Weirdhouse Cinema: Black Sabbath

different generally, it's a different story every week. And with anthology films like the one we're gonna be talking about today, you instead of getting one complete film, you get like three or four shorter pieces that are stitched together and been presented to you. Uh So, I guess maybe part of it is just out of love for for creepy short stories, in the fact that that short stories don't have to obey the same rules as novels, and they're in also short films don't have to obey the same

rules as as complete films. Um. I guess it's also nice that they're only going to be They're only gonna feel so long, you know they're going to get to the point they can only be so drawn out. And and it's also like a little sampler box. Like if if if an anthology film is coming at you and you know it's going to present you with, say three to four tales, well you can figure there's gonna be maybe one dud in the bunch. Uh, but at the

very least still have one that's pretty good. Right, There's gotta be like like one central pillar holding up the roof of the thing. Well, another way I would come at it is that even if they're all bad, it's more fun to have bad variety than bad monotony. Yeah. Yeah, I would say so, like you're you're into the badness and then you're out again, and then you're into some fresh badness. Yeah. I think I would really come back to what you were saying about the compare Harrison to

the lengths of horror fiction. This came up in a recent episode where we were talking I think it was in The Thing from Another World where we were talking about how, Uh, it's hard to survey to be sure about this, but my feeling is that horror novels tend to gravitate more towards some semblance of a quote happy ending, maybe not happy, but some way in which the protagonist is at least partially victorious or escapes or something, whereas horror short stories tend more toward uh, bleak and cruel

endings or endings that are that are a really mean and ironic twist of fate. And obviously I think there are a lot of reasons why people who enjoy horror fiction are drawn to endings of that sort, but they they're harder to pull off at the end of a really long narrative where you're more invested with the characters, You've spent more time with them, and it hurts more

to see them just sort of like ruined at the end. Yeah, And I think another thing that you certainly see in short fiction is it's sometimes short fiction exists in a space where it doesn't have to concern itself with the ins and outs of a complex plot or some sort of fantastic character arc. You know, their characters don't have

to evolve and change and learn lessons about themselves. It can be more about trotting out and interesting idea or you know, or or or in the in the case of of of horror, just just a fun monster or some you know, diabolical scenario. That's sort of thing, right. I think you're correct. I think that the um the horror genre especially really does lend itself well to the anthology format. I mean, there are plenty of movies that are not horror that you could argue are in one

way or another anthology films of a sort. Uh. I think one thing I've read is that, uh, is that pulp fiction was actually the concept for pulp fiction was partially inspired by the movie that we're going to talk about today. Of course, pulp fiction is not horror, but today's movie is today's selection for weird house Cinema is the Mario Baba nineteen sixty three Italian anthology horror series Black Sabbath, or in Italian it's called etre Voulti dela Para.

I had to look up what that means. It means the three Faces of Fear, which is a more accurate title because if you're if you're checking out Black Sabbath expecting witchcraft and you know, Satan worshippers dancing around a fire or some sort of like pagan ordeal or something going on, you're going to be disappointed because there is

no actual Black Sabbath, real or imagined in this picture. No, I would say the closest we come to that and it still doesn't really get there, but that there's sort of that vibe in the middle segment of this movie, and by far my favorite the WORDU Lac, which is I think just an absolutely tremendous segment and I can't wait to talk about it. But yeah, at least the other two really don't have anything to do with that

at all. Now, another interesting thing about the title for this film is that this is um that this is said to be where the band Black Sabbath got their name. Oh yeah, And I think I could be wrong about this, but I remember hearing It's not even from them necessarily seeing the movie. I think it was like they walked past a movie theater and this was on the Marquee and they're like, right, yeah, I think there's a there's

another version of the tale. And I don't know how much this sounds almost too perfect, so I it sounds like maybe it was embellished. But there I read a version where they were playing at a theater and then across the street Black Sabbath was playing, and the line was was far longer to get in to see the movie as opposed to getting in to see them play. And they're like, what we need to do is change our name. We need to be Black Sabbath, and then

the people will line up for us. It's like when Patty and Selma proposed changing the name of Springfield the sign fell. Do you just look at what's popular now and and try to leach up. Yeah, so, I mean I don't know. So I don't know which of those stories is true to what extent, but uh, certainly it would be. It's hard to imagine the band Black Sabbath without the name Black Sabbath because that the theme runs so deep through all of their music. Um, before they

were called Black Sabbath, they were called Earth. Uh that was not very convenient because I think there was another band at the time in that area called Earth. It has a different taste on the tongue. Initially, Yeah, if you're if you're thinking about going to hear Earth, you

have totally different expectations versus Black Sabbath. Well as a huge fan of the at least like the first six Black Sabbath albums, that I don't really get into the d O years verty much, but the but like the first six Sabbath albums, I think, are they're a megalith, you know, they're they're like one of those stone monuments from the ancient world and uh and and it's really hard to get under them. But I can't imagine how I would feel about them if they weren't by a

band called Black Sabbath that's so wrapped up in the feeling. Yeah, can you imagine Nativity and Black by Earth? It just doesn't make sense war Pigs by Earth. However, I could propose an alternative, which is that if they wanted to drill in and get to the heart of what makes Mario Baba's Black Sabbath really great, they could have changed

the name of their band to the word las. Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's that's a fun name for a band, and it would imply that they've been in the mountains for five days and come back in a state of God knows what. All right, Well, let's go ahead and give everyone a taste of the trailer on this one, because this is a pretty good trailer. I love the narration here.

Do you believe in Ghosts, This is the Night twin fear and Horror of Walk hand in Hand, This is Black Sabbath, starving the incomparable Boris Karloff, the personable Mark Damon, and lush and lovely women, even though one is from the nether world, a vampire, a burderlack. Black Sabbath as

ancient as superstition, as modern as the telephone. So it's obvious from the trailer, but I don't think we mentioned that this movie has Boris Karloff in multiple capacities, so he is not only the star of one of the three segments in the anthology, but he's also sort of the the pitchman. He is the company spokesperson at the beginning and end of the film. And of course this is perfect because in later years he also served as a horror host on television shows such as Thriller and

Out of This World. As as I think we've often driven home though, like, there's such a wealth of of of TV horror anthologies out there, so for instance, um, if you just glance at listings for Boris Karloff's Thriller, you'll see, oh, it only went two seasons, but it went two seasons in the nineties sixties. So those two seasons consist of sixty seven episodes. Wow, yeah, it's it's crazy,

And man, I thought it was long seasons. When you go back and watch a show from the nineties or something where there's like twenty episodes in the season, that seems like a huge amount. But wow. Yeah. Now, to be clear, Thriller aired uh sixty one, I mean sorry, sixty two, so it actually aired in America at least before Black Sabbath came out, So that might have been part of the rationale here is like, well, audiences are are used to Boris carl Off presenting material to them.

