WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Black Sabbath 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:07.240 Hey, you welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewinder. This is 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:09.480 Rob Lamb and we have a much older episode to 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:11.240 share with you here today. This one is from ten 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:15.080 twenty to twenty twenty one. I partially picked this one 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.520 because we lost Ozzy Osbourne fairly recently. This is going 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:29.280 to be the classic Mario Bava horror anthology film Black Sabbath. Enjoy. 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:38.159 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.160 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. My name is Rob Lamb. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.479 And I'm Joe McCormick. And today it's that old anthology 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.559 feeling once again. Rob. I know you're a horror anthology man. 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.120 What is it about you that makes you gravitate towards 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:56.000 the anthology? 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:58.520 Well, I mean you're talking about two different things, of course, 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:03.000 when you're talking about horror anthologies on TV and those 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.040 in the film, Because on TVs it's like it's a 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.080 different generally, it's a different story every week. And with 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.920 anthology films like the one we're gonna be talking about today, 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:16.880 you instead of getting one complete film, you get like 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:21.080 three or four shorter pieces that are stitched together and 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.720 been presented to you so I guess maybe part of 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.600 it is just out of love for creepy short stories 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:29.959 and the fact that that short stories don't have to 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.160 obey the same rules as novels, and therefore and also 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.560 short films don't have to obey the same rules as 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:40.759 complete films. I guess it's also nice that they're only 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:42.640 going to be They're only going to feel so long. 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:44.800 You know, they're going to get to the point they 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.680 can only be so drawn out. And it's also like 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.600 a little sampler box. Like if an anthology film is 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:52.480 coming at you and you know it's going to present 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.600 you with, say three to four tales, Well you can 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.639 figure there's going to be maybe one dud in the bunch, 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:03.760 but at the very least you'll have one that's pretty good. Right, 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.760 there's got to be like one central pillar holding up 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:07.560 the roof of the thing. 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.080 Well, another way I would come at it is that 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.679 even if they're all bad, it's more fun to have 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.160 bad variety than bad monotony. 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.560 Yeah, yeah, I would say so, like you're into the 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.200 badness and then you're out again, and then you're into 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:23.240 some fresh badness. 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:25.600 Yeah, I think I would really come back to what 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.000 you were saying about the comparison to the lengths of 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.600 horror fiction. This came up in a recent episode where 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:33.200 we were talking I think it was in the Thing 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:38.239 from Another World, where we were talking about how it's 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.280 hard to survey to be sure about this, but my 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:45.079 feeling is that horror novels tend to gravitate more towards 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.320 some semblance of a quote happy ending, maybe not happy, 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.519 but some way in which the protagonist is at least 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:56.040 partially victorious or escapes or something, whereas horror short stories 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.800 tend more toward bleak and cruel endings or endings that 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.400 are that are a really a mean and ironic twist 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.520 of fate. And obviously I think there are a lot 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.400 of reasons why people who enjoy horror fiction are drawn 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.280 to endings of that sort, but they're harder to pull 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.799 off at the end of a really long narrative where 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.280 you're more invested with the characters, You've spent more time 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:19.560 with them, and it hurts more to see them just 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:21.040 sort of like ruined at the end. 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:24.799 Yeah, And I think another thing that you certainly see 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.560 in short fiction is that sometimes short fiction exists in 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:30.840 a space where it doesn't have to concern itself with 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.040 the ins and outs of a complex plot or some 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.720 sort of fantastic character arc. You know, our characters don't 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.400 have to evolve and change and learn lessons about themselves. 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.120 It can be more about trotting out an interesting idea 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.240 or you know, or or or in the in the 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.600 case of horror, just a just a fun monster or 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:53.320 some you know, diabolical scenario, that sort of thing, right. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.800 I think you're correct. I think that the horror genre 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.600 especially really does lend itself well to the anthology format. 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.440 I mean, there are plenty of movies that are not 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:04.880 horror that you could argue you are, in one way 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.119 or another anthology films of a sort. I think one 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:12.120 thing I've read is that is that pulp fiction was 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.960 actually the concept for pulp fiction was partially inspired by 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:18.360 the movie that we're going to talk about today. Of course, 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.839 pulp fiction is not horror, but today's movie is today's 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.760 selection for weird house cinema is the Mario Bava nineteen 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:31.400 sixty three Italian anthology horror series Black Sabbath, or in 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.240 Italian it's called e tre volti di la Pora. I 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:35.880 had to look up what that means. It means the 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:37.400 three Faces of Fear. