My Grading System

A+ = Masterpiece (I hold back on this one.) / A = Great. / A- = Really Good. / B+ = Good. / B = Decent (Serviceable). / B- = Flawed but okay (For those times there's something redeeming about the work). / C+ = Not very good (Skip it). C = Bad. / C- = Awful. / F = Complete Disaster (I hold back on this one too).

Note on Spoilers: I will try to avoid ruining a story by going into too much detail. But if I wish to include some revealing points to my analysis I will try to remember to add a separate spoiler paragraph.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Black Sabbath (1963)

Boris Karloff does his impression of Hitchcock, introducing two short films before playing the lead in the final story in this Italian Horror anthology directed by Mario Bava.  The first two tales, A Drop of Water and The Telephone are amusing but feel like add-ons to the central story, an adaption of Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's story The Family of the Vourdalak about a family dealing with the possibility that their father has returned as a Russian vampire or Vourdalak.  (Aleksey is a cousin of Leo Tolstoy, by the way.)  I'm curious about the Italian edit of this film.  I've read they're different, with the Telephone having a Lesbian subplot (an element you can feel is missing in the American edit).  Oh well, this version is still a satisfying journey into the macabre with the older Karloff proving he still has what it takes being a creep old guy.   Speaking of creep old guy, this is the movie that inspired Ozzie Osborne's band in choosing a name. Grade: B+
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)