I tre volti della paura (1963)

Directors:

Mario Bava
Salvatore Billitteri

Writers:

Mario Bava (writer)
Alberto Bevilacqua (writer)

Release Date:

6 May 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

This is the night of the nightmare...The day of the Undead.

Plot:

A trio of atmospheric horror tales about: A woman terrorized in her apartment by phone calls from an...

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Vampire | Corpse | Medium | Escaped Prisoner

Cast

Michèle Mercier	...	Rosy (segment "The Telephone")
Lidia Alfonsi	...	Mary (segment "The Telephone") (as Lydia Alfonsi)
Boris Karloff	...	Himself / Gorca (segment "The Wurdalak")
Mark Damon	...	Vladimire d'Urfe (segment "The Wurdalak")
Susy Andersen	...	Sdenka (segment "The Wurdalak")
Massimo Righi	...	Pietro (segment "The Wurdalak")
Rika Dialina	...	Maria (segment "The Wurdalak") (as Rica Dialina)
Glauco Onorato	...	Giorgio (segment "The Wurdalak")
Jacqueline Pierreux	...	Helen Chester (segment "The Drop of Water")
Milly	...	The Maid (segment "The Drop of Water") (as Milly Monti)
Harriet Medin	...	Neighbor (segment "The Drop of Water")
Gustavo De Nardo	...	Police Inspector (segment "The Drop of Water")

Also Known As:

Black Sabbath (USA)
Les trois visages de la peur (France)
The Three Faces of Fear
The Three Faces of Terror

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

Italy | France | USA

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 (self applied) (2001) | France:-12 | Italy:VM14 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:16 | UK:X

Filming Locations:

Titanus Farnesina Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Alta Vista Film Production

Trivia:

The films Italian title is "I Tre volti della paura", which means "The Three Faces of Fear."

Goofs:

Plot holes: In "The Wurdulak", Gorca shouldn't have been able to turn Giorgio into a vampire, because Giorgio had already been stabbed to death by Maria.

Quotes:

Mary: [to Rosy] You have no reason to be afraid.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Le locataire (1976)

And you will live in terror...

I don't know if Sam Arkoff knows it, but the moment AIP renamed "I Tre Volti Della Paura" into "Black Sabbath" for the American release they were writing 20th century history. A couple of years later a relatively unknown band from Birmingham, inspired by Mario Bava's Gothic horror anthology, would name their band Black Sabbath and proceed to become one of the most well known and influential bands of the last 30 years.

Black Sabbath starts off wisely with the weakest story in the movie, "The Telephone". There's nothing incredibly exciting going on, and the interior setting doesn't allow Bava to fully exercise his usual flair in visuals and atmosphere, rendering this segment a rather routine affair. Any historical significance the segment might have in the shaping of the giallo is made redundant by the fact that Bava himself would go on to define the genre a few years later with Blood and Black Lace.

The patient viewer will be amply rewarded by the following two segments though. The Wurdulak, featuring a ghastly Boris Karloff in one of his best roles, and A Drop of Water, with Jacqueline Pierreux in the role of a greedy nurse, are both the epitome of Mario Bava's Gothic style in colour.

What makes Black Sabbath so vibrant and captivating is the use of colour in lighting. Going against every rule and defying every sense of historic realism, Bava employs colours from every end of the palette (from magenta to cyan) and lights his sets in the most imaginative ways. It may seem arbitrary, and it may very well be, but the effect cannot be dismissed. It works. Imagine Seijun Suzuki circa Tokyo Drifter doing Black Sunday in colour and you get pretty close to what Bava strives for lighting-wise. There's a pop art sensibility that contrasts beautifully with the stern tone of the movie. Combined with misty exteriors, long shadows and a baroque opulence, Bava mutates Gothic horror into a unique beast that is simultaneously very familiar and extravagantly exotic.

What's even more admirable is that Black Sabbath is actually scary. Well not in the traditional sense anymore, no. But there are genuinely chilling moments. I can't even begin to imagine how horrifying the ending of A Drop of Water or Boris Karloff's face seen through a smudged glass in The Wurdulak would have been to unsuspecting audiences back in 1963.

In conclusion; seek this movie out, but know what you're getting into. This is old school Gothic horror with a unique visual flair, a penchant for atmosphere and a great Boris Karloff. In the Gothic horror Bava scale, I would rank it somewhere between Kill! Baby! Kill... (Bava's other masterpiece) and Lisa and the Devil, if that means anything.