He's already in it. Let's also get him up on the screen introducing this stuff for us. Well, you can hear it right in the narration of the trailer. There's the part where it says like, uh, starring the incomparable Boris carl Off. I guess he is incomparable. But then the other cast members they introduce are the personable Mark Damon, which I thought was hilarious. And then they say and lush and lovely women gone unnamed, come on, duds, and we will list some of their names here in a

bit Um, there's some nice performances in here. Oh wait I left off, though, I think the trailer qualifies that says, uh so the women in this movie, Hey, we got beautiful women, even though one of them is from the nether world. I was trying to think back after having seen it, which woman is it talking about. I'm not even sure. Uh yeah, there's not really one that's definitely

from the nether world. I mean a lot of bad supernatural things happen um to people and to some women in this, uh this motion picture, but I don't think any of them are from the nether world. All Right, Well, I guess before we talk anymore about the actual contents of the movie, we should we should discuss some of the connections, and obviously the place to start is with the director, Mario Bava. Mario Bava who lived nineteen fourteen through nineteen eighty. Um, he was the director, but also

collaborated on the screenplay. He was the cinematographer, he did matt paintings, he did special effects. Uh. This is the legendary Italian director with an unmistakable obsessive and phantasmagorical emphasis on visual composition. So if you can just look up stills from his from his movies, and I feel like, once you've gotten a taste of of how Baba directs and how he composes a shot, a strong still from any of his films is just instantly identifiable. Um it

just it pops with a certain um. It's not only the color hue, because I want to stress it's not just a matter of oh, well, Mario Baba used some cool gels here and there, like, No, it's the complete it's his use of light and reflections and just the overall composition of of every every shot in the film. You ever see one of those animated movies in which there is a magical gym or artifact that glows with

magic power, Mario Baba's movies are like that. There's something about the way they look that the frames from the movie glow with magic power. Yeah, even when there's there's less of a reason for it to be glowing. So, like I was thinking as I was watching this particular picture that it's it's like an alien civilization that that communicates through like synesthesia is trying to speak through the picture.

You know. It's like it's that obsessive. Like the colors are are clearly of of of great importance to Bava and all of this, though I will say that I

totally agree with you. Color is a big part of it, and Bava frequently used sort of expressive colorful lighting, color colored lighting in in his movies that is not strictly realistic, meaning it's not reflecting a color you would actually expect to see if this scene were taking place in the real world, but rather colors that sort of reflect feelings coming through uh and and reflects sort of other worldly,

unseen influences. But there are also visual sensibilities he has where that kind of glowing comes through even when it's not in color. Like the example that comes to my mind is his earlier movie Black Sunday, which is in

black and white, and yet it still glows with magic power. Yeah, that one was from nineteen sixty and it is interesting to imagine this, this leap from black and white to color from Mario Baba, where they're like, oh, by the way, you can shoot in color now, and uh and and and and and you can imagine his excitement at being able to do so. So um. Baba's background is interesting.

He was the son of an early Italian cinematographer Eugenio Bava and Mario trained as a painter, venturing into the world of cinematography as well in the late thirties in the early forties, but then he eventually started directing as well. It began with some documentary shorts and some uncredited directing

work on some various genre films. But then in nineteen sixty that's when Black Sunday came out that he directed that, and that was a very well regarded and financially successful film, and so Black Sabbath is very much the color follow up to that. Thus the similar release title again kind of coming back to the like studio thought here, it's like, well, uh, black Sunday did pretty good, welcome and called the next one,

let's call it a Black sap There we go. Well this maybe if that is indeed where the title comes from. I gotta say this is the rare case where I would go with the marketing over the original because once again, the three faces of fear, that may be more literally descriptive of what you're getting with the movie, but it doesn't really have the same punch to it. Yeah, So Mario Baba directed into the nineteen seventies. Initially he retired.

Then he came back at the behest of a new generation of the tag in horror filmmakers, including his own son, director Lomberto Bava. Um. He came back to direct nine Shock, and this would prove to be his last feature film, as he then died in nineteen eighty. But uh, he directed a number of pictures, so we're not gonna touch on them all, but I thought we might talk about

a few of them here. One of them is Planet of the Vampires from nine teen Rob Can you see the Planet of the Vampires poster right behind me on the wall? I do? I see that you have it right there up on the wall behind you, so you know obviously you're a fan. Um I. I finally got around to watching this in full this year, and um, I have to say it wasn't the most enthralling motion picture when it came to acting and the and the plot, but uh, such a gorgeous science fiction film to watch.

Like all of the visuals in it, um he does an amazing job and devotes the vast majority of the film's energy and limited budget have to add to create highly effective and colorful alien landscapes. Haunted Spaceship Hallways also has just some incredible costumes. Absolutely so, I love Planet of the Vampires, but I usually watch it without sound. It's a movie that I love to put on, like in the background while I'm hanging out with friends and

listening to music. That's that's the ideal Planet of the Vampire's experience for me, because it's one of those movies. It's a rubbed the fur movie. It's a movie that's not really about the plot or what happens in it. It is about the visual textures on screen, and that includes everything from like you you single out the costumes. The space farers in the movie are wearing these bizarre black leather space suits with these leather helmets, um and and yeah, the lighting and the sets are are just

absolutely wonderful. Yeah. And it reminds me of a quote that I ran across from Mario Baba where he said that that horror films are sevent lighting and and I think he has a strong point. I mean, you definitely see that in his work. But you we've we've talked about various examples on the show before where we say things like, oh, well, the monster costume wasn't great, but in this scene, the lighting is amazing, so it absolutely

works well. Like in the Thing from Another World. Yeah, there was like if you look at the costume James RNs is wearing, like actually, in full lighting, it doesn't look very impressive, but they found a way to make it look good within the narrative by either keeping him in silhouette backlit so you can't really see him, he's just a frame, and or just by giving you quick glimpses of him where you can't really understand what's going on.

