BLOOD WORK: HALLOWEEN HORROR DAYS ~ DAY 14: A BAY OF BLOOD (1971)

The Slasher sub-genre is the evolution of horror cinema. Horror movies originally were considered to be just the Monster Movies. Thrillers were the films that involved people killing other people and weren't considered horror films. Eventually the two genres would merge in the 1960's creating a new kind of horror film. Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO and John Moxey's CITY OF THE DEAD (both 1960) pushed the boundaries of both horror and thriller films into new territory, displaying how both types of films could go further and together possess natural synergy.

Mario Bava, the great Italian film director, pushed the horror genre further yet when he forged the Giallo film. Giallo is the term ascribed to Italian thriller/mystery films and Mario Bava's 1963 film, THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH a.k.a. EVIL EYE, is considered the first true giallo film. Another film of his that would continue pushing horror films toward what would eventually be known as Slasher films was 1964's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. Blood and Black Lace features a masked killer stalking women.

Through the 1960's Splatter movies came into prominence. Gore hadn't yet become a regular feature of horror films but as the sixties forged ahead with more gore effects, these effects became more and more common. In 1971 director Mario Bava bought the splatter film and giallo film together in a big way with his film A BAY OF BLOOD a.k.a. TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE (a supremely awesome alternate title!).

A Bay of Blood is an unpredictable, insane, and bloody "Whodunit" horror gem and blueprint for the FRIDAY THE 13TH series and what would become the Slasher film sub-genre.

THE PLOT

A real estate agent longs to develop a picturesque bay area into a tourist attraction. But Countess Frederica Donati is refusing to sell. When the countess "commits" suicide her heirs descend upon the bay like vultures in search of her last will and testament. Who stands to inherit the bay will inherit a potential fortune. As more and more family members gather, one by one they begin disappearing, their bodies turning up later mauled and mutilated. Someone at the bay is killing people, but who among them is the killer?

WHAT I LIKED

A Gore Spectacular. One of the main reasons, if not the chief reason, for watching this film is the amazing gore effects. The film opens with one helluva double murder sequence, specifically a hanging followed by a multiple stabbing. Then there's a throat slash, an epic machete to the head death, a double spear impalement, decapitation, strangulation, and more. All of this inside of 90 minutes. And none of the deaths are cut-away shots meaning you get to see it all! The machete to head murder and double impalement are especially remarkable, rendered with top notch gore effects. And the character of Simon has a particularly harrowing death as well.

I also have to particularly point out the reveal of Count Donati's body as one of the most striking images I've ever seen. It's setup earlier that the bay is a prime fishing spot for octopi. Later one of the characters notices something moving under a tarp in the octopi fisherman's boat. The tarp is pulled back to reveal Count Donati's rotting corpse, an octopus writhing upon his pale lifeless face. Its tentacles and slime coated membrane slither and slide all over Donati's dead flesh. The image is some of the most bizarre and macabre sights I've ever seen and something rarely seen in general ('hint hint' we need a truly great and gory octopus horror movie).

One Insane Plot. Just try and guess who the killer is or what the outcome will be and I bet you'll still be surprised. To put it plainly, this story is all over the place, but not in a bad way. It flies from one point of view to another, displaying a large cast who you can't exactly determine who the main character is. It begins as an Agatha Christie murder mystery but quickly devolves into something far more graphic and gruesome. This movie really digs deep into the darkness of humanity. Then as the film moves towards its climax and characters begin revealing their hands, we see intermittent flashbacks showcasing character motivations. Its a clever non-linear storytelling tactic that works well and isn't lazy villain monologing for a change.

NITPICKS

Have you ever watched a horror movie and thought, "did the composer know he was scoring a horror movie?" Cause it doesn't sound like it. I really couldn't get a grasp on the film score. It has tribal drumming as if it were a jungle picture. Then there's riffs that sound like a jazzy Lalo Schifrin score from the 60's. Then there's the romantic and sympathetic themes of an emotional coming of age story. To put it plainly, the score is all over the place but not in a good way like the plot. Some of the music is quite good but others pieces just seem out of place. There is a novelty in the sheer oddity of the score, and it may work for other audiences, but it didn't work for me. Sadly this sort of odd scoring is common among Italian films I've found, and not just Spaghetti Horror either, westerns too.

There's also a number of characters in this film who have little bearing on the plot and seem present only to pad the body count. It's sheer gratuity. Some of these characters I'm fine with, like the four twenty-somethings who have nothing to do here but strip naked and die (in some of the best ways I might add). The two that really bore me though are the Tarot Card playing medium and her bug collecting husband. To me their scenes really bog down the movie and kill the momentum. Aside from a wicked decapitation and an awesome edit/cut to a clay statue shattering, I could do without these two.

A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON FRIDAY THE 13TH

If you're familiar the Friday The 13th series then you'll notice a large number of similarities between those films and Bava's A Bay of Blood. It's not a secret that A Bay of Blood was an extremely influential horror film across the spectrum, but its influence on Friday The 13th is uncanny. First off, the setting: a number of lakeside properties and its beleaguered residents, all on February 13th. Then there's Bava's use of the camerawork (Bava was the cinematographer on this film), his filming of the killer from low body shots, POV's, and obscured by foliage is a dead ringer for the photographic styles of the early Friday The 13th films. In fact, if you looked at Bava's shots in this film and pretended the killer was Jason or Mrs. Voorhees, its eerily similar.

There's the stock nubile sex crazed skinny-dipping youths and requisite nudity (a staple of the Friday series). And finally, the kills. There are two kills in particular which are nigh identical to Friday kills. I mentioned them already because they're among the best in the film: the machete to the head that splits the skull and the double impalement of a couple in bed. Sound familiar? Steve Miner recreated these kills almost verbatim in Friday The 13th Part II. And there are more parallels you could draw between the two without stretching too far. It goes without saying that without A Bay of Blood we might not have the Friday The 13th series (or the Friday The 13th movies may have looked very different at the least). It kind of renders the dispute of "who did it first" between Friday The 13th and THE BURNING (1981) moot.

THE VERDICT

Mario Bava's splatter epic, A Bay of Blood, set the standard for what would become the Slasher sub-genre of Horror. It plays like an Agatha Christie "Whodunit" but not. It plays like an 80's slasher film but not. You think you know what you're watching when the movie starts but it soon veers into an insane narrative territory that keeps surprising you up to the very end. Then there's the slew of spectacular kills and eye-popping gore effects. If you're a fan of the Friday The 13th series you have to see this movie as it acts as a play by play blueprint for Sean Cunningham and Steve Miner. A Bay of Blood is a Mario Bava masterpiece and horror film essential.

Overall Ranking: 9 out of 10

Nude-O-Meter: 4 out of 10