Black Sunday was such a huge hit that a follow-up was swiftly demanded, and horror maestro Mario Bava duly devised this three-part horror anthology blending modern and period stories.

In the giallo-style The Telephone , a woman is terrorised by her former pimp after his escape from prison, and tries to escape him with the help of her lesbian lover, who has a dark secret of her own. In the Victorian-era The Drop of Water , a nurse steals a ring from the corpse of a dead spiritualist, which naturally tries to get it back. But it s the 19th-century Russian story The Wurdalak that comes closest to Bava s earlier classic, with the great Boris Karloff as a much-loved paterfamilias who might not be entirely what he seems.

Bava's direction is as stylish as ever, and Black Sabbath is almost a compendium of his favourite themes.