I'm a huge fan of horror anthology films, and have tried to see all that have been made. To me, it's like getting a multi-layered gift with a little bit of everything to appeal to the various types of horror films that I enjoy. Black Sabbath has been one that I've been meaning to see, and I was intending to watch it during this year's 31 Days of Halloween celebration, but I just couldn't wait. Good thing, since the film was just as fantastic as I was hoping it to be.

Mario Bava's Black Sabbath is comprised of three horror tales, each with their own level of chills and thrills. I like the mix of horror genres that are in Black Sabbath; one segment features a woman getting harassing phone calls, one is about a family whose father returns home as a vampire and the last tale is about a vengeful spirit haunting a nurse who stole a precious ring from her dead body.

Each segment is wonderfully filmed, and acted well. I enjoyed "The Telephone" segment's small location, and how that enhanced the scary tone once this woman started receiving the harassing phone calls. "The Wurdalak," which is the vampire segment, was especially creepy because of the strong performance by Boris Karloff, who plays the father turned vampire whose family has to now deal with the possibility of having to kill him.

But for me, the strongest segment was "The Drop of Water," which was about the spirit haunting the thieving nurse. First off, the design of the dead woman/spirit was absolutely creepy as hell. And the various moments that she popped up in this part of the film just made her all the more frightening. Plus, I liked how simple this ghost story is presented. While the nurse (Jacqueline Pierreux) is being haunted, it's mostly just the sound of dripping water. Simple, but very effective. But don't fear, it's not all just dripping water that torments this woman.

It seemed that Bava had a lot of fun with this film, and allowed Karloff to have fun as well. Karloff sort of hosts the film, and in the end he bids the audience farewell, only for the camera to pan back and acknowledge that it is in fact a film. I'm not exactly sure what this was supposed to be getting at, but it added more winning charm to this film. Black Sabbath is highly recommended to horror fans.