I Tre Volti Della Paura (1963)

Black Sabbath
The Three Faces of Fear
The Three Faces of Terror

A creepy and gothic (I mean olde tyme) horror anthology hosted by Boris Karlof and directed by the one and only Mario Bava. Mario Bava’s influence on modern filmmaking cannot be understated. His use of color and set design are still aped today. You can see his echos in Dario Argento up through Guillermo Del Toro.  Bava’s flims Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) and  Bay of Blood (aka  Twitch of the Death Nerve 1970) pretty much wrote the blueprint for Italian Giallo and the later for the modern slasher film (directly ripped off by Friday the 13th part whatever).

But here we have a much more old school affair, short little bursts of fun scares and chills. In the first a woman is receiving threatening phone calls from a man she had put behind bars and only her lesbian ex-girlfriend can help her…or can she? In the second tale and the best, Karloff plays the patriarch of a family that has been gone trying to fallen under the spell of a Wurdulak (like a Russian Vampire), Karloff has been out trying to kill a terrible villain and vampire but returns…changed. In the third tale a nurse steals a ring off of a corpse and then keeps hearing dripping sounds. Kinda ends on a dud. However, the Wurdulak segment is so good that all is forgiven, also Karloffs outro is hilarious: he reminds us that it’s only a movie and the camera pulls back to show the set, the director, in a hilarious kind of Oz behind the curtain gag.

Fucking amazing set design work, costumes, cinematography.  Just gorgeous to look at, moods and atmospheres are perfectly constructed. Movies do not look this good anymore. It’s a shame.

Recommended.