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.720 Which is a more accurate title because if you're checking 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:46.520 out Black Sabbath expecting witchcraft and you know, Satan worshippers 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.760 dancing around a fire or some sort of like pagan 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:51.760 ordeal or something going on, you're going to be disappointed 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.800 because there is no actual Black Sabbath, real or imagined 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:55.599 in this picture. 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.000 No, I would say the closest we come to that, 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.640 it still doesn't really get there. There's sort of that 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.080 vibe in the middle segment of this movie, and by 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.760 far my favorite the Wordulac, which is I think just 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.479 an absolutely tremendous segment and I can't wait to talk 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.400 about it. But yeah, at least the other two really 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.039 don't have anything to do with that at all. 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:18.640 Now, another interesting thing about the title for this film 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.680 is that this is said to be where the band 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:24.719 Black Sabbath got their name. 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.039 Oh yeah, And I think I could be wrong about this, 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.200 but I remember hearing It's not even from them necessarily 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.760 seeing the movie. I think it was like they walked 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.279 past a movie theater and this was on the Marquee 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:36.920 and they're like. 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.920 Right, yeah, I think there's another version of the tale 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.320 and I don't know how much. This sounds almost too perfect, 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.120 so it sounds like maybe it was embellished. But I 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.960 read a version where they were playing at a theater 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.839 and then across the street Black Sabbath was playing and 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.800 the line was far longer to get in to see 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.599 the movie as opposed to getting in to see them play. 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:00.560 And they're like, well, we need to do has changed 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.440 our name. We need to be Black Sabbath, and then 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.280 the people will line up for us. 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.440 It's like when Patty and Selma proposed changing the name 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.480 of Springfield the Seinfeld. You just look at what's popular 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.040 now and try to leach off that. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.120 Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know which of those 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.560 stories is true and to what extent, but certainly it 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.320 would be. It's hard to imagine the band Black Sabbath 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.120 without the name Black Sabbath because the theme runs so 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:27.840 deep through all of their music. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.839 And before they were called Black Sabbath they were called Earth. 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:35.320 That was not very convenient because I think there was 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.920 another band at the time in that area called Earth. 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.719 It has a different taste on the tongue. Initially, Yeah, 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:45.800 if you're thinking about going to hear Earth, you have 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.760 totally different expectations versus Black Sabbath. 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.280 Well as a huge fan of the at least like 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:54.760 the first six Black Sabbath albums. I don't really get 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.480 into the d years very much, but like the first 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.720 six Sabbath albums, I think are they're a mega You know, 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.200 they're like one of those stone monuments from the ancient 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.080 world and it's really hard to get under them. But 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.760 I can't imagine how I would feel about them if 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.080 they weren't by a band called Black Sabbath that's so 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:13.480 wrapped up in the feeling. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:18.640 Yeah, can you imagine Nativity and Black by Earth? It 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.560 just doesn't make sense war Pigs by Earth. 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.880 However, I could propose an alternative, which is that if 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.200 they wanted to drill in and get to the heart 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:30.360 of what makes Mario Bava's Black Sabbath really great, they 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:32.320 could have changed the name of their band to the 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:33.320 word Youlaxe. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.760 Oh yeah, yeah, that's a fun name for a band. 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.360 And it would imply that they've been in the mountains 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.760 for five days and come back in a state of 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:42.480 God knows what. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.600 All right, well, let's go ahead and give everyone a 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:49.320 taste of the trailer on this one. Because this is 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.880 a pretty good trailer. I love the narration here. 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:04.840 Do you believe in ghosts? This is the night twent 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:10.440 Fear and horror walk hand in hand. This is Black Sabbath, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:21.160 starring the incomparable Boris Karloff, the personable Mark Damon, and 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.560 lush and lovely women, even though one is from the 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:31.360 nether world, a vampire of Bourdelac, a Black Sabbath as 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.720 ancient as superstition, as modern as the telephone. 