Writer(s): Bava, Filippo Ottoni, and Giuseppe Zaccariello, from a story by Franco Barberi and Dardano Sacchetti
Starring: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Camaso, and Anna Maria Rosati
Why is this movie better known as Bay of Blood, and not Twitch of the Death Nerve, one of its many alternate titles, and one of the best horror movie names in cinema history? Image Entertainment's 2001 DVD version is the only major release to use that title, but the DVD itself, which is long out-of-print, was maligned for its terrible sound quality (an issue that continues to be a problem, though subsequent releases have gradually improved upon it.)
The lackluster Bay of Blood moniker insists it's nothing more than a tired slasher cliché, a notion that couldn't be further from the truth, if only for two specific reasons: 1.) it's the film that arguably laid the groundwork for the American slasher film, and 2.) it's better than almost all of them that would follow. While the 45 years since its release has eroded away some of the effectiveness of Bay of Blood's gore effects, the focus on its story (as thin as it is), along with director Mario Bava's fiendishly inventive cinematography and unforecasted death scenes, still makes this riveting, required viewing, even today.
The plot is threadbare, but somehow more advanced than most films of its ilk: Countess Federica is an old, wheelchair-bound woman, who owns a large amount of valuable bayfront property. As the film opens, she is sullenly wheeling through her bedroom, stopping only to stare sorrowfully out her rainy window, before she is confronted by an unseen killer, who wraps a rope around her neck, and kicks her wheelchair out from under her, leaving her to asphyxiate under her own weight. The camera pans up, revealing the killer, an older mustachioed man who takes off his gloves, and leaves a suicide note explaining that she can't take it any more. He is about to move the corpse, when he himself is dispatched, stabbed several times by a different unseen killer.
With this one scene, we can tell we are watching a master of his craft once again reinventing the wheel: Director Mario Bava is said to have “invented” the Italian giallo, with films like The Evil Eye (aka The Girl Who Knew Too Much) and Blood and Black Lace. With Bay of Blood, he not only created the American slasher, but has somehow managed to avoid the future cliches that would plague the slasher, while simultaneously leaving enough of them intact to leave DNA evidence all over the subgenre. We have nude women skinny-dipping, and having sex before getting killed; there's a random car full of partying young adults that merely show up with the sole purpose of adding to the body count; there are graphic, violent deaths that would later become a staple of horror cinema; all of the common things we have come to expect from watching horror franchises like Friday the 13th, and the Halloween series, is here in full force (Friday the 13th Part II even went so far as to directly lift two deaths from this film).
But it's not necessarily what's here, but what's missing that makes Bay of Blood such a fascinating 84 minutes: the deaths are rarely foreshadowed with tacky soundtrack cues, meaning they are often sudden, and shocking; Bava foregoes the typical atmosphere by having a majority of the action take place during the day; and there isn't a single masked killer, but rather a series of killers, all trying to off the competition to become rightful heir to “the bay”. There's even a baffling “twist” ending that manages to be both moronic, and fitting, paving the way for a startlingly upbeat final theme song.
Speaking of themes, the soundtrack was composed by prolific Italian composer Stelvio Cipriani who hits on some fantastic themes here, while avoiding the cliches of most similar releases: The cue leading to the opening murder is jarringly beautiful, foreshadowing none of the dark events to come; likewise, some of the violent aftermaths of the murders feature orchestral sections that work in direct contrast to the violence, making them more haunting than they should be. There is, of course, the camp typical of Italian horror soundtracks (there always seems to be at least one cheesy track in all of them), but none of them feel out of place; at its best, it's an outstanding score, while in lesser moments, it's merely a good one.
Following the intro, we meet the bizarre residents living in “the bay”, who all either stand to gain or lose something from the sudden death of the Countess: There's Simon, a man who lives off the creatures he catches in the bay, and who may be hiding a family secret; Frank Venture, a real estate agent who notices the demand such property could fetch; his secretary/lover Laura, who feels abandoned by his sudden leaving for the bay; Paolo, an entomologist who spends his days catching bugs and torturing them in the name of science; and his wife, Anna, who puts too much of her stock in Tarot cards and mysticism. Rounding out the cast of would-be killers is Renata, the estranged daughter of the mustachioed man killed in the opening scene, and her husband, Albert; the two of them arrive later to claim the bay for themselves, where they find—like everyone else—that it won't be that easy.
Then there are the four teenagers who show up and make everything even more difficult. They break into Ventura's empty cottage to steal liquor and party, but soon find out that they are victims of circumstance, when they are killed simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. These deaths, which occur in rapid fashion, are probably the most memorable kills contained herein; a couple also stand as being some of my favorite deaths in any movie. The buildup is also fantastic, with one of the teenagers running from a killer that only she can see, while tribal drums set up a frantic tension missing from the rest of the film; it proves that, when inspired, there was nothing that Bava couldn't do.
I'm not sure that I would consider Bay of Blood to be even in the top 5 things Bava ever did—it lacks depth and often becomes repetitive--but it's easily one of my favorite slasher movies. I've stated before that I get bored of the same ol' stuff all the time, so the sight of masked killers stalking oversexed teenagers for 90 minutes gets incredibly old. That's partly where the ingenuity of Bay of Blood lies—it kills its teens in under five minutes—somehow making a four-decade old film one of the more interesting subversions on the very subgenre that it helped to create.
RATING: 7.5/10
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