Black Sabbath 1964

Here is a rephrased version of the section:

The eerie introductory tone set by Boris Karloff segues into the first tale of terror, “Three Faces of Fear”, a triptych of macabre and supernatural horror. The inaugural segment, “The Telephone”, unfolds as a chilling exploration of fear, deceit, and ultimately, retribution. Rosy (Michele Mercier), a high-priced Parisian call-girl, returns to her lavish apartment after a night out on the town, only to be beset by an unsettling series of phone calls from Frank, her former pimp who has just escaped from prison. The very mention of his name sends shivers down Rosy’s spine, as she recalls the pivotal role her testimony played in landing him behind bars.

As the menacing calls continue to disrupt her evening, Rosy seeks solace by phoning her lesbian lover Mary (Lynda Alfonsi), with whom she has been estranged for some time. Despite their troubled past, Rosy is convinced that Mary is the only one who can help her navigate this precarious situation. Mary agrees to meet Rosy at her apartment, but unbeknownst to the latter, the caller impersonating Frank is none other than Mary herself, driven by a desire to rekindle their relationship and reclaim her place in Rosy’s life.

As the night wears on, Mary arrives at Rosy’s apartment, attempting to calm her lover’s growing anxiety with a tranquilizer. As Rosy drifts off to sleep, Mary takes the opportunity to pen a heartfelt confession, revealing that she had been making the eerie phone calls as a way of reconnecting with Rosy after their separation. However, her introspective moment is short-lived, as Frank, the actual perpetrator, slips into the apartment undetected and brutally murders Mary.

The sound of the struggle awakens Rosy, who finds herself face to face with the lifeless body of her former lover. The realization that she has just killed the wrong woman sends Frank’s murderous intent into overdrive, driving him to make his way towards Rosy’s bed. Yet, fate had other plans for the cunning pimp, as earlier that night, Rosy had strategically placed a butcher knife beneath her pillow at Mary’s suggestion. Seizing the opportunity, Rosy stabs Frank with the blade just as he is attempting to strangle her. As the dust settles, Rosy finds herself surrounded by the two lifeless bodies of her former lovers, their gruesome fate serving as a stark reminder that fear can be both a catalyst and a destroyer in equal measure.

As Vladimir D’Urfe (no actor provided) traversed the vast expanses of 19th Century Russia, his journey was marred by an unsettling discovery: a beheaded corpse with a knife lodged in its heart. The young nobleman, driven by curiosity and morbid fascination, removed the blade as a peculiar souvenir. Later that night, he sought refuge at a humble rural cottage, where his gaze fell upon an array of daggers adorning the wall - one space remained vacant, eerily coinciding with the shape of the knife now nestled in his possession.

The rustic abode’s inhabitants welcomed Vladimir warmly, introducing themselves as Giorgio (Glauco Onorato), his wife (Rika Dialina), their young son Ivan, and siblings Pietro (Massimo Righi) and Sdenka (Susy Anderson). As the evening wore on, it became apparent that they were eagerly anticipating the return of their patriarch, Gorcha, whose prolonged absence was shrouded in mystery. Giorgio’s explanation of the term “wurdalak” sent a shiver down Vladimir’s spine: a walking cadaver feasting on the blood of loved ones.

As the night wore on, the family’s apprehension mounted, and Sdenka revealed that Gorcha had ventured forth to vanquish the notorious outlaw Ali Beg. Giorgio and Pietro were convinced that the beheaded corpse was, in fact, Ali Beg’s remains - but they also feared that their father might have succumbed to the blood curse, transforming him into a wurdalak. As Vladimir chose to remain at the cottage, awaiting Gorcha’s return, the atmosphere grew thick with foreboding.

At the stroke of midnight, Gorcha (Boris Karloff) reappeared, his haggard appearance and demeanor foretelling a dire fate. The two brothers were torn asunder by their conflicting emotions: duty demanded they destroy their father before he preyed upon the family, while love and loyalty resisted such a cruel resolution. That fateful night, Ivan and Pietro fell victim to Gorcha’s vampiric attacks, draining them of lifeblood. As the wretched father fled the scene, Giorgio was left to confront the terrible truth: he had no choice but to behead his beloved brother to prevent him from rising as a wurdalak.

