Film: A Bay Of Blood
Release date: 20th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 84 mins
Director: Mario Bava
Starring: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Camaso, Anna Maria Rosati, Chris Avram
Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller
Studio: Arrow
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Italy
Mario Bava precedes the American slasher genre with 1971’s A Bay Of Blood (also known as Twitch Of The Death Nerve, Blood Bath and Last House On The Left 2, among others), a violent landmark in Italian cinema. Controversial, with a mixed critical history, it remains one of the most influential horror films of all time, without which Jason Vorhee’s mask would be splatter free, and Michael Myers’ kitchen knife would have remained in the drawer.
An elderly, wheelchair bound countess is brutally murdered. Her killer is swiftly stabbed, and his body disposed of in the titular bay. Shortly after, a flash real estate agent named Frank Ventura (Chris Avram) arrives in the area with his lover Laura (Anna Maria Rosati), with every intention of taking ownership of the sought after bay. All they need to seal the deal is the signature of the countess’ husband, and they almost do, until his rotting corpse is discovered in the bay by skinny-dipping teen Brunhilda (Brigitte Skay).
Her friends are partying in Ventura’s house, when they are picked off, one-by-one by Simon, the countess’ illegitimate son, who has been paid off by the greedy Ventura to secure the bay for their taking. The arrival of another couple of potential benefactors, the countess’ daughter Renata (Claudine Auger) and her husband, Albert (Luigi Pistilli), throws their plan into disarray.
As the body count rises and the allure of the mysterious bay deepens, who will be left to lay claim to the property?
With A Bay Of Blood, Mario Brava has crafted a film which is remarkably before its time. The initial set-up is simple; a group of individuals kill each other off in a race to claim the sought after property of a wealthy old aristocrat, but the execution is such that the audience is kept guessing throughout the entirety of the film’s meagre running time. As the cast pick each other off, it is seldom clear who is killing who, but it is there that the majority of the entertainment lies. The set-up is a simple MacGuffin, and it is entirely irrelevant who is doing all the killing.
It initially appears that each of the brutal murders is a small vignette, crafted with the sole aim of setting up the next kill. The confusing plot is irrelevant - this is cinematic Cluedo without the blind guesses. Any character exposition or expectation of an emotional buy-in from the audience is shattered as the character (or group of characters) that has been set-up as integral to the narrative is swiftly dispatched.
The most startling element of the film is the astounding make-up effects, which rival anything that the torture porn craze of recent years can muster. Characters are hacked, slashed, strangled and impaled, with the machete to the face being a particular achievement. Legendary special effects guru Carlo Lambardi (credited with designing the titular character in E.T., as well as designing the make-up effects in Dario Argento’s Deep Red) has expertly created a series of murder effects (thirteen in all) that both thrill and repulse in equal measure, remaining just on the right side of over-the-top but still entirely believable so that the audience can enjoy the violence without being too repulsed - much in the same way as the equally violent slasher and splatter films of the ‘80s, which were so clearly inspired by A Bay of Blood. This confident approach to the presentation of violence prevents the film from being bogged down by its own slightly convoluted plot.
The characters suffer from either being dispatched too quickly to allow for much exposition, or from being overshadowed by the confusing and complicated plot. Ventura, the suave estate agent is played as equal parts womanizing James Bond and sleazy salesman by Chris Avram, offering a level of comedy to proceedings (whether intentional or otherwise) which lightens the tone - until his true motivations become clear. The group of young people who break into his house for a party are impossible to view as anything other than a tired cliché, until the viewer realises that this film predates anything popularised by Wes Craven or John Carpenter. The scene where the lovers Duke (Guido Boccaccini) and Denise (Paolo Rubens) retire to a bedroom before being interrupted by a large spear impaling them through the bed remains a classic teen-slasher stable, and is often replicated (see Friday The 13th - Part 2).
With A Bay Of Blood, Mario Brava has produced not only his most aggressively violent work, but also his most revered and imitated. Kick-starting the splatter craze of the late-70s and early-80s, this film is bogged down by a slow-paced and convoluted plot, saved in the most part by the astounding special effects and now clichéd but undisputedly entertaining characters. RB
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