Hello Friends!
I have been trying for a few years to find the film that terrified my sister when we were kids, but with no success. It was shown on Sammy Terry's show, our local late night horror host here in Indianapolis, and we had snuck downstairs to watch it. It was well past our bedtime, and we were never allowed to watch anything that awesome, so this was a covert operation.
It was the opening scene of the film (or very near the beginning) and the setting was a very creepy, very dark Victorian mansion (or a castle?) on a stormy night (Classic!) People are gathered around the curtained bed of an old woman who had recently died, and when they pull back the bed curtains for the reveal, she is in full rigor mortis, eyes staring directly into the camera with a rictus grin.
My sister shrieked and bolted upstairs, we got in trouble, and that was it for Sammy Terry for a while. I was able to torment her with that face for a long time afterwards though, which felt like appropriate payback for ruining a good time!
That was decades ago, but I'd love to find the film to see if it's as terrifying now as it was then, and because (obviously!) I need to retraumatize my sister.
Thank you so much for your help!
Julie
Thanks Julie!
I hope we can find this and I hope I did not confuse the issue by using images from Bava's BLACK SABBATH ('63)! I know it does not fit your description but it was the first thing I thought of when you mentioned a horrifying dead woman in bed!
Unk, we may not get this one, but the pics you come up with crack me up.
Hey Unk! Thank you so much for sharing! Honestly . . . maybe??? I thought the title was Black something . . . I thought it might have been Black Sunday, but MAYBE Black Sabbath was it?? This trauma was 40+ years ago, so my memory of it might not be accurate! Those pix are GREAT though! I may have to send them to my sister anyway, to see if she freaks out, just for funsies, and keep an eye on the comments! Love this site!
I just spoke to my sister! The plot was (apparently) that a woman had stolen the dead woman's ring, so the dead woman haunted her and had that rictus face and big eyes. I had forgotten the actual plot of the film . . . maybe this helps!
If you had a better boyfriend, Julie, he would have figured this out. Unfortunately, you're stuck with me. I'm going to blame the B&W part of the description.
Julie,
Strangely enough, I think BLACK SABBATH is it!
Your sister remembering the ring seals it!
It's from one segment of the anthology called “The Drop of Water 
"In 1910s London, Nurse Helen Chester is called by the maid of an elderly medium to prepare the latter's corpse for burial. As she dresses the body, she notices a sapphire ring on its finger. Chester steals it, accidentally tipping over a glass of water which drips on the floor; she is then assailed by a fly. Chester takes the ring home to her flat and witnesses strange events. 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. Chester finds the woman's corpse lying in her bed. It rises and floats toward her. Chester begs for forgiveness, but ultimately strangles herself. The next morning, the concierge discovers Chester's body and calls the police. The pathologist arrives to examine the body and only finds a small bruise on her left finger where her ring once was. As the doctor announces this observation, the concierge appears distressed and hears the dripping of waterâ€.
Don't worry about getting some of the details wrong, that happens a lot around here! Memory is a funny thing. Also I do believe that Black Sabbath was released as Black Sunday as well. There's a couple different edits of the film and sometimes the segments are in different order.
Wow! I really had no idea the images might be correct but it is a very memorable corpse for sure! Who can forget that face?
Boy, you had me at "Sammy Terry"!
Being a Louisville native (whose horror host was the unforgettable "Fearmonger" of "Fright Night," the stuff of nightmares), I know the college town of Bloomington IN loved their Sammy, and he was a well-known local TV personality before that and I am sure a great guy, but in that guise it seemed like he took the disturbed role much too seriously, and something about that character and how he played it read John Wayne Gacy all over it, to the point that I don't think I would have let my kids walk down his street. I don't know what seemed so creepy and completely unnerving and too real about him to me…
So I watched Black Sabbath last night on YouTube and that is DEFINITELY it! Thank you! I realized that I remembered it in black and white, because my sister and I were watching it on a little black and white TV. (We're that old, and I had totally forgotten that black and white tv's were a thing) She remembers us huddled really close to the set, adjusting the rabbit ear antenna with foil on it to get the picture to come in. She remembered the plot, with the theft of the ring, which I had completely forgotten until she mentioned it. We never got past that first story in the anthology, because the ghost attacking the nurse at the end was what got her. And honestly? It still holds up! They build some genuine tension, and it's atmospheric and still delivers the creepy. Also? This is my new Facebook Cover!