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.280 So it's obvious from the trailer, but I don't think 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.599 we mentioned that this movie has Boris Karloff in multiple capacities, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.080 so he is not only the star of one of 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.200 the three segments in the anthology, but he's also sort 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:54.120 of the pitchman. He is the company spokesperson at the 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:55.880 beginning and end of the film, And. 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.240 Of course this is perfect because in later years he 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.400 also served as a horror host on televis you show 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.880 such as Thriller and Out of This World. As I 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.520 think we've often driven home though, like, there's such a 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:11.400 wealth of TV horror anthologies out there, So, for instance, 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:16.640 if you just glance at listings for Boris Karloff's Thriller, 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:18.960 you'll see Oh it only went two seasons, but it 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.520 went two seasons in the nineteen sixties, So those two 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.720 seasons consist of sixty seven episodes. 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.120 Wow, yeah, it gets crazy, And man, I thought it 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:30.839 was long seasons. When you go back and watch a 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.200 show from the nineties or something where there's like twenty 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.439 episodes in the season, that seems like a huge amount. 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.000 But wow yeah. 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:42.679 Now, to be clear, Thriller aired sixty one I mean sorry, 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:44.800 sixty through sixty one and sixty one through sixty two, 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.920 so it actually aired in America at least before Black 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.000 Sabbath came out, so that might have been part of 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.880 the rationale here. It's like, well, audiences are used to 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.120 Boris Karloff presenting material to them. He's already in it. 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.880 Let's also get him up on the screen introducing this 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:01.559 stuff for us. 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:03.439 Well, you can hear it right in the narration of 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.679 the trailer. There's the part where it says like starring 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.560 the incomparable Boris Karloff. I guess he is incomparable. But 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.640 then the other cast members they introduce are the personable 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.600 Mark Damon, which I thought was hilarious, And then they 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.920 say and lush and lovely women gone unnamed. 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.000 Come on, dudes, and we will list to some of 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.120 their names here in a bit. There are some nice 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:27.040 performances in here. 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.760 Oh wait, wait, I left off, though I think the 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:33.199 trailer qualifies it says, so the women in this movie, Hey, 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.560 we got beautiful women, even though one of them is 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.079 from the nether world. I was trying to think back 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:40.480 after having seen it, which woman is it talking about. 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:41.400 I'm not even sure. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.280 Yeah, there's not really one that's definitely from the nether world. 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.680 I mean a lot of bad, supernatural things happen to 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.880 people and to some women in this motion picture, but 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.360 I don't think any of them are from the nether world. 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:56.880 All right, Well, I guess before we talk anymore about 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.480 the actual contents of the movie, we should discuss some 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.760 of the the connections. And obviously the place to start 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:04.440 is with the director, Mario Bava. 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:09.960 Mario Bava who lived nineteen fourteen through nineteen eighty. He 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.720 was the director, but also collaborated on the screenplay. He 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.559 was the cinematographer, He did matt paintings, he did special effects. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.480 This is the legendary Italian director with an unmistakable obsessive 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:29.960 and phantasmagorical emphasis on visual composition. So you can just 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.360 look up stills from his movies and I feel like, 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:36.720 once you've gotten a taste of how Bava directs and 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.040 how he composes a shot, a strong still from any 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:44.439 of his films is just instantly identifiable. It just pops 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.199 with a certain It's not only the color hue, because 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:50.880 I want to stress it's not just a matter of oh, well, 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.640 Mariobava used some cool gels here and there, like, No, 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.599 it's the complete it's his use of light and reflections 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.560 and just the overall composition of every every shot in 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:01.000 the film. 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:04.760 You ever see one of those animated movies in which 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:09.000 there is a magical gem or artifact that glows with 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:14.760 magic power, Mario Bava's movies are like that. There's something 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:18.320 about the way they look that the frames from the 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.680 movie glow with magic power. 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:26.200 Yeah, even when there's less of a reason for it 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.760 to be glowing. So like I was thinking as I 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.040 was watching this particular picture that it's it's like an 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:37.920 alien civilization that communicates through like synesthesia is trying to 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:39.160 speak through the picture. 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:39.440 You know. 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:44.200 It's like it's that obsessive, like the colors are clearly 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.720 of great importance to Bava and all. 