A Bay of Blood

An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out massacre. From legendary director Mario Bava (who doubles as cinematographer) and legendary horror screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti comes a film that essentially everyone (including Sacchetti himself) accepts as the original slasher film (now fondly referred to as the grandfather of the modern slasher film), and being a precursor to "Friday the 13th". Some people have given "Black Christmas" credit for being the start of it all, and it does have more of the modern look, but "Bay" has so many stylistic flourishes and plot similarities that it has to be given credit. I also believe "Blood and Lace" is under-appreciated in this regard, though I suppose "Bay of Blood" is the more influential. Aside from the obvious concept of kids going into the woods and dying, we have some of the classic slasher themes: camera from the killer's point of view behind a tree, the double impalement of a couple making love. Bava was way ahead of the curve with this film, despite claims from Luca Palmerini that it is "predictable" or Jim Harper's calling it "blackly humorous". (Harper also points out the "flimsy story", but seems to be a fan of the film overall and recognizes its importance.) As usual, the biggest critic is Howard Maxford (who never ceases to amaze me how he got a gig as a horror critic when he seems to hate them all). He tries to be complimentary by saying the film has "occasional pretensions to style", but has the overall opinion that Bava's work is "hard to sit through". Sure, it was not the most exciting film in the world, but if Maxford cannot relax for less than 90 minutes, he should not be a film reviewer. I think the opening with the old woman in the wheelchair being hung had plenty of style and called to mind the later works of Argento (by which I mean the middle of his career, the late 1970s). Argento was allegedly such a fan of this film that he stole a copy from a theater. That would not surprise me. While the film as a whole has bland moments and your basic murder shots, this scene seals it for me as making the film more worthy of respect... Bava's influence on others is obvious (the entire Italian horror subgenre more or less owes its existence to his films), but I think the finer points are often overlooked. Do not overlook this film.

Eat your heart out, Jason Vorhees! Mario Bava's wicked slasher fantasies predate your Friday the 13th escapades by almost a decade. And 'the Bay' is a much more efficient location than your pathetic Crystal Lake, I may add. Mario Bava is my favorite director of all time for multiple reasons. The most important one is that he's such a diverse storyteller. He brought us tense, atmospheric horror (Black Sunday) as well as colorful kitsch (Danger: Diabolik). This Bay of Blood is something completely different yet again. Twitch of the Death Nerve (another a.k.a of this film) is a blood-soaked satire, portraying 13 of the most stylish massacres ever shot on tape. The local countess of the bay-community is brutally slain by her husband. Then he himself is butchered by a mysterious third person. What follows is an irresistible search for the killer in which greed and ruthlessness overrule the more normal human emotions. Okay, the plot may not be very solid (which is an often heard reproach regarding Bava's work) but as a social satire, Bay of Blood is very effective. 'Everyone's a killer when money and power are involved', Bava seems to shout out. The humor is oppressed, but it's definitely present throughout the whole film…if you don't see that, I pity you because the film's power depends on it. And then there's the gore! Needless to say this movie is light-years ahead of its time when it comes to showing explicit violence and detailed gore. The killer's hatchet plants itself in victim's heads and throats vulgarly while the camera seems to zoom in on the corpses endlessly. And then STILL this is an utterly stylish horror film. Only Bava can shoot filth on tape and make it look like art! The cast isn't very memorable, but who cares?? They die anyway so you don't need to pick favorites! Only main actress Claudine Auger impressed me, but I think that had more to do with her beautiful appearance. See Bay of Blood for the gore! See Bay of Blood for its importance as it was one of the most influential films in the genre! See Bay of Blood, period. I hate to sound pretentious but…if you don't like this film, you haven't got the slightest idea what the horror industry is all about. That statement goes for Bava's entire repertoire, by the way.