Like that, they make do in a very effective manner, with some some limitations in terms of costuming and makeup effects. Of course, the Planet of the Vampires was highly influential. You know, it's sometimes been asked, would we even have Alien and all the films that came after Alien had it not been for Planet of the Vampires, Um, and uh and uh and perhaps not. You know, certainly Baba

was a very influential filmmaker. Yeah. I mean one of the big things I think that's called out with respect to Alien is there's a scene in Planet of the Vampires, and Planet of the Vampires came much before it was

the nineteen six five Is that right? Yet there's a scene where the astronauts are on this on this desolate planet, and they go into a cave and they find a giant alien skeleton stretched out on this surface, and they're very much like with the discovery of the Derylic spacecraft with the bizarre sort of alien skeleton fused to the chair in in Alien. So ultimately, I think Black Sabbath moves moves along a lot, a lot better. It has

better pacing uh than Planet of the Vampires Um. But there were still times in this film as within as as in A Planet of the Vampires, where I felt myself disconnected from whatever was happening or supposed to be happening in the plot, But I was still completely drawn in to the visual world presented on the film, you know what I mean? Yeah, totally. I mean I really appreciated the plot, especially in the word you lack, But

through and through it looks pretty great. Another Baba film that I'm a fond of is danger Um Diabolique from nine. This is a stunning, stylish spy crime yarn starring John Philip Law and Udall False Silly Uh. People might remember him as the villain from Thunderball Uh to James Bond film. Terry Thomas is also in it. This was featured on Mystery Science Theater three thousand back in the day, and

it is indeed quite ridiculous, but stunning from a visual perspective. Basically, it has that sixties Bond vibe, focused you know, all on comic book crime and then turned up to about a thousand Baba style. I think it was actually the very last episode of the main run of Mystery Science Theater. That's right, it was, uh And it's kind of a strange choice there, because I don't know, I would actually

argue that movie is not all that bad. I mean, it's silly in in a way that a lot of these movies would be silly, but it's also I don't know, it's it's stylishly executed in a very pleasing way. I mean, the best films on Mystery Science Theater three thousand, and often the best episodes of Mystery Science three thousand revolve around movies that are on their own very watchable. I know you're thinking about Jack Frost. Oh yeah, I think

that's a that's a great example. They're multiple example. I think when I think of my favorite episodes, they're often films that that I can and sometimes have watched on on on my own, you know, without without the riffing. Now, Mario Baba was was again highly influential, and one of his most famous students was Dario Argento. If you've ever seen Argento's nine seventy seven classics Expiria, then you've certainly

bathed your eyeballs in a very Baba inspired color scheme. Yeah, I think it's it's pretty much unquestionable that Argento picked up where Baba left off with the expressive colorful lighting, especially for his Jalo films. M h uh, And I mentioned Mario's son, Lamberto Bava Uh. He directed such films that went on to direct such films as Demons, which is excellent, along with a couple of sequels to that US devil Fish, which is not so excellent. It's basically

a Jaws cash in, one of one of many. But Lamberto Bava is still making movies. He had a horror movie starring Gerard de Bardu come out this year really yeah, called Twins, I believe, and I had to jack it has nothing to do with the Arnold Um movie. Okay, I gotta look that up, all right, let's let's see a few other people involved in this film. Marcello Fondato has a screenplay credit, lived two thousand and eight, Italian screenwriter and a direct and director, though I don't really

know any of their films. Um. Then there's Alberto Bivillakua, who lived ninety four through two thousand thirteen, has a screenplay collaboration credit. Also was a screenwriter on Planet of the Vampires, as well as the satanic Panic documentary Witchcraft seventy, which was narrated by Jack Palace. Now the film, and certainly this comes out in the trailer. The film claims that the three stories in it are based upon fictions

by check Off, Tolstoy, and Snyder. Uh and specifically it's supposed to break down like this, uh the drop of Water by Ivan Chekov uh, though seemingly connected to a story by Franco Lucentini, and then the Telephone by F. G. Snyder, And then a story not by not by Leo Tolstoy, as that might uh legion to believe, but one by Alexei Tolstoy. And this would be the one allegedly by Alexei Tolstoy, would be the word lack the one that is the one with Boris Karloff in it. Yeah, well

let's talk about Boris Karloff then. Uh. Boris Karlov plays Gorka in this and he's also the host. Uh. He lived eight seven through nineteen sixty nine, a bona fide cinema legend, going beyond genre films and horror films and weird films. I mean, he's he's just one of these, uh, these these icons of sin. His horror charisma is unmeasurable in this it's just it's off the screen. Yeah, absolutely. Um.

Karloff was a British actor born William Henry Pratt. Uh So you know this is very much his stage name. Boris Karloff. UM probably is just gonna be ever forever associated with Frankenstein because he played the monster in James Whale's two adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Um, and then he went on to play the role in other pictures as well, including the excellent nineteen thirty five film The

Bride of Frankenstein. Other key horror films from karl Off include thirty two is the Mummy, Uh, thirty four's The Black Cat, nineties Black Friday and much more. The Black Cat. He actually stars opposite Belle Legosi, and I think that was the first movie where they had both done that. And I actually haven't seen that one, but I've been meaning to see it for a long time, and apparently it's a lot of fun. I've heard great things of about it. I've heard that it's it's it holds up

really well, so I have checked that out now. Karloff was also famously the non singing voice of the Grinch in the nineteen sixty six animated version from Chuck Jones. Um. He's so. The thing about karl Off is that he worked a lot, and even though he's best remembered for his horror roles today, he acted in a wide variety of of of films. He worked stage and screen, he did television. We already mentioned his horror host gigs. Um. He did a lot, Yes, and I will say that.

So I just saw this movie Black Sabbath for the first time this week, and I gotta say this is a new favorite Carlof role for me. We'll discuss the details of the word lack in a little bit, but he plays this wild, hairy, wind blown patriarch of the Carpathian mountains, who has this demonic energy and it's so so powerful. I don't know exactly how he's doing it, but in every line he feels so at truly like a man just hardened by the wilderness who has met

something unspeakable upon the mountaintop. Yeah, he's really able to channel a lot of energy through this role, and it's it's it's especially interesting considering that this, again is late career Karloff. He was seventy five or seventy six at the time when they filmed this. But he's still incredible and apparently was just always a pleasure to work with. I noticed that that Baba singled him out as being just a great guy to work with. Now, another interesting, uh,

late Karloff film. I don't know if you've seen this one. Joe Peter Bogdanovich did a film in nineteen sixty eight called Targets. Yes, I have seen this one, in which Karloff essentially plays himself. I mean, he plays a character, but the character he plays is named like uh, named like Doris or Lock or something, and he and he's an aging horror film star and he has to go up against like a crazed mass murderer. Yeah, like he ends up confronting an active shooter at a drive in

movie theater. It's like it's a serious, serious film. Um. From a young Peter Bogdanovitch would of course go on to director The Last Picture Show Um, but he was one of Roger Corman's crew at the time, and for this film, Corman apparently told Bogdanovitch that he could make any kind of film he wanted to. There were just two two things he needed to make sure of. One he had to use stock footage from The Terror and he had to use Boris Karloff for the two days

of filming that he still owed Corman. But as it was, it worked out. Karloff loved the script and shot a total of five days and refused additional pay. Uh. So it's a fun story, but also I remembered as being a good movie. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I remember being impressed with it. Yeah. A good friend of mine showed me this movie many many years ago, back before I really was in the weird house cinema mode.