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.439 Of this, though I will say that I totally agree 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:53.319 with you. Color is a big part of it, and 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:59.840 Bava frequently used sort of expressive colorful lighting, colored lighting 0:12:59.880 --> 0:13:03.160 in his movies that is not strictly realistic, meaning it's 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.200 not reflecting a color you would actually expect to see 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:08.480 if this scene were taking place in the real world, 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:12.280 but rather colors that sort of reflect feelings coming through 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:17.560 and reflect sort of other worldly, unseen influences. But there 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.920 are also visual sensibilities he has where that kind of 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.920 glowing comes through even when it's not in color. Like 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.800 the example that comes to my mind is his earlier 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.920 movie Black Sunday, which is in black and white and 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.160 yet it still glows with magic power. 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:34.679 Yeah, that one was from nineteen sixty and it is 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.480 interesting to imagine this leap from black and white to 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:40.679 color for Mario Bava, where they're like, oh, by the way, 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:46.200 you can shoot in color now, and you can imagine 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.480 his excitement at being able to do so. 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:49.560 So. 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:53.679 Bava's background is interesting. He was the son of early 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:58.960 Italian cinematographer Eugenio Bava, and Mario trained as a painter, 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.960 venturing into the world of cinematography as well in the 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.760 late thirties in the early forties, but then he eventually 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.640 started directing as well. It began with some documentary shorts 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.160 and some uncredited directing work on some various genre films. 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.600 But then in nineteen sixty that's when Black Sunday came out. 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.720 He directed that, and that was a very well regarded 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:26.200 and financially successful film, and so Black Sabbath is very 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.040 much the color follow up to that. Thus the similar 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.560 release title again kind of coming back to the studio 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.120 thought here, it's like, well, Black Sunday did pretty good. 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.040 Welcome we call the next one. Let's call it a 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:39.800 Black Sabbath. 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.840 There we go, Well, this may be if that is 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.440 indeed where the title comes from. I got to say, 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.120 this is the rare case where I would go with 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:49.840 the marketing over the original because once again the three 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.760 faces of fear, that may be more literally descriptive of 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:55.880 what you're getting with the movie, but it doesn't really 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:56.960 have the same punch to it. 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:02.400 Yeah, So Mario Baba directed into thenineteen seventies. Initially he retired, 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.360 then he came back at the behest of a new 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.360 generation of Italian horror filmmakers, including his own son, director 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.840 of Lomberto Bava. He came back to direct nineteen seventy 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.320 five Shock, and this would prove to be his last 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.400 feature film, as he then died in nineteen eighty. But 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.320 he directed a number of pictures, so we're not going 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.560 to touch on them all, but I thought we might 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.360 talk about a few of them here. One of them 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.760 is Planet of the Vampires from nineteen sixty. 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.440 Five, Rob, Can you see the Planet of the Vampire's 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:33.520 poster right behind me on the wall? 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:35.400 I do? I see that you have it right there 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.560 up on the wall behind you, so you know obviously 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.600 you're a fan. I finally got around to watching this 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:46.800 in full this year, and I have to say it 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.440 wasn't the most enthralling motion picture when it came to 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:56.200 acting and the plot, but such a gorgeous science fiction 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.480 film to watch. Like all of the visuals in it, 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.680 he does an amazing job and devotes the vast majority 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.040 of the film's energy and limited budget, I have to 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:11.520 add to create highly effective and colorful alien landscapes Haunted 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.400 spaceship Hallways also has just some incredible costumes. 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:19.560 Absolutely so I love Planet of the Vampires, but I 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.960 usually watch it without sound. It's a movie that I 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.120 love to put on, like in the background while I'm 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.120 hanging out with friends and listening to music. That's the 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.680 ideal Planet of the Vampires experience for me, because it's 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:34.600 one of those movies. It's a rub the fur movie. 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.160 It's a movie that's not really about the plot or 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:41.520 what happens in it. It is about the visual textures 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.280 on screen, and that includes everything from like you single 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:48.120 out the costumes. The spacefarers in the movie are wearing 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:52.320 these bizarre black leather space suits with these leather helmets, 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:57.480 and yeah, the lighting and the sets are just absolutely wonderful. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.160 Yeah, and it reminds me of a quote that I 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.000 ran across from Mario Bava where he said that horror 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.919 films are seventy percent lighting. And I think he has 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:09.399 a strong point. I mean, you definitely see that in 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.440 his work. But we've talked about various examples on the 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:15.199 show before where we say things like, oh, well, the 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.840 monster costume wasn't great, but in this scene, the lighting's amazing, 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:20.920 so it absolutely works well. 