As the night wore on, Sdenka’s desperate plea to spare Ivan’s life forced Giorgio into an agonizing compromise. Reluctantly, he agreed to entomb the child without taking the necessary precautions, leaving the family’s fate hanging precariously in the balance.

As night descends, a mournful figure stirs from his grave, his anguished plea to enter the humble cottage met with a mix of pity and desperation by his mother. In a frenzied bid to save her son, she impales Giorgio as he attempts to intervene, only to be confronted at the threshold by Gorcha’s unwavering gaze. The old man’s biting touch infects his daughter-in-law, who in turn bestows the same upon her husband. As dawn breaks, Vladimir and Sdenka flee their doomed home, seeking refuge in the ancient, crumbling walls of an abandoned cathedral. Despite the dire circumstances, Vladimir remains optimistic about their future together, while Sdenka’s reluctance to abandon her family ties is palpable.

However, Sdenka’s fears are swiftly realized as Gorcha and her siblings appear at the cathedral that evening, their loving arms beckoning her to join them in a final, fatal embrace. Vladimir’s slumber is interrupted by his lover’s screams, but he arrives too late to save her, forced instead to follow her to their shared fate. The young nobleman finds Sdenka lying motionless on her bed, only to awaken and behold the unmistakable transformation on her face. With a mix of despair and resignation, Vladimir embracing her, and she in turn infects him with the same, dark curse.

Meanwhile, in Victorian London, Nurse Helen Chester (Jacqueline Pierreux) is summoned to a grand estate to prepare the deceased body of an elderly medium for burial. As she dresses the corpse, her eyes are drawn to an exquisite diamond ring adorning its finger, and her resolve falters as she succumbs to the allure of greed. The moment she pilfers the ring, a glass falls from the nearby table, releasing a relentless cascade of water droplets onto the floor. Her attention further piqued by the pungent aroma of the corpse, a persistent fly buzzes around her, refusing to be deterred. Unsettled but pleased with her illicit acquisition, Nurse Chester completes her task and returns to her modest East End flat.

However, her homecoming is marked by an unsettling series of events: the insistent fly reappears, the lights flicker ominously, and the sound of dripping water becomes a maddening refrain. The nurse’s sense of unease deepens as she begins to envision the medium’s lifeless form lying on her bed, its eyes fixed upon her with an unblinking stare. As her fear and paranoia reach a boiling point, Nurse Chester ultimately strangles herself, convinced that the medium’s cold, bony hands are closing around her throat.

The morning after, the meticulous concierge (Harriet White Medin) is confronted with a ghastly sight: the lifeless body of Nurse Chester. With a sense of duty, she promptly summons the authorities, and an investigator (Gustavo de Nardo) hastens to the scene. Initially, he assumes it’s an open-and-shut case, attributing Nurse Chester’s demise to sheer terror. However, upon closer inspection, the pathologist arrives on the scene and discovers a lone bruise on her left finger, suggesting that someone forcibly removed a ring from her hand. As this grim finding is made, the concierge appears visibly troubled, as if she had pilfered the very same ring from Nurse Chester’s lifeless grasp. Her distress is further compounded by the incessant buzzing of a fly hovering nearby.

Meanwhile, in a fitting conclusion to the trilogy of terror, Boris Karloff (as Gorcha) appears once more, astride his horse, cautioning viewers to exercise extreme care while walking home at night. His solemn warning serves as a reminder that even the most fearsome entities – ghosts and vampires alike – are impervious to fear. As the camera pans out, we realize that this poignant tableau is merely a clever ruse, with Karloff seated on a prop horse, surrounded by a film crew, who are busy manipulating branches to create the illusion of riding through a foreboding forest, as seen in the Wurdalak segment.