I like the style of giallo (Italian for "yellow," a subgenre of horror/thriller films named for the yellow covers that adorned novels of the same ilk.) Giallo movies are just nice to look at. It doesn't matter whether you're looking at the Italian countryside or a bloody murder scene, it'll be beautifully photographed.
European horror in general often has a sophistication to it not present in most American films, even when offering up the requisite nude blondes for sacrifice to the black-gloved killer. Bava (like another of my favorite giallo directors, Dario Argento) pays meticulous attention to set design, lighting and the role of the camera. You just feel like you're getting your money's worth out of the cinematography in a good giallo.
Bay of Blood (known by many other names, including Twitch of the Death Nerve, Carnage and Chain Reaction) was a groundbreaking movie in a lot of ways despite not being a critical success. Bava had already invented the giallo genre, which normally involves the aforementioned stylish camera work and a bloody murder mystery. With Bay of Blood, he helped usher in the modern slasher film. What Hitchcock started in 1960's Psycho, Bava put into overdrive with Bay of Blood.
Blood is a twisty whodunit that opens with the murder of a countess, an act which leads to an ever-increasing pile of more-and-more gruesomely murdered bodies. The gore in the film was (and is) unsettling, and made the ultimate reveal of who was behind the killings even more shocking.
Many of the murder scenes from Bay of Blood would later be imitated (including being outright ripped off in the Friday the 13th franchise) by countless American slasher flicks. And in addition to influencing the amount of blood, Bava also brought us the young-people-up-to-no-good theme along with what is now one of horror's most over-indulged-in cliches, the hot chick going skinny dipping only to discover something horrific or to be killed in a horrific manner - or both.
Bay of Blood as a story is lacking. That's actually an oxymoron - there's too much story. There are too many twists that at best make the plot hard to follow, and the end - meant to shock - left me scratching my head a bit. But if you want to see one of the movies that led to the classic American slashers of the 80s, you should take a trip to Italy's Bay of Blood.
Bay of Blood is available for streaming on Netflix.
3.5 stars.
A note on the trailer: Plenty are available. One has a long ad and another gives too much away. This one is done in monotone colors, and thus doesn't really show the good cinematography, but it sort of camouflages the spoilers and doesn't have ads.
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