This version greatly changed the plot of "The Telephone", giving it a supernatural element and removing all references to lesbianism and prostitution.

Since its original release, Black Sabbath has received positive reviews from critics, and was placed at number 73 on a Time Out poll of the best horror films.

In 19th-century Serbia, Vladimir D'Urfe is a young nobleman who finds a beheaded corpse with a dagger plunged into its heart.

They all await the return of Giorgio, Pietro and Sdenka's father, Gorca, who has gone hunting for a Turkish brigand who's actually a wurdalak, a living cadaver who feeds on human blood, especially of loved ones.

In 1910s London, Nurse Helen Chester is called by the maid of an elderly medium to prepare the latter's corpse for burial.

The fly returns and continues to pester her and the lights in her apartment go out as the sound of the dripping water is heard from various locations.

[5] In February 1963, American International Pictures made a deal with the Italian film production company Galatea that they would contribute to a minimum of nine co-productions in the next eight years.

[7] The casting and crewing of Black Sabbath was divided between the film's three main production partners: Galatea cast actress Susy Andersen while retaining Mario Bava, who had directed several of their films, including Black Sunday,[7] American International Pictures secured Mark Damon and Boris Karloff, and Societé Cinématographique Lyre secured Michèle Mercier and Jacqueline Pierreux (the latter is credited under the pseudonym "Jacqueline Soussard" on American prints).

[19] American International Pictures approved of Bava's thematic idea but encouraged him to look for public domain titles.

[10] Black Sabbath was made at the end of production of The Girl Who Knew Too Much during an eight-week period between February and March 1963.

[27][28] "The Telephone" was Bava's first color film that attempted to emulate the visual style of the covers that appeared on giallo digests.

[21] Bava changed the ending to Boris Karloff's character of Gorka on horseback who cautions the audience to watch out for vampires.

[31][32] This led to the American edit removing plot elements of prostitution and lesbianism and making the most altered of Bava's films on its English-language version.

[32][33] American International Pictures made changes to all three stories and intro segments in the English-language version of the film.

[32] The character of Frank is also no longer a pimp but a ghost who leaves behind a note that eerily writes itself as soon as the envelope it is contained in is opened.

[35] The film opened in Italy through Warner Bros. on August 17, 1963, under the title I tre volti della paura (transl.

[4] Co-writer Alberto Bevilacqua suggested that the film's poor performance was possibly affected by bad publicity, recalling that "someone had a miscarriage while watching it, or some other upsetting thing happened".

[38] American International Pictures released the English version of Black Sabbath on May 6, 1964, as a double bill with AIP's edit of Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much, then titled Evil Eye.

While praising Reynold Brown's artwork for AIP's advertising campaign, Lucas has suggested that its failure to capitalize on Karloff's popularity among young audiences was a key factor in the film's relatively meager commercial performance.

[40] The film was released by The Rank Organization in France on 17 November 1965, under the title Les trois visages de la peur;[2] Lucas deemed one of the poster artworks used for the French release, created by Boris Grinsson and depicting Mercier, Andersen and Pierreux being menaced by a would-be strangler's hands, to be the "most beautiful" of all promotional materials produced for the film.

[40][41] In 2004, Variety announced that Valhalla Motion Pictures and Kismet Entertainment Group were collaborating to produce a remake Black Sabbath.

[44] Kino's edition of the film was mastered in high definition from the 35mm negative with the Italian language dub and original soundtrack.

[47] In a contemporary review of the American International Picture's edit, The Globe and Mail stated that "The Drop of Water" and "The Telephone" were "a good deal more sophisticated than usual horror fare" while "The Wurdulak" "bears no trace of [Bava's] manner of directing" and that the acting was "rudimentary".

[49] The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "the eeriest thing about the picture is its decor (especially the heavy, dusty interiors of [The Drop of Water]" while noting the "acting is very unstylish and made worse by dubbing".

[50] The review stated that Bava could "do better than this with less obvious material" and that he seemed "determined to spell everything out with a sudden zoom shots and shock cuts.

[36] In contemporary reviews of the Italian-language version, The Dissolve gave the film three and a half stars out of five, stating "There are small twists in all three stories, but for the most part, the segments suggest where they're headed early" and that the dialogue in the film is "sparse, and doesn't shy away from any exploitable elements, from scantily clad women to bloody wounds and warped-faced ghouls.

[57][58][59] Plans were made to reunite Bava with Karloff and Lee to work an adaptation of "The Dunwich Horror", provisionally titled Scarlet Friday.

[60] The project was later taken away from Bava after the critical and commercial failure of Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, and was released as The Dunwich Horror directed by Daniel Haller; the film was made without Karloff and Lee's involvement.

[64] The group saw a local cinema playing Black Sabbath and marveled that people paid money to be frightened.

[64] Directors Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino were influenced by Black Sabbath's story structure for their original script for Pulp Fiction (1994).