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.199 Like in the Thing from Another World, Yeah, there was 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:28.120 like if you look at the costume James Arness's wearing like, actually, 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.960 in full lighting, it doesn't look very impressive, but they've 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:32.960 found a way to make it look good within the 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.840 narrative by either keeping him in silhouette backlits so you 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.040 can't really see him, so he's just a frame, and 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:41.440 or just by giving you quick glimpses of him where 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:44.440 you can't really understand what's going on. Like, they make 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.399 do in a very effective manner with some limitations in 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.440 terms of costuming and makeup effects. 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:55.320 Of course, Planet of the Vampires was highly influential. It's 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.959 sometimes been asked, would we even have Alien and all 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.440 the films that came after Alien had it not been 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:06.280 for Planet of the Vampires, And perhaps not, you know, 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.000 certainly Bava was a very influential filmmaker. Yeah. 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.000 I mean one of the big things I think that's 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.959 called out with respect to Alien is there's a scene 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.600 in Planet of the Vampires, and Planet of the Vampires 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.640 came much before it was nineteen sixty five, Is that right? 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:21.720 Yeah, sixty five. 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.760 There's a scene where the astronauts are on this desolate 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.760 planet and they go into a cave and they find 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:32.000 a giant alien skeleton stretched out on this surface in there, 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.880 very much like with the discovery of the Derylic spacecraft 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:39.240 with the bizarre sort of alien skeleton fuse to the 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.200 chair in Alien. 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.920 So ultimately I think Black Sabbath moves along a lot, 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.720 a lot better. It has better pacing than Planet of 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.600 the Vampires. But there were still times in this film, 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.720 as within as in Planet of the Vampires, where I 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.720 felt myself disconnected from whatever was happening or supposed to 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.639 be happening in the plot, but I was still completely 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.000 drawn in to the visual world presented on the film. 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.080 You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. I mean I 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.360 really appreciated the plot, especially in the word you lack, 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.160 but through and through it looks pretty great. 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.760 Another Bava film that I'm a fond of is Danger 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:23.280 Diabolique from nineteen sixty eight. This is a stunning, stylish 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:28.280 spy crime yarn starring John Philip Law and Adolfo Selly. 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.359 People might remember him as the villain from Thunderball. The 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.679 James Bond film. Terry Thomas is also in it. This 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.480 was featured on Mystery Science Theater three thousand back in 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.800 the day, and it is indeed quite ridiculous, but stunning 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.600 from a visual perspective. Basically, it has that sixties bond vibe, 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.800 focused all on comic book crime and then turned up 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:51.480 to about a thousand Bava style. 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.720 I think it was actually the very last episode of 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.760 the main run of Mystery Science Theater. That's right, it was, 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:02.159 and kind of a strange choice there, because I don't know, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.480 I would actually argue that movie is not all that bad. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.840 I mean, it's silly in a way that a lot 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.520 of these movies would be silly, but it's also I 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.399 don't know, it's stylishly executed in a very pleasing way. 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.760 I mean, the best films on Mystery Science Theater three 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.160 thousand and often that the best episodes of Mystery Science 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:23.360 three thousand revolve around movies that are on their own 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:24.240 very watchable. 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:26.080 I know you're thinking about Jack Frost. 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:28.919 Oh yeah, I think that's a great example. There are 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.240 multiple example. I think when I think of my favorite episodes, 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.480 there are often films that that I can and sometimes 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.160 have watched on on my own, you know, without without 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:43.159 the riffing. Now, Mario Bava was again highly influential, and 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.239 one of his most famous students was Dario Argento. If 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.360 you've ever seen Argento's nineteen seventy seven classic Suspiria, then 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:54.040 you've certainly bathed your eyeballs in a very Bava inspired 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:54.720 color scheme. 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.760 Yeah, I think it's it's pretty much unquestionable that Argento 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.560 picked up where Bava left off with the expressive, colorful lighting, 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:04.800 especially for his Jallo films. 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.960 And I mentioned Mario's son, Lamberto Bava, he directed such 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:13.520 films that went on to direct such films as nineteen 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.960 eighty five's Demons, which is excellent, along with a couple 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.840 of sequels to that, nineteen eighty four's Devilfish, which is 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.000 not so excellent. It's basically a Jaws cash in, one 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:27.720 of many. But Lamberto Bava is still making movies. He 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.840 had a horror movie starring Gerard Depardieu come out this year. 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.080 Really yeah, okay. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:37.600 Called Twins, I believe, and I had to check. It 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.439 has nothing to do with the Arnold movie. 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:43.199