BLACK SABBATH

Mario Bava's classic horror portmanteau arrives on UK blu-ray and DVD, courtesy of our friends at Arrow Video.

Their set includes two versions of the film: the original Italian cut, bearing the title I TRE VOLTI DELLA PAURA and - for the first time on home video - the American International Pictures US re-edit (BLACK SABBATH).

The differences between the two are numerous. Too many to mention here, as many are subtle changes to audio or the lengths of scenes. To list them would be cumbersome in the extreme. Those who are fans of this film will need to buy this release anyway (believe me, you'll want to own this release), in which case you not only get the chance to check both films back-to-back but there's also a nifty extra feature devoted to highlighting these differences. But more on that later...

Three major ways in which the films DO differ are their scores (Roberto Nicolosi lends added atmosphere to the Italian version; Les Baxter sensationalises the American counterpart), the bookending framing scenes, and their sequencing of the three stories contained within.

In the Italian version, for example, the film opens with late genre legend Boris Karloff speaking - as himself - directly to the screen, standing on a hilltop while inviting us to endure a trio of terrible tales. In the US variant, the dialogue is almost identical, but Karloff's head now floats in disembodied fashion.

Then we're into the stories: for the purposes of this review, I'm looking at them in the order they unfurl in the Italian print.

First up is "The Telephone". In this contemporary thriller, classy call girl Mary (Lidia Alfonsi) is taunted by telephone calls in her apartment. They begin with silence on the other end of the line, but swiftly escalate to the ravings of a raspy-voiced assailant who claims to be able to see her every action.

She becomes panicked as the messages on the other end of the line get more and more threatening, eventually contacting her recently jilted lesbian lover Rosy (Michele Mercier) for reassurance. Mary fears that Frank, a former pimp who she helped convict and who has now escaped from prison, is coming for her.

It's a tense little number, set in the present day (well, 1963 - the year of BLACK SABBATH's production) and benefitting from a combination of stylish decor, manipulative thrills and nuanced character performances that bring to mind not just the ensuing giallo genre, but more so the preceding cinema of Hitchcock and Clouzot.

A jazzy score is at loggerheads with the remainder of the film, but the campy intro/outro scenes with Karloff ably established that Bava in playful form means anything can - and possibly will - happen.

Alfonsi is excellent as the vulnerable, increasingly fraught lead. Mercier is perhaps just as good as her icily cool counterpart. Who cares if the twist is obvious? The pacing, aesthetics and incremental terror evoked by Bava all work a treat here.

"The Telephone" can easily be seen as a precursor to the opening set-pieces of both WHEN A STRANGER CALLS and SCREAM, but remains classier than either.

Next we get "The Wurdalak", based on Russian folklore and affording Karloff to chew scenery as family patriarch Gorca.

Wandering Count Vladimire (Mark Damon) stumbles upon a horse in the Russian mountains, carrying a slain rider upon its back. He recognises the horse as belonging to a Gorca's family, and takes it back to their humble home.

There, he is welcomed in but is struck by the nervous nature of all who live there. He's told that the father of the household, Gorca, left three days earlier in search of a dreaded wurdalak - a traditional vampire - and is yet to return.

When he finally does return, there is something different about the old fellow. And paranoia sets in ...

The 19th Century setting is wonderfully evoked by way of convincing Bavarian attire, the lovingly designed hovel home of Gorca and his worried family, and the stirring orchestral score.

Beautifully shot with vivid colours and exceptionally atmospheric exterior footage, this finds Bava at his creative best. As well as being the most satisfying of the three stories on offer, it's also the lengthiest. But its tale is tightly woven in such a flab-free manner that every luscious moment is to be savoured. The denouement is cruel, but not as daringly unsparing as the scene in which a child is mercilessly (though, thankfully, not graphically) killed - or "fatally molested" as Tim Lucas' commentary track puts it. TWILIGHT this ain't.

Finally, "The Drop of Water" propels us into the Victorian era where a mercenary nurse Helen (Jacqueline Pierreux) is called to the home of a seriously ill medium. Upon arrival, she's told by the maid that the psychic died during a séance.

Helen is required to prepare the corpse. The one clear instruction she must abide by is not to tamper with the old dear's possessions. But, being the opportunistic bitch that she is, Helen can't help but take a shine to the diamond ring on the cadaver's finger...