I think I didn't know who Roger Corman was at the time time or anything, but I remember being very uh enthralled and impressed by it. It's it's a very stark, scary, realistic kind of movie. Uh different than very different than the stylish fantasy horror that bore Scarloft did for most of his career. Yeah, what should we talk about the personal Mark Damon? Oh? Yeah, as he's introduced in the trailer, the personable Mark Damon, I'd say he's he's a he's

a seven or eight on the personability scale. Yeah, he's I guess he's the closest that we have to like a male hero character in the in the whole picture, Uh plays that cared what Vladimir dirf drf A. He he plays a a count or some kind of aristocrat who rides through this village in the wordy lack again. I guess we'll discuss more of the plot details of that in a bit. But yeah, he's the closest thing the movie has to sort of a dashing leading man.

But even in that story, I don't know if he's exactly that, because he comes off to me is in that story is kind of glib cal and confused, not really recognizing the weight of the supernatural power he's up against Yeah, he's he's doomed this guy. But Mark Damon is interesting though, because of the first all. He was born nineteen thirty three, still alive as of this recording, UM and still active, not as an actor though at

least not since UM. I think he retired in the late seventies or or I'm not sure about the late say at some point in the seventies he retired from acting, and I think a few little bits here and there, the most recent being in But he's continued to produce. He's been a producer or an executive producer on sixty

seven pictures and counting. And those titles that he has has a credit on include dos Boot, The Never Ending Story, Clan of the Cave Bear, nine and a half Weeks, Short Circuit, Flight of the Navigator, The Lost Boys, Beastmaster two, UM, not one but two different Universal Soldier sequels, and and then just a bunch out. So he's seems kind of like a big money player in Hollywood. Maybe he's the producer who came in and demanded that The Lost Boys

feature more footage of that saxophone guy. Could be like, I want ten minutes a saxophone guy at least now acting wise, Damon was also in Roger Corman's nineteen sixty film House of Usher, which starred Vincent Price, and he has one writing credit. And I found it interesting because it's The Devil's Wedding Night from nineteen seventy three, on which Joe Diamatto apparently did some uncredited directing, uh, which is always a great sign um. And then Damon plays

not one, but two different roles in it. Um. So I I looked it up. The poster looks fabulous, it looks it looks very nineteen seventies international horror, okay, featuring the personable George Eastman. No, there's no no George Eastman in this one, though I will say that that that Mario Baba directed at least east one film that had George Eastman. I can confirm at least one George Eastman project. Was he in Bay of Blood? No, he was in What Rabid Dogs? He might have been in Bay of Blood?

Um there there there's a little Eastman just sprinkled throughout the cinematic universe. Alright, let's talk about some of the the other players in the in in in these three different segments. Uh. Now, a lot of these are actors that I'm not really familiar with, and there aren't a lot of titles that they were in that really connected with me, So there's there's not a lot to really

go through here. But let's start with their Susie Anderson, who played uh, what's the what's this character's name stank Stenka, which no offense to people who actually have that name, but in English that name does sound funny because it sounds like stinker. Yeah, but this is a one, This is I guess, our gorgeous love interest for Damon's character. She was born ninety Croatian actor who worked during the nineteen sixties. And then there's Rica Deliana who plays Maria

born in nineteen four. Greek actor with extremely expressive eyes um or at least Mario Blava was able to to to shoot her in many scenes where she has really expressive eyes. She's she's the mother, I believe, uh in these sequences and we'll discuss her in a bit, But she had a long career, mostly in Greek cinema and TV. Now, these are all actors who were in the WORDERLAC segment um, but there are a couple of other segments of the

movie that I guess we've been focusing on lust. Do we want to mention some of the actors in these segments before coming back to describe them. Yeah. So the Telephone, which which will discuss, has a very small cast. The main character is Rosie played by Michelle Mercier, who is a French actor who worked across multiple decades, born nine,

still alive as of this recording. And then the other major character in that is Mary played by Lydia Alfonsi, who was born in ninety eight, also still alive as of this recording, Italian actor who was theyve well into the nineteen nineties. Her last film was the much acclaimed Life Is Beautiful from and she also appeared in a Steve Reeves Hercules movie in ninety eight. So I don't really love the Telephone. We can explain more about our

feelings about the individual segments in a bit. The Telephone was definitely my least favorite of the three, but I do really like Lydia Alfonsi in it because she has does a very good job of acting creepy. Yes, all right. And then finally we have the segment the Drop of Water.

I'm gonna highlight three different actors in this. Uh. There's Jacqueline Peru who lived thousand and five, plays Helen Chester, so she was a French actor actor from the early forties through the nineteen seventies, and she's the mother of French actor and director Jean Pierre Loud, who starred in The Four Hundred Blows. Uh. There's also a character in this that is referred to as the aid, and it's

played by Millie no less name. Uh. Millie who lived nineteen o five through nineteen eighty was an Italian singer, actress and cabaret performer and apparently something of a pop star of the day. So she she's older when this movie was made. So she she plays a maid who sort of uh comes and goes while the main character played by Jacqueline Peru is is sort of contemplating doing something very ill advised with respect of the spirit world.

But the maid is this kind of mundane influence, flitting in and out of the room while this deliberation goes on. And then finally there is a neighbor character in this played by Harriet Nadine who lived nineteen fourteen through two thousand and five, an American actor who relocated to Italy with the USO after War two. She has a pretty great filmography, with such titles as Death Rays two thousand,

which is a fun flick. We've talked about that before, The Witches of Eastwick, Schlaw and The Terminator, and when she plays the role of customer customer where I was trying to figure I was looking around, you know, short of actually watching Terminator again, I'm not sure. I can't

imagine she's in the gun. She's probably one of those sequences where the terminator steals a bunch of stuff because a lot, a lot of the Terminator is just him robbing places so he can have clothes, robbing people in places so he can have close at guns, or the good guy played by Michael Bean robbing people. Yeah, it's a whole sequence. It's just naked Dud's committing various crimes

and robberies. Maybe she's walking out of Dick Miller's gun store when Arnold Schwartzenegger is walking in possibility, she rubs she bought the last plasma rifle. I was just remembering the part in Terminator that's actually really great. When Schwarzenegger rips that guy out of the phone booth, he doesn't really harm him. It's just a guy on a phone at a phone booth, and and the terminator grabs him by the shoulder and sort of throws him down on

