Artist Black Sabbath (1963)

Not to be confused with one of the four or five only worthwhile bands ever, this Black Sabbath is a 1963 horror film from the master of Italian horror golden age, Mario Bava. Comprising three short horror stories—“The Telephone” (in which a high-end call girls begins receiving strange phone calls from someone claiming to be her ex-pimp), “The Wurdulak” (starring Boris Karloff as a patriarch infected by a living-dead blood curse), and “The Drop Of Water” (in which a nurse is assailed by a series of strange events after swiping a ring off a corpse). Setting the template for anthology horror films like Creepshow and Trick ‘r’ Treat, Bava’sBlack Sabbath is a masterful exercise in short-form spookiness.

Updated 10/17/2011