A Bay of Blood - 1971
aka
Reazione a catena - 1971
Terror Flows Deep
Director
Mario Bava
Writers
Franco Barberi
Mario Bava
Filippo Ottoni
Dardano Sacchetti
Giuseppe Zaccariello
Producer
Giuseppe Zaccariello
Cast
Claudine Auger - Renata
Luigi Pistilli - Albert
Claudio Camaso - Simon (as Claudio Volonté)
Anna Maria Rosati - Laura
Cristea Avram - Frank Ventura (as Chris Avram)
Leopoldo Trieste - Paolo Fossati
Laura Betti - Anna Fossati
Brigitte Skay - Brunhilda
Isa Miranda - Countess Federica Donati
Paola Montenero - Denise (as Paola Rubens)
Guido Boccaccini - Duke
Roberto Bonanni - Robert
Giovanni Nuvoletti - Count Filippo Donati
Renato Cestiè - Renata and Albert's Son
Nicoletta Elmi - Renata and Albert's Daughter
Review by Sven Soetemans
Master Bava's most gruesome work! A blood-soaked and finger-licking black comedy.,
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 seventies film 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.
Bay of Blood (1971)
Review by
13 murders--little else,
DVD/Video title: Bay of Blood. This was a tough call, but I only gave this a 5. I love horror movies and I love explicit gore but... The film is well-directed by Mario Bava and has a beautiful score. Also the murders are suspenseful and (occasionally) very gory. But there's a boring plot and LOTS of padding (a girl goes skinny-dipping for no reason; lots of shots of people walking down paths, through houses, through rooms, etc etc etc.) which adds nothing to the film. Basically it just bides the time between murders. Also the dubbing is atrocious and the acting ranges from OK to unbelievably bad. I need a plot or some good acting to go with the gore--this doesn't have either. Also Bava once referred to this film as "a piece of s***". What does that tell you? Still, it's historically important as the first slasher/body count film. But what a let-down!
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