A Bay of Blood

Mario Bava is one of the three greatest Italian horror directors who ever lived, with the other two obviously being Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Of the three, Bava had the greatest grasp of how important a strong and coherent narrative was to a film, moreso than Argento, with Fulci's films often found lacking when it comes to the narrative with the visuals making up for plot holes and inconsistencies. Anyway, I digress. Bava was a brilliant director who virtually invented the giallo with The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) and perhaps his greatest film, Blood and Black Lace, which was released the next year, as one of the finest gialli.

Released in Italy in 1971 under the title Reazione a catena and in various locations (and at different times) as Blood Bath, Twitch of the Death Nerve, Carnage, Last House on the Left II and, in the UK, A Bay of Blood (or Bay of Blood), this notorious and bloody shocker virtually invented the slasher film (a subgenre different in many ways from the stalker-slasher films) or the 'body count' type of movie which would follow several years later, making Bava responsible for the giallo and body count film.

Beginning with a scene in which the wheelchair-bound Countess Federica Donati is attacked and strangled to death by her husband who, in turn, is repeatedly stabbed by an intruder leaving a suicide note, written by Count Filippo Donati, for the police to find. Frank, a real estate agent, and Laura, his girlfriend, need Donati to finalise their plans to buy the bay which the Countess' house overlooks but, because Donati's body was dumped in the bay, they have no idea that he was killed and suddenly everyone around the location is on the mystery assailant's hit list.

This isn't just a family matter as a group of four friends, two of them Italian, have gone to the bay for some party time, taking residence in one of the villas, the one with a disco. They are only there for about five minutes when the German in their group, Brunnhilde, decides to cool off from her dancing by taking a swim in the lake and, after being pestered by a corpse, has her throat slit by a mysterious psychopath with a hooked machete/meat cleaver. (It must have a proper name, but I have no idea what it would be; possibly a short 'gaff'?)

The number 13 plays great significance in A Bay of Blood which begins with the Countess's murder on February 13th and a further 12 murders follow, making 13 in total. To publicise the film, Mario Bava said that there were 13 murders and 13 characters and, to an extent, that's true if you don't count the ending which is one of the finest in all film history, not just horror film history. It is hard to overplay what a great film this is with its oppressive atmosphere, numerous red herrings and neat plot which gives you several possible suspects along the way whilst you wonder who will be the next to die.


Mario Bava cast extremely well and everyone gives superb performances, including Italian legend Isa Miranda (who I last saw in La signora di tutti) as the Countess who is only seen the very beginning and in flashback. It must be quite a skill to direct 13 different people, making them appear like potential victims as well as suspected murderers.

I consider A Bay of Blood to be one of the finest horror films ever made and it is also a personal favourite of mine, making it into my Top 50 Horror Movies list due to the great locations, fantastic direction and special make-up effects by the great Carlo Rambaldi, the man behind the effects in Alien, ET: the Extra Terrestrial and Possession, to name but a few. It is a film that is eminently re-watchable and, even when you know who is responsible for the murders, you'll watch it for the suspense, shocks and to see exactly how the plot unravels.


The Disc

Extra Features
The feature length commentary by Tim Lucas, author of Mario Bava: All the Colours of the Dark, is fairly well delivered and very informative -- I expected no less from the man who wrote perhaps the definitive book on Mario Bava's life and films. There are some gaps when he seems content to watch the film but these are necessary for him to get to his next point which is of interest rather than just waffle for the sake of it to fill the dead air.

The Giallo Gems of Dardano Sacchetti (33:09, HD) is an interesting and informative discussion with the legendary screenwriter who worked extensively with all three of the great Italian directors and talks about each one of them and what it was like working with Bava compared to Argento and Fulci. The sound mix is far from great and I couldn't find a suitable setting on my amp as some would be too quiet and others, such as the Pro Logic II setting being very loud and using the rear surrounds as much as the centre channel. Fortunately, the subtitles have been very well written by Nick Frame and are easy to follow so you could almost turn the volume right down and follow proceedings using the subtitles.

Joe Dante Remembers Twitch of the Death Nerve (12:24, HD) is a decent, though not exhaustive interview with the great horror director who recalls the different titles under which it was released along with many other films that were recut, renamed and then rereleased to see if that would pull it any more money than the first time they were released. He doesn't talk exclusively about A Bay of Blood but what he does have to say is quite interesting.


Shooting a Spaghetti Splatter Classic (21:16, HD) is an interview with Gianlorenzo Battaglia who was the assistant cameraman on A Bay of Blood (Mario Bava was the cinematographer) and he speaks well about his work with Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava and even on King Kong (the 1976 version) in a fantastic location which has Battaglia sitting with a full-size Gill Man behind him and to the right! He isn't afraid to name drop, which is always a good thing, and it's amazing the number of people he knows either directly or because of their relatives and friends such as Gian Maria Volanté, the brother of Claudio Volanté who plays Simon in A Bay of Blood. The piece is in Italian but is very well subtitled so you can follow everything that he says.

High Rising Productions have again done themselves proud with the work by Calum Waddell, Naomi Holwill and Nick Frame up to its usual high standard. This differs from previous releases as the featurettes don't have Holwill's animated introductions but instead have a montage of film posters, DVD covers and various artwork. Some people will prefer this whereas others, including me, will miss the rather unique and quirky animated pieces.

Also on the menu is the option to watch the Italian version of the film so you have the Italian credits and this is a fantastic addition to the disc even though the SD picture quality isn't quite up there with the remastered English HD one. I hope this is a sign of things to come from Arrow as there are several of their upcoming titles, particularly Deep Red, which I would love to have one disc with the option of watching with the Italian or English dubbing. It is an interesting watch as some things are cut slightly differently, such as some character interactions.


Watching it with the Italian track makes it seem very different and not at all like the film to which I have come to know and love as there are a couple of scenes with some additional dialogue and the four teenagers who break into a villa near the beginning have different names and say different things, such as when 'Brunnhilde' decides to go for a swim in the sea and one of the other says 'leave her... in her country they eat whale blubber' and Simon becomes Simone.

You also have two trailers (from the Trailers from Hell series, both HD) for A Bay of Blood under the titles Carnage and Twitch of the Death Nerve with an introduction by über fan and director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim Versus the World) which are

Are also two radio spots which, like the trailers, are worth your time and attention.

The set also comes with four different artworks so you can choose the one you like best, a double sided foldout poster, a collector's booklet by Jay Slater, film critic and author of Eaten Alive!. There has been some consternation on the Cult Labs forums about Rick Melton's cover artwork with many people opining that it doesn't fit the film in terms of its content and tone but I think it's very faithful to the Bath of Blood VHS cover and, in any case, there is a memorable scene which has a squid on the late Count Donati's face so I personally don't have a problem with Rick's artwork. Nevertheless, if you don't like it, there are three quality alternatives from around the world and from different periods.


The Picture
As with just about all of his films, this is stylishly directed by Bava who really knows how to play with colour, angles and tension in order to deliver the shocks which formed the template that other directors would follow in the 1980s, most notably Steve Miner in Friday the 13th: Part 2, who openly references A Bay of Blood as two of the murder scenes are exactly the same.

I was slightly disappointed with the contrast levels which make the blacks slightly grey rather than inky but