the sidewalk so he can use the telephone book. Yeah, that's pretty good. And why would would the terminator and machine use any more force or effort than was necessary in any given task. Yeah, and you can hear the guy going, you've got a serious attitude problem. That's good alright. Finally, the music on this film is interesting because from one

thing you have two different scores. The original score was was by Italian jazz band leader Roberto Nicolosi, but American International Pictures replaced his score with one by Less Baxter, who is, of course the king of exotica, and also later did the minimal electronic score for Frogs. Oh I remember that now? Yeah? Yeah, I mean it's it's, I guess it the memorable score, but it's it's not very It's not an exotica score for frogs. And this also

is not particularly exotic music either. It's ctainly not electronic. Um. But I liked it well enough because I could pick up on some Baxter sensibilities in it. Um, but it made I was curious after that because I'm thinking, well, what did it replace? Because we can all think of examples where a score has been replaced by something superior on also cases where a score has been replaced by something, um,

maybe less effective, uh you know, for a different audience. Um. So I was listening to the Nicolosi score a bit and it sounded good as well. I don't know, I liked I like them both. Maybe Baxter score is a little bit more dramatic and a little bit more you know, American. I don't know, you know. To be honest, I just did not really notice the music much at all, So I don't have much of a comment on it. Yeah, I don't know if I would have really looked at it that closely had had it not been for the

Less Baxter connection. Uh, because I have, I do listen to a fair amount of like Less Baxter and some like Bossonova music. Uh, generally like very late afternoon. There's a point in the late afternoon where, um where you know, I have to put aside the synth music and the and the rock music and and only Exotica or Bossonova will do the t K drink hour. Yeah, I guess even generally, I'm not I'm not actually having a tiki drink. I'm generally like cooking supper or something. Um, but it

feels right, it feels appropriate. All right, Now that we've got all that out of the way, let's get back into the plot of these three horror stories that look fabulous, have great people in them, but ultimately have some interesting

ideas as well. Yeah. Yeah, so I would say, and you have you and I may have had some different reactions to these, but I would say that, um, it's this is an interesting movie to recommend because while there are three segments, uh, and in my opinion, one of them is astonishingly good, another is quite good, and the third for me, I found kind of boring and unpleasant. Um, but there's still I think some interesting things to talk

about with it. And while I think that there were different releases of this movie that put them in different and orders, the version I saw starts with the one of the three that was for me by far the weakest. So this would be the Telephone. Ah, yes, the telephone. So the Telephone, unlike the other two, is a more realistic story, and the basic premise is is pretty simple. It is a psychological thriller about a young woman who is terrorized by a threatening, voyeuristic creep who won't stop

calling her on the phone. And so I gotta say this is the one I didn't really super enjoy. I like it picked way up with the second one for me when you get to the word alack. This one kind of has a lot of things I don't really love about Italian horror movies of this period, and not

as much of the stuff that I do love. It's it's weird because, especially from the trailer, you get the impression that they moved the telephone to the opening because they thought it would connect with audiences more like maybe they thought audiences didn't want that this gothic horror tale. Instead they would want something that's tied into technology, and

you know, feels more cutting and dangerous. And yet at the same time I was reading it sounds like American International Pictures had they asked them to cut down on some of the what they would have probably thought of it as dangerous aspects of the of that of that opening uh segment um Supposedly a I p asked for lesbian romance. Aspects of the segment to be reduced and

that a supernatural element h be sort of implied. But I have to say, at least in the version I watched, um I mean, I still got the sense that there was some sort of past romantic connection between the two female characters, and I don't remember anything supernatural in this segment. It seemed very based in the real world, though of course through that fabulous Baba lens. Yeah. Well, to be honest, now that I think about it, I'm not sure which

version of the movie it was that I saw. One thing I've seen comparing them is that the I think it was the original Italian version had the more beautiful colors, and that the American release might have had some more muted colors. The vision I saw I had very beautiful colors, So I'm thinking in the version I saw, of course was in Italian with subtitles, it wasn't the same here. I don't know if there is a dubbed version of

the movie. I think there is, but I didn't I was able to find uh as when I rented it. I rented it through UM uh Well. I went into to Apple and then I did a like a seven day trial of AMC plus and that's how I got to watch it. And then when I pulled it up, I was expecting it to be dubbed, but then I saw that as oh it's in Italian with with no option for other audio channels and just with subtitles. But but I greatly enjoyed it. But I see I see examples of people saying that they grew up watching a

version in which they here Boris Karlov's actual voice. So that makes me think there is a dubbed version of it, But this was not it. So with the telephone, I'd say that I guess I kind of like the simplicity of it. It does proceed at a very slow pace, but then it has some very nice twists in it. Um. It does not have that gothic feel that that the second segment has. Um, you know, it doesn't have that supernatural sense of other worldliness. Uh. The interiors in this

segment are, at first glance, a lot more muted. We spent a lot of time with beautiful women with perfect skin and kind of porcelain colored garments moving through wedding cake color departments. Uh. But even this is very finely crafted and wonderfully punctuated by various colorful items in the background. I don't know if you you noticed this or not, Joe, but they'll be like, you know, everything's this kind of

wedding cake porcelain world. And then they'll be like one jade statuette on a shelf in the background, and somehow, like through that Mario Baba magic, it makes the whole thing pop. And I don't even notice that. I'm um that the pop plot is moving along so slowly because I'm just admiring the shot or the red telephone, red telephone. Uh. And and then you know, it moves at a slow pace, and then alarming things will happen. There's a great um,

creepy eyes peering in through the window of the apartment. Uh. That that scene really shook me when I saw it. Oh, this movie is all about windows. Yeah, windows, mirrors as well, but certainly windows. And I think I think you see that another Bava films as well, lots of mirrors, people looking through glass, and it makes sense given his um

his focus on the visual medium. So I think you sort of raised the idea that this segment is kind of a proto Jalo film, and I wanted to explore that idea a little more so for people who aren't familiar. Jealo films are a particular sub genre of Italian murder mystery thrillers that were popular in the sixties through the eighties, and some of the big name directors of jalo you

might recognize our Dario Argento. Uh. Usually his supernatural movies like Suspiria are not usually considered jello films that they share a lot in common with them. Stylistically, Usually jello films are thought to be to have basically realistic causation. They're they're not like about witchcraft and magic and stuff. They're about like a murderer who wields a razor blade or something like what the woman with the crystal is the bird with the crystal plumage, Yeah, bird with the

crystal plumage. I mean Argento made these naturalistic jello films as well, Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Cat of Nine Tales, Tenebree. These are all jallow films he did. But other big names in in jalo or Sergio Martino, Luccio Fulci, and the director of the movie we're talking

about today, Mario Bava. Bava was the director of Blood and Black Lace from nineteen sixty four, just one year after Black Sabbath, and I think Blood and Black Lace, I think is often considered sort of the archetype of the early Jallo movie that a lot of Jallo descends from. Blood and Black Lace. I'd love to watch that one someday because I'd noticed just today that it has Cameron

