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Wednesday, September 13, 2023

MARIO BAVA'S BLACK SABBATH (1963) TURNS 60!!!

BLACK SABBATH (1963) d. Mario Bava (Italy)

 


Following the success of Roger Corman’s comic exploration of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven in 1963, Boris Karloff found himself in high demand with American International Pictures. In addition to The Terror, notoriously shot in two days on the Raven’s sets, the horror icon appeared in The Comedy of Terrors for Jacques Tourneur (alongside Raven co-stars Vincent Price and Peter Lorre), and tonight’s selection, the masterful anthology Three Faces of Fear, or, as it was better known for its Stateside release, BLACK SABBATH.

Director Mario Bava, having made his official directorial debut with Black Sunday in 1960 with AIP, was approached by Sam Arkoff and James Nicholson for another horror offering, this time in color. Bava, having already begun exploring his signature color schemes in Hercules in the Haunted World two years prior, jumped at the chance to work on three separate stories, with Karloff serving not only as the host but the star of one of the segments. The final results were successful, despite, or some might argue, because of AIP’s re-dubbing, reordering, and reshooting pieces of Bava’s original cut.


AC is joined in the studio by four of his favorite horror pals, all of whom contributed essays to the award-winning HIDDEN HORROR: Lawrence P. Raffel, Nile Arena, David Schmidt, and David Lee White! Enjoy the conversation as they celebrate the 60th anniversary of one of my personal favorite Italian horror offerings, a well-polished and extremely atmospheric anthology of fright, perfect for introducing fans to AIP’s gothic horrors as well as Bava’s particular visual aesthetic.












 
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