Simplistic in the best possible way, "The Drop of Water" - credited as being based on a story by Chekov but in actual fact written by Bava himself - is scary, ambient and full of suspense. The old lady's face has been frozen by fear in her moment of death, and is a genuinely unsettling sight. As an aside, I went on holiday to Salou with my mates about 20 years ago and in-between doing the obvious we ventured into a live 'house of horrors'. The final room featured was a pretty accurate mock-up of this old dear's bedroom and an identical monster in the bed. At the time we all thought it was trying to emulate a scenario from THE EXORCIST, but a rewatch of this vignette suggests otherwise. Scary stuff.

The final wraparound is different in both versions of the film: the bizarre ending to the Italian version was cut from the American release, and dependent upon your sense of humour, you'll either love or hate it. In the accompanying commentary track, Tim Lucas puts the idea behind the audacious final scenes across well.

BLACK SABBATH is a great film, full of colour and imagination. It manages to be stylish, cerebral, fun and frightening all at once. The period settings are perfectly realised, performances are top notch throughout and there is a grace to virtually every scene to serve as a reminder of Bava's skill when on form.

Arrow bring BLACK SABBATH to UK home video for the first time. Not ones to do things by halves, their sterling set contains no less than three discs.

Disc one is a 50GB blu-ray disc, and is home to both versions of the film. They're both presented uncut, in the original aspect ratio and in stunning full 1080p HD. They look marvellous in these AVC encoded files, with Bava's consummate use of colours popping off the screen like never before. Blacks are just as impressive in their compression-free solidity, while depth and texture have never looked so filmic. Wide shots have a new lease of life to them in terms of clarity, while close-ups excel in detail - finer points such as beads of sweat on character's faces and designs on wallpaper (!) vie for your attention in an unprecedented manner. The US print is in slightly worse shape, but it still looks great: the Italian transfer is simply exceptional.

Audio on both versions is provided in LPCM 2.0 mixes (Italian and English, respectively). Both are exceptionally clean affairs. No qualms whatsoever here. Arrow are also kind enough to provide easily readable, well-written optional English subtitles for both soundtracks.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page. From there, pop-up menus include scene-selection menus for both films - each of which offers access via 12 chapters.

Extras on the blu-ray disc begin with the aforementioned commentary track from Lucas. When selected, this plays over his (and my) preferred Italian cut of the film. Although clearly reading from notes, he's a warm and engaging host who obviously knows his stuff. There are some pregnant pauses here and there, where you suspect he's forgotten himself and is getting in to watching the film too much. For the most part though, Lucas offers a wealth of interesting insights - how Karloff almost portrayed Dracula several years earlier, how the author whose work "The Wurdalak" is said to be based upon doesn't appear to exist, how the two cuts differ etc. This is well worth a listen.

We also get "Twice the Fear", an excellent 32-minute featurette which delves much further into the differences between the two cuts of the film. Employing a split screen to demonstrate the differences along with text which goes into explaining the reasons for some of them, this is about as comprehensive a guide as you're likely to find. It's the type of thing you may only watch once, but it's an integral part of this release nevertheless.

Discs two and three are both DVDs. They contain the two cuts of the film in 16x9 widescreen presentations. These are of course presented in standard definition (looking excellent), and graced with 2.0 mono soundtracks. Once again, optional English subtitles are provided for both soundtracks.

As well as the extras contained on the blu-ray disc, these DVDs also contain their own additional bonus features of note:

On disc two, we get a stylish Cathedral-set 3-minute optional introduction from Alan Jones.

This is followed by a great 21-minute talk with Mark Damon entitled "A Life in Film". As the title suggests, this traces his movie career from its beginning (being spotted for his looks by Groucho Marx) through his Spaghetti Western films and right through to his successful transition from acting and into film production. Damon is a refreshingly honest interviewee. Consequently, this is a highly entertaining watch.

The disc also contains three original theatrical trailers for the main feature (International, US and Italian), a TV spot and a radio spot.

Over on disc three, we get the aforementioned "Twice the Fear" featurette.

Also included in this set but unavailable for review is a collectors' booklet containing notes by David Cairns, another comparison of the two versions of the film by Lucas, and an interview with AIP producer Sam Z Arkoff.

BLACK SABBATH is top tier Mario Bava, and Arrow's three-disc blu-ray/DVD combo pack is absolutely outstanding.

Review by Stuart Willis