Mitchell in it. Oh, that's right, it does. It's been a little while since I've seen it, so I don't remember much in particular about what he does in it. But yeah, anyway, one of the things I noticed is that Blood and Black Lace I think has a lot of stylistic similarity with the telephone segment in this movie, except the stylization is turned way up. So I'll get

back to that in just a minute. But to discuss some of the main characteristics of Jello movies, they very often feature a murderer who strikes again and again, whose identity is unknown, often masked or with their face hidden in shadow, and they will very often wear a similar outfit, like a long trench coat and black gloves and maybe a hat. In Jello movies, the murders are usually sort of creative or grizzly or of a creepy and squeamish nature. So they're usually not just going to be like the

killer shoots somebody with a gun. They might kill somebody with a barber's razor or a needle or something. Jello movies also tend to be kind of voyeuristic and sexually charged, often mixing sexuality and violence in an unsettling way, and to varying extents, they tend to be highly stylized. Uh not, not all of the directors are like this, but a lot of them are. They'll use these lurid colors and

creative cinematography. This is typically the opposite, by the way, of what I would say are the dominant trends in murder mystery films, say in the United States, which I think are overwhelmingly they tend toward a gritty, realistic or muted look with kind of matter of fact camera work.

It's like they're trying to make it look like real life, whereas Italian jello films tend to love these you know, weird red and purple gel lights and tilted camera angles and shots reflected in a mirror and all kinds of stuff like that. To say, nothing of the music. Yeah, oh yeah, famously, like the Argento jello movies have have wonderful scores, usually that you know in both Goblin or

Argento himself in some way. There's another strange recurring detail that I noticed in a lot of Italian jello movies, especially the movies of Dario arch Into. But a really common recurring thing is that the protagonist will witness an image or a scene early on in the movie that contains some clue that would serve as the master key to solving the mystery. And this this scene or this memory keeps replaying in their mind, but they're unable to recall or figure out what that key detail is until

the final resolution. So I think about the museum murder scene in the Bird with crystal plumage, or the face in the hallway and deep red and so forth. Interesting. So looking back through this lens, like, is the telephone sort of a short form proto Jallo in a way, I think it kind of is it. It has some of that same naturalistic terror mystery sensibility. It has a clue detail in the room, except the protagonist I don't

know if she sees it. I don't think she does, but I'm thinking about the zoom in on the eyes and the window looking through the blinds, which is very creepy. It does have that that creepy, voyeuristic and sexually charged sensibility which I do not always enjoy in these movies, to be honest, though it is not as stylized as a lot of later Jello, which I would have enjoyed more. I mean, I kind of wish Boba had played up his his visual sense more in this segment, but with

blood and Black Lace that comes later. I almost wonder if bab a sort of cross fertilized different parts of his own creative process after Black Sabbath, like if he started thinking, Okay, what if I did a story that was more like this said in the modern world. It's sort of a naturalistic mystery terror, uh, like the Telephone, But I filmed it with that other worldly visual sensibility that I used in The Worderlack where where everything glows

with magic power. Yeah. Interesting, Well, let's talk about the the worderlock or the Verdi lock here. Oh yeah, we gonna are, we gonna, we are, We're gonna um what if what should they use in the film? I thought I was hearing of the But but we can go either way. I don't think the monster's mind. I'm gonna go let's let's let's assume that's authentic and then try it. We could be wrong. Um, but yeah, how about the

vertil ax. So the Verdelac I think, picking up after the first segment, which I which I didn't especially love, the Vertilac I think is extraordinary. Um, it's this Carpathian Gothic tale where these auroras of weird color just dripped from the crags. Like I said earlier, it's a new you know, it goes on my list of favorite Boris karl Off roles. He plays this shaggy, wild purple Kurt Vonnegut. You notice he looks like uh. And and this whole segment is just full of awesome slavic twang. And this

Menace of the Hills absolutely wonderful. The visual world that Baba creates in here that that maybe isn't noticeable right at first, but then just really uh leeches in. He creates this dark domain that is occupied entirely by fog and ruins and desolate farm houses. Um. Multiple just absolutely creepy scenes and sequences. Uh, yeah, I absolutely loved it. In fact, if you have never watched this film and you're gonna pick it up, I I give you I

I think you should watch it in its entirety. But if you need to, you can go ahead and skip the telephone and go straight to this h go straight to the vote lock. So to do a very quick plot description on it, I don't want to spoil everything about it, but it begins with the personable Mark Damon, who is he plays a an aristocrat, he's a counter

or something. I don't recall exactly what he is, but he's he's riding through the mountains and he's clearly in a in a rural, rustic area, and he comes across a corpse just lying there by a riverside. And so this is a corpse that's had its head removed and it has been stabbed through the heart with a very distinctive dagger. And so he's like, oh, I guess I

gotta do something about this. So he picks up the corpse and he carries it with him, uh to a nearby village or I don't know if it's even a village. It might just sort of be the compound of one family. You know that under the heading of this one patriarch in his house. Yea. So yeah, he comes to this house out in the mountains and he goes into to meet the people who lived there and he says, hey, I found this corpse, and immediately they know what's going on.