Despite a uniquely violent edge, "Twitch of the Death Nerve" is just another hour and a half of Mario Bava showing off his wild camera movements, establishing a cast of red herrings, and indulging talky exposition. You'll be gasping one second and yawning the next. Watch "Deep Red" instead. 2 stars out of 5.

This is one of Bava's few films where everything works. It does exactly what it sets out to do. The minimalistic script makes no attempt at either character motivation or logic, but serves merely as an engine for the 13 bloody murders. Here the main pleasure, as in all subsequent body count movies, is in seeing in which new and inventive manner the next murder will be committed, but as usual, it is Bava's visual style which sets this film above Friday 13th and all it's imitators, as well as a knowing sense of humour and a pounding jazzy soundtrack. Here Bava's style is refined and reduced ad absurdam, with intermittent atmospheric interludes making use of the natural features of the landscape, from slow pans across the horizon, focus pulls through the foliage, and rapid zooms in and out of each bloody murder. It is true that the script loses its footing in the final quarter, unable to maintain the intensity throughout, but that fact notwithstanding, this is one of the finest films of its genre.

I must be missing something here because I found it rather dull, it's obviously held in high regard by the horror crowd because it's a benchmark of sorts, and certainly this is where Friday the 13th (1980) got it's idea from, but to me it just came across as an uncohesive mess. The acting obviously isn't of a great standard, but that is what the viewer expects for this particular strand of the genre, but they seem to be confused about how to play out their respective roles. The grizzly deaths are handled efficiently by director Mario Bava and they keep the film from drifting into unwatchable territory, and in fairness the ending does have a nice cheeky slant it, but all in all it's not one to reckie to others with confidence, or for me to ever rewatch again, 5/10

Many films on the Video Nasty list are horror cinema's answer to well-respected classics; The Last House on the Left offers a new spin on Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, Island of Death is a more brutal telling of the story of Bonnie and Clyde and, indeed, this Mario Bava film owes its plot to the French classic, La Ronde. Bay of Blood is often noted as being an obvious inspiration on the Friday the 13th series, and when taking things such as the setting and a certain murder sequence into account, that is certainly true; but let's not forget that this is also a fantastic movie in its own right. The film starts off with a glorious sequence that opens inside a beautiful manor house. We watch as a wheelchair-bound baroness is brutally strangled, only for the rug to be torn from under us moments later when her assailant is the next one to bite the bullet! It has to be said that the film never tops its opening sequence, but Mario Bava's gore-fest manages to remain fascinating all the way through, as it turns out that the first murder scene sets off a violent chain of events that results in a very high body count. This film would be properly categorised as a slasher, but its Italian roots ensure that it's often labelled a Giallo, and indeed Mario Bava does include Giallo elements; from black gloved killers and an array of odd characters, all the way to an amazingly convoluted plot. Indeed, the storyline here gets so complicated at times that it's liable to give the viewer an extreme headache, but Bava is always on hand with another glorious murder scene, and as the film features thirteen deaths in it's eighty one minute running time - there's certainly no lack of the red stuff. Bava ensures that the murders are suitably varied, and we get treated from an array of methods of dispatch, including axes, a spear through a lovemaking couple and an excellent scene that sees someone skewered to a wall. Mario Bava's eye for detail doesn't wane with this film, as despite being a grisly slasher; there's still more than enough time for beautiful scene setting. The bay itself looks great and excellently lends itself as a location for savagery, while the decors of the character's homes are elaborately Gothic. With the pitch-black ending, the director shows us that the film isn't meant to be taken seriously, and overall, Bay of Blood is both influential and a great time - and therefore shouldn't be missed by horror fans.

source: A Bay of Blood

Trailer—Ecologia del delitto

Ecologia del delitto

Despite a uniquely violent edge, "Twitch of the Death Nerve" is just another hour and a half of Mario Bava showing off his wild camera movements, establishing a cast of red herrings, and indulging talky exposition. You'll be gasping one second and yawning the next. Watch "Deep Red" instead. 2 stars out of 5.