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.
No comments:
Post a Comment