They're like, oh, yes, that is our father's dagger you found through the heart of this corpse. And that's because our father has gone out to kill the wordilac. Or well, let's see, I remember, did they establish the being he was trying to kill they knew was a wordilac or did they just think it was a local highwayman and murderer that their father was going out to kill. There was sort of blurring in the lines. Yeah, there were, There was both, because they're clearly this region is dealing

with a serious vertilac problem. But then the Verdilac has also been identified as a particular individual who is also a notorious highwayman. Right, so from this they conclude, oh, okay, our father succeeded in his quest. You know, he went out into the mountains to find this criminal, this highwayman and kill him, and here's his body. But where where's Pop? You know, you would think he would have come back

by now. And uh so the family members here they include the I believe, the two sons and the daughter of Boris Karloff's character, and then the oldest son's wife and child as well, And so they tell the story while our father went out into the mountains to hunt down this this brigand and and possible supernatural menace, the vertiloc and and kill him. And then he but they but he warned us, if I come back after five days, don't let me in because then I'm going to be

a word of lact probably by that time. And there's a great plot device of ambiguity because when does Boris Karloff show up right at the toll of midnight on the fifth day, So he's like coming in right on

the line, and you don't know one way or another. Yeah, though, I mean, I think one of the one of the messages of this this the whole sequence here, is that if Grahampa says he might be a vertiluck, just go ahead and assume he's a verti luck, because it's going to be the safer assumption some of you might be wondering, is is a vertilock really a thing. Well, I did look it up, and according to Folklori's Carol Rose, who often refer to with my monster career careers here, uh,

it's it's actually more werewolf than vampire. But in the Slavic tradition the two concepts are kind of interlocked. Um. One version at least was that when a werewolf is killed, it transforms into a vampire that could then reassume the form of a wolf and vote luck apparently means wolf's hair. Um. But in this movie, what we see is is essentially a take on the vampire legend with with a fun twist. Well, I don't know if it's fun depending on which end

of it. If you're just enjoying the horror of it, it's uh, I guess it's fun. If your character in the in the story not so fun. And that is that the monster when it comes back, when it takes on the form of those that is killed, it's going to be drawn most to those that it loved in life. Those are going to be the ones that it focuses all of its monstrous intensity on. Yeah, this is a vampire as betrayer of trust, not just a vampire that needs blood. Anybody's blood just got to have a meal

of blood. This is a vampire that specifically comes for its loved ones. Yeah, which, Uh, I was thinking about this a little bit because again, the pacing of the film I think invites contemplation and also an enjoyment of the visuals. Uh. But like, well, what is wonder what this this? Uh? The sequence and what this this legend is? Um? Like what does it say about like love and bereavement? Uh? You know the twisted way that our our strongest positive

emotions can become negative emotions. Uh. And then ultimately, is this story advising us not to love anybody because because that alone would protect us from monsters? Well, that's a good question. And then I want to take that a step further. A lot of horror movies have very weakly earned love stories where you know, the characters fall in

love with each other. You don't really see a lot of reason for them to fall you know, you don't see a lot of like scenes of chemistry of them, you know, finding things they like about one another just kind of happens because the script says so this story, the Vertiloc has a couple of characters who seem to fall in love with each other very quickly and in

this sort of weakly justified way. But I wonder if that's not intentional in this case, uh, saying something about like falling, you know, loving too easily, and the being a kind of danger in that. Yeah. Yeah, the character that Damon plays, Um, you do kind of feel that, right, It's like, like, what do you do? You're so in your you're in love. You just met her and you're so in love with her that you are going to

risk incurring the wrath of her you know, undead transformed family. Uh, it seems it seems foolish, and it seems like, uh, as a fool in a short horror work, you are going to be punished for this foolishness. Well yeah, and it also says something about family. I think. Because again, so this will be a minor spoiler. I don't think it will ruin your enjoyment of the segment, which you can enjoy even if you read the whole plot ahead

of time, but warning to spoil the ending. So I think it is basically the fact that Mark Damon's character, he comes in, he very quickly and maybe unjustified, le falls in love with Stenka and then Sidenka apparently sort of reciprocates, you know, she likes him to um. And you get the impression that it's interesting that at first Mark Damon's character is not really threatened by the vers to luck because he's not a member of the family

and it only wants its own family. But it's once she reciprocates his feelings and they fall in love with each other that then he is also subject to the threat of having his blood drank, drink and drunk, uh, you know, of being attacked by the supernatural creature. It's once there is a bond of love between him and her that now he is fair game for this monster. Yeah. Yeah,

I mean it's there's probably something telling and there about attachments. Uh. But at the same time, it's like he's he clearly is loving strongly and loving deeply um, albeit very briefly. Uh So maybe it's all worth it. It's worth all the the english and death because the love was that strong. It seems to have there there is a sort of a bittersweet romantic element to the to the way this this wraps up. Yeah, yeah, but I mean, overall, every

everything else we've said about the Vertilock. The atmosphere is just amazing, and there are such wonderful scenes of looking out the window and maybe seeing Boris Karloff in his in his purple Kurt Vonnegut with the with the shaggy furry hood. Oh god, it's just so so good. Oh the sequence with the child crying for the mother who's super creepy. That one gave me the shivers. Uh oh. Another great thing about this sequence is it has a

great decapitated head. So at this point in my life and my film film Going Life, and I imagine you're much the same, Joe, I've seen a vast spectrum of decapitated head effects, ranging from just the laughable to the you know, at times shockingly realistic. Um though that that's it's interesting to think of like realistic and non realistic decapitated head effects because I think most all of us don't have anything to judge it against, you know, And

I think that's ultimately a good thing. We can't really we we don't look at a decapitated head and go like, wait a minute, that's not what a decapitated head looks like. I saw a decapitated head this morning to get out my faces of death videos, but in any right, there's I love even a hokey beheading effect. But this film

has has not one, but two beautifully disturbing corpse head sculpts. Uh. And these were actually created by Mario Baba's father, Eugenio Baba, which I thought was interesting that they're They're both absolutely beautiful and of course terrifying. Well, speaking of beautiful and terrifying corpses, we got to also mentioned the third segment in this movie, A Drop of Water, which for me, the Vertilock is the standout, but a Drop of Water

I thought was also very very good. Uh, and it has I gotta say, one of the creepiest movie corpses I have ever seen, along with a wonderful twist and some really great set in lighting choices. Yeah, this one again the telephone things are a little maybe more subdued, but still pretty pretty brilliant, but subdued for Baba Vertilock colorful and wonder full and out there. This one too is just just absolutely touching your eyeballs with its with

its color scheme. Um. Specifically, the thing that stuck with me most about the Drop of Water there were two things. One is that it has this marvelous, creepy corpse design. But the other was that the main character in this play is a nurse who lives in an apartment that has this oval shaped window, and outside the window is a constantly, gently pulsing green light. And I don't know what exactly that was supposed to be in terms of realism.

I think there's a quick shot from outside at first where it's raining out and and maybe it's supposed to be some kind of rotating sign or something. I'm not I'm not quite positive, but the effect within the apartment is these pulses of green that are I just love it. I love it. I want to live in that. Yeah. That that window is absolutely amazing. It's like a um horror ontole oval shape and it has this uh this kind of uh like iron lattice work cross in the

middle of it. Um. I have never seen anything quite like it. And yeah, and then this pulsating lights. So this was very much a sequence in the film where I think I was a little uncertain about, like what was supposed to be happening, and when you know, what's supposed to be pulling me along character wise or plot wise.

