Dreadfully Boring

An action-packed slog

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The Three Faces of Terror is a horror anthology film made by special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti. Stivaletti worked with many of the luminaries of Italian horror, including Dario Argento, Sergio Martino and Riccardo Freda; and their influence appears to have rubbed off on him somewhat as while this isn't a great film by any stretch of the imagination; it's an interesting one that harks back to some of the classics of Italian horror; most notably Mario Bava's masterpiece Black Sabbath, of which the title is a direct reference. The first story also takes influence from the Bava film as a major plot point involves someone taking a ring from the finger of a dead person. While on a dig, a man takes a ring from the finger of a mummy and subsequently finds himself dealing with a curse - that being that he turns into a werewolf! The story is not as interesting as it could have been (certainly a recurring theme in this film) and that's a shame. He finally does turn into a werewolf at the end and as you would expect given the director's primary vocation, it features a good change sequence and the werewolf costumes isn't all that bad either.The second story is probably the most inventive of the three and focuses on the subject of plastic surgery. A woman goes to see a surgeon with her friend; and requests that she has her face altered to look just like said friend. The doctor and the friend subsequently disappear; leaving the girl on a strange odyssey through the surgery. While inventive in theme, this theme is not particularly thick on the story side and that leaves it rather lacking as it doesn't really go anywhere. The final story was my favourite and is entitled 'Guardian of the Lake'. This simply focuses on a bunch of friends that go for a relaxing weekend at a lake and end up becoming dinner for a monster that happens to live in the lake. This film has some originality with regards to the wraparound story as each of the stories ends; before we get the final conclusion of each story once the third story has - apparently - finished. This doesn't particularly add anything to the film; but I don't think I've seen this in an anthology before. The conclusion to the wraparound is decent also - although anyone who has seen the British classic Tales from the Crypt won't be very surprised.

Three strangers awaken in a train car and find the mysterious Prof. Price (John Phillip Law) there with a hypnosis device that allows the user to see a story about themselves. First story - a grave robber steals a ring off a corpse and his fence (Law again) discovers the mysterious secret/curse behind it. Second story - an actress (working on DEMONS 7, no less) takes her friend to visit a plastic surgeon (Law one more time) but finds her friend has an odd request. Third story - three friends head to a lake but don't heed the warning of a stranger (Law one last time) who tells them to split before sundown.This is an incredibly lame Italian horror anthology from FX-man-turned- director Sergio Stivaletti. First off, you will probably figure this thing out in three minutes (or by just reading the plot synopsis above). Stivaletti, who also wrote it, does himself no favors when, in the first 5 minutes, Prof. Price announces his device tells you a story about your PAST! Gee, I wonder if these folks are really, gasp, dead? Doubly non- shocking for anyone who has ever seen an Amicus anthology.It would be slightly entertaining if the proceedings weren't so incredibly lame. The entire film is shot-on-video and looks like one of those low budget Ivan Zuccon flicks. How far the Italian horror industry has fallen! Stivaletti does succeed in some good FX (he better!) and Law, who sounds more and more like Roger Corman, gives a decent performance. The only thing I found truly enjoyable here was the obligatory bad English dubbing. My favorite exchange:Girl: "What about a sandwich?" Boy 1: "Yeah, sounds great. You made it, didn't you? With your own hands." Boy 2: "Okay, I'll take one too."The only thing funnier than that is Stivaletti's final shot with his depiction of what God looks like as he hovers above earth.

I Tre Volti del Terrore starts as hypnotist Professor Peter Price (John Phillip Law) sits down in a train carriage, he introduces himself to the other three passengers sat there, after the other three become interested in the Professor's work he decides to give them a demonstration in which he will use the power of hypnotism to reveal past events...First up is Marco (Riccardo Serventi Longhi) who becomes the star of a story called 'The Ring of the Moon' involving tomb robbing & an ancient silver ring that has the power to turn it's wearer into a Werewolf...Next up it's Sandra (Ambre Even) featuring in a story called 'A Perfect Face' in which she & her best friend Barbara (Elisabetta Rocchetti) visit renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Fisher who decides to take Barbara's request rather to literally...Finally Carlo (Emiliano Reggente) gets the hypnotism treatment & finds himself in a story called 'The Lake Keeper' where he & two friends decide to stay the night at a lake but discover unspeakable horrors lurking within the depths...This Italian production is widely known to English speaking audiences as The Three Faces of Terror & was co-written, produced & directed by Sergio Stivaletti who also makes a brief cameo appearance. The Italian film industry was well known for it's cheap gore laden horror films of the 70's & early 80's but it's output has dried up over the last couple of decades apart from the odd Dario Argento flick although occasionally we get the odd dismal offering such as I Tre Volti del Terrore. The horror anthology was one particular sub-genre that the Italians never really exploited, it was British studios such as Amicus with excellent films like The House that Dripped Blood (1971), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), From Beyond the Grave (1973) & The Vault of Horror (1973) that specialised in this type of thing & I Tre Volti del Terrore ends up looking pretty poor by comparison. In my opinion these anthology stories need to quick, fast paced horror material with a nice dark twist ending & that's ultimately where I Tre Volti del Terrore fails & lets the audience down. The three stories are generally quite poor, they make little sense (how did that Werewolf hunter guy know where the Werewolf would be at the end? What was that plastic surgeon keeping people frozen for? What reason did he have to do what he did? How could a six foot man & a fifty foot tall sea monster be brother's?) & to top it off the wraparound story set on a train is a direct rip-off of the Amicus horror anthology Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) & features exactly the same twist before a bizarre ending in which we see a young boy in pyjama's sitting at a desk floating in outer space orbiting the Earth drawing pictures! I kid you not, try to work that one out because I sure as hell can't. I usually like horror anthologies but this is just poor with three really weak stories that make no sense although the way each story cuts off just before the end & then the endings are finally shown one after the other at the end is quite novel but I am not sure most will make it that far.Director Stivaletti includes a clip of his directorial debut Wax Mask (1997). Although clearly shot on video at least there's none of that hand-held shaky camcorder look or feel about it which is good & it's reasonably well made. Although short on actual gore there are one or two decent special effects scenes like a fairly impressive Werewolf transformation, someone's face being removed, there's a severed arm & a fun stop-motion animated sea monster. Amazingly this apparently got a theatrical release in Italy. The English dubbing is poor & the awkward broken English dialogue just sounds daft, distinguished late actor John Phillip Law is the only member of the cast I recognised & he deserves better than this.I Tre Volti del Terrore is a poor attempt a British styled horror anthology film by those Italians, they should stick to the zombies & cannibals. Not recommended & let down in particular by three weak stories.

I can't believe this movie has a decent rating and won some visual effects award. I mean, the werewolf effects were terrible. Hell, the lake monster effect is cheesy as hell. Jason and the Argonauts had better graphics than the travesty of the lake monster. For a minute, I thought I was playing the God of War II on PS2 except that monsters in GOW had way better graphics.You have got to see the acting to believe it. Everyone did their darndest impression of cardboard figures. You know in some porn movies, the stars look stiff and talk as if there are something in their mouth? Yeah, something like that. Seriously, you can't wait for all of them to be killed off. The story lines are all cookie-cutters. Nothing you haven't seen before. The whole movie is just one long extended episode of the twilight zone or outer limits. Big deal. I would given this movie a 1 but given that it is obviously low budget and the lead actress is incredibly hot, I will concede and give it a two.