Director: Mario Bava
Year: 1963
Country: Italy/France/USA
Alternate Titles: I tre volti della paura; The Three Faces of Fear
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Hosted by Boris Karloff, three tales of supernatural horror and terror are presented.
Review:
The Drop of Water-Called to a remote house, a caregiver asked to prep a body for an upcoming ceremony incurs the supernatural wrath of the owner's spirit when she steals the dead woman's prized ring for herself. This here is one of the most chilling and utterly suspenseful entries in the film and perhaps of the genre as a whole. The atmosphere of this one is incredible as the ornate, elaborate house is Gothic splendor that looks even better with all the gorgeous lighting and photography utilized to showcase it all, leaving the setting here effective enough on its own right before taking into account all the other supernatural action to get into play here. The exploits of the fly buzzing around the woman's finger before becoming a vital part of the torment against her later on, the continuous and nearly incessant dripping water from the faucets and drips of her house where there's the brilliantly atmospheric section of her attempting to turn off everything in the house before it gets to her and there are the masterful sequences in her house of the banging noises and thudding footsteps wandering around after her while being confronted with the lightning storm and that absolutely spectacular first appearance of the ghost woman. Though it does end on a whimper here, this one is still an utterly enjoyable and effective effort.
The Telephone-Inundated with strange telephone calls, a woman comes to believe that her jealous boyfriend has come back to haunt her and tries to survive a frightening nightmare with her friend watching her while being assaulted by the madman. This here was quite the enjoyable and satisfying entry mainly in the way this one really works over the then-burgeoning giallo motifs into a solid and workable variant by focusing on so many of the lurid tropes of the style so early into the genre's creation. The elaborate set-up of the degenerate killer stalking the beautiful young woman and tormenting her in sexually-explicit actions before going for the kill at the finale, marks quite an impressive and stylized tone here that works rather well with the utterly spectacular amount of atmosphere present. The apartment setting here is quite striking with the clean white space and sensual actions featured, all quite prominent aspects of the style and more than worthwhile enough to make this interesting enough. There's a slightly hokey manner in which the final resolution plays out which isn't all that impressive or enjoyable as it comes off rather familiar in how it plays off, but it's not enough to really hurt this one.
The Wurdulak-On the hunt for a deranged killer, a huntsman traveling in the remote woodlands finds the family residing in his chosen shelter are plagued by the very wurdurlak he is chasing and band together with them to stop him. This was quite a fun and enjoyable effort that works really well here in the context of the other stories. Not only is this the longest one in here which makes it absolutely more chilling by being able to really sell the change and how it's affected him overall, from the irrational behavior about his beloved pets to the eerie manner in his lifeless eyes continually stare out at everyone and the confusing manner of which he seems to heel from his injuries, this one superbly builds up the feeling that something isn't right so well that it scores some great shocks once it starts in on the slaughter of the family. The old-school Gothic-styled pacing and set-up don't hurt either, with this one really making such a strong atmosphere about it through those scenes, the hunting abduction of the grandchild or the effectively eerie and chilling approach in the woods over the bridge that it manages to cultivate a really dynamic and incredible sense of fun even in the finale as it moves into the grand, glorious Gothic-fueled encounter deep in the bowels of the castle dungeon. It does overstay somewhat with its length coming into play and the characters here show some rather lame actions to move this along, but overall it's still quite a bit of fun.
Overview: *****/5
One of the finest and perhaps best all-time underrated anthologies, there's so much to enjoy here regardless of which cut you watch that the differences are negligible under the gloriousness of the anthology itself. Anyone worth their salt as a Eurohorror fan, appreciative of anthology efforts or of the creative crew should look into this one immediately while only those who aren't into these styles should heed caution.
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