But I could not look away from that window, and it was reminding me of something too, and I realized it was it was reminding me of a scene from the sci fi film Event Horizon, Um, which show which I know you've seen as well, Joe. Uh, there's a sequence where there is a corpse floating aboard the Event Horizon spaceship and it's floating in front of this cross shaped window that has kind of bluish greenish uh space lights pulsating behind it, And you think it was influenced

by this short. I wonder if it was, because, for for for starters, Event Horizon is a film that is not shy about taking inspiration from other films. I love it, but like you, like, you see the DNA of these other films in it. Um, it's all about that and uh so yeah, I'm wondering if the cinematographer an Event Horizon, an individual by the name of Atrian Biddle, who worked

on Aliens and Judge Dread and various other films. I wonder if this particular scene is kind of a nod to Baba, because it, uh, it feels Baba asked um, you know, it feels it feels like it might be a slight tip of the hat. Event Horizon could be an interesting movie to come back to because I find it to be a very uh, very strange and an unusual combination of very inspired and very hack. Yeah, yeah,

I know what you mean. Yeah, there's a there. I loved Event Horizon when it came out, and then uh, when I rewatched it several years ago, there were still things I absolutely loved about it, but some things were like I kind of sighed and groaned at but still but it has a place in my heart. Well, I guess you could say, much like The Telephone. The plot

of A Drop of Water is pretty straightforward. So a nurse uh is called out to the apartment of a woman that she has been taken care of who has just died, and this woman apparently was involved in the occult. I think they say that she died during a seance, and so then the nurse must go into the room where her her dead body is laying and helped prepare

the corpse. But when she goes into the room, she notices that the the cadaver here has a has a splendid, very expensive looking piece of jewelry on it, a beautiful ring that has maybe a sapphire in it or something, and she looks at it and it's like, well, is this just you know, is this ring going to go to waste? Is this expensive piece of jewelry just going to go into a coffin and then rotting the ground?

I could grab that thing and take it with me and then uh, and you you get the sense that the nurse is sort of living in poverty like that she could she could use a big cash in at the pawn shop, um to put over that to be window. Yeah, exactly sleep at night. Um. So she grabs the ring, but of course I don't know if you want to grab the ring off the corpse of a lady who just died while being involved with the occult right, And so the rest of this segment has some wonderful uh

scenes of the haunting of a guilty conscience. And then there's also an excellent twist at the ending of of this segment to Yeah, i've kind of downplayed the like the plotting of Baba films, I guess in general here but but but yeah, I think all three sequences have some some fun um, some some fun plot twists and some fun developments. Uh. You know that you you don't really know where everything's gonna go, and things don't follow

a clearly defined path, which which is rather pleasurable. I agree. So I mean, as we were saying at the beginning, or horror anthologies are often kind of you know that your different segments are going to be of different quality. But I would say, after, I guess if we're wrapping up here at the end, I really enjoyed two out of three segments. But if you only check out one of the segments from this movie, definitely I would say

the Vertilac, the Vertilac, Vertilac. Yeah, come for the verti loc stay for the drop of water, uh, and find something to love in the telephone. Oh. But then also we should we have to put come back to our host here because one of the fun things about the American International Pictures um A release of it is that, yeah, we we added us this intro bit from Boris Karloff. Uh. And apparently they filmed some segments of Boris Karloff that would have gone between each of the segments, but they

didn't use those. So we just go from segment one to segment two to segment three. But then when segment three ends, we come back to Boris Karloff. Uh, And weirdly enough, he's he's like in his his he seems to be in costume from the Verdi lock. He's riding a horse, but he has this kind of almost crip keeper esque um uh, you know, jovial atmosphere about him.

And I can't even remember what he's telling us because as he's saying, you know, wrapping up for everybody, we pan out and we have this kind of um um, holy mountain moment where we pan out and we see that it's a set. We see a cameraman, we see people holding up these bushes that are supposed to be um, you know, uh, rushing past him as he rides this horse, and we see that the horse itself is just a saddle on, like a fake horse rump that's that's being

put into motion. Uh. And it's such a weird ending. I was thinking about It's like, why why did we punctuate this film Black Sabbath, this trio of horrifying tales, each with a dark ending? And I was wondering if it was because they thought, well, you know, nineteen three audiences don't want to go home feeling depressed. They need to go home with a smile on their face. So we need this, Uh, we need a fund ending, we need we need Boris Karla reminding them that it's all

just a movie. It's no, none of this is real. Um it's it was weird. Yeah, I'm not really sure what motivated that ending. Maybe you just yeah, like you're saying, cinnemon with a smile on their face. But I loved it or Rachel and I both really appreciated the pulling back to see especially the best part of it for me was the people running around with the potted plants to move them in front of the camera to simulate

the horse actually traveling through stuff in the foreground. Yeah, it's it's something I guess thinking to other horror host environments, like you need to do one of two things. Either you have the horror host punctuate the terror or the cerebrial nature of it, you know, like the the voiceover for the Outer Limits is all about really driving home the serious message of the piece, um, you know, or if you're watching twilight Zone, it's all about reminding you

of how dark and mysterious things really are. But the crypt Keeper, he just comes back to make several punny jokes and uh and so you know what Karlof is doing here is very much in the crypt keeper mode of of lightening the mood. I feel, all right, well, we're gonna go ahead close this one out, but we recommend everybody. Yeah, this is the Halloween season, so if you need a nice gothic atmospheric film to to watch, check out Black Sabbath. Um. This is also a fine one,

you know, just to play visually in the background. If you just want some really strong visuals, this one's this one's good to go. Um. Black Sabbath is widely available for digital rental or purchase. Again, I watched it on an Apple TV by doing a free preview of AMC Plus, but it's also widely available on disc and cleaning, including

Keno Classics. They have a blu ray of it, though I guess I will leave the research to you figuring out what version you're about to purchase or rent, because yeah, we both watched the Italian language version subtitled, but I think there is a dubbed version as well. I don't know what the availability on that is. I can't speak to it personally. I can't comment on that, but I do think there are different versions that have different levels of sort of color saturation and all that. Try to

find one with the really intense colors. Yeah, that's the most part of thing. Yeah, the colors speak volumes. The colors speak in ways that the dialogue and the subtitles are going to are going to pale in comparison to all Right, we'll be We'll be back next week with

another I think thoroughly Halloween e selection. But in the meantime, you can listen to Weird House Cinema every Friday, and the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed were primarily a science podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursday's Artifact on Wednesday. You'll listen to mail on Monday, but on Friday's we take a little time to just discuss a weird film like Black Sabbath. Huge thanks as always

to our wonderful audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind. It's production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.