15 Best Anthology Horror Film Segments

"Ali Beg is dead. Now we only have our father to fear."

The best story in Black Sabbath concerns an old man (Boris Karloff) who travels home to his family having defeated a notorious wurdalak named Ali Beg: a vampire-like creature that feeds on the blood of its loved ones. When the family begins to fall prey to the wurdalak's curse one by one, a traveller must prevent the old man's beautiful daughter from suffering the same fate.

Mario Bava was a genius storyteller, and he directs the hell out of this 40 minute tale. What he achieves with his sets in this segment is masterful; each frame is drenched in rich, Gothic mood. The outdoor scenes are lit with an eerie blue glow and immersed in a thick fog. The warm haven of the cottage instantly shifts to appear ominous and threatening with the return of Karloff's bloodthirsty patriarch. The sound design, too, compliments his visual choices perfectly.

We are most familiar with seeing Karloff portray the hulking, misunderstood and sympathetic role of Frankenstein's Monster, and here he really demonstrates his range. His performance is fantastically evil, and he carries the story in a way that no other actor could've done.