Three short pieces.
The first 'The Telephone' is a thriller with no supernatural elements. It's also pretty dull and predictable. It takes it's twists far too seriously.
But the other two stories 'The Wurdulak' (starring a fun Boris Karloff, who also does the terrific bookend pieces to the film) and 'A Drop of Water' have a real sense of enjoyable playfulness along with Bava's always present stylishness, and over the top lighting (which can get annoying at times – in 'Drop of Water' light from every window keeps rising and falling. It may be that it's supposed to suggest lightening, but it's mostly just distracting).
When Bava has fun with the hoary clichés of vampires and revenge of the dead, it's a lot easier for us to have fun too (and, ironically, I also found it more tense).
The first 'The Telephone' is a thriller with no supernatural elements. It's also pretty dull and predictable. It takes it's twists far too seriously.
But the other two stories 'The Wurdulak' (starring a fun Boris Karloff, who also does the terrific bookend pieces to the film) and 'A Drop of Water' have a real sense of enjoyable playfulness along with Bava's always present stylishness, and over the top lighting (which can get annoying at times – in 'Drop of Water' light from every window keeps rising and falling. It may be that it's supposed to suggest lightening, but it's mostly just distracting).
When Bava has fun with the hoary clichés of vampires and revenge of the dead, it's a lot easier for us to have fun too (and, ironically, I also found it more tense).