David Kelley, played by Joseph Bottoms, is a therapy radio show host that starts getting calls from the killer and the police want his help. Lisa Grant, played by Adrienne Barbeau, is a real estate agent which happens to be his girlfriend.

There really isn't any gore in the movie and the killer is a goofy looking homeless guy with a grudge against real estate agents. His motivation for killing is really never revealed and character development is nonexistent. It has a few creative death scenes, like death by champagne, the slasher staple of the couple making out and a beheading. The story is slow and it is very obvious that this was not a movie with a big budget. The realtor and radio signs thru out the movie look like someone handmade them with a Sharpie! See if you can spot them, it’s a fun game. The ending was disappointing and very anticlimactic. I started to get a bit bored with the movie, but did have fun laughing at the outrageous fashion and haircuts that were so cool when I was a teen.

So if you're feeling nostalgic for the 80's and want to experience the era, watch Open House and enjoy. It’s a “Bubblegum” kind of slasher that was typical back then. But, if you are used to the blood and action of today's slasher movies, or looking for something with a climax of tension and jump scares, I wouldn't recommend the movie.

Popcorn, Candy, Pop...

Creepers, creatures and blood drinkers is what I grew up watching, and I plan to share this love of the horror movie with you, the reader, in this blog. Once a week I'll give you my opinion of what is worth watching, and what to just walk away from.  Our opinions will differ I'm sure, but that's the fun part now, isn't it? The back and forth discussion of what is worthy to be called a classic and what is mere dribble and waste of celluloid.
So grab a bag of popcorn, take a seat and let's get this show started...
Roll the film!