Revenir : la peur envisagée par Mario Bava (“Les Trois visages de la peur” / “I Tre volti della paura”, 1963)
The Faces of fear according to Mario Brava (“Black Sabbath” / “I Tre volti della paura”, 1963)

Summary/Abstract: Ghosts populate Mario Bava’s films and are at the heart of “Black Sabbath” (1963). The three episodes of this anthology film depict their terrifying appearance. “The Telephone” offers a harrowing “huis‑clos” amid manipulation and revenge. “The Wurdulak”, a Gothic fantasy tale, questions the fear of the other through the essential ambiguity of the vampire. Finally, in “The Drop of Water”, a cruel tale if any, the ghost appears as an image of the Unheimlich and a metaphor for wholly‑assumed special effects and illusions. This manifesto‑type triptych film is thus characterized by a quest of both efficiency and distance to arouse fear on the screen, on the faces that inspire it as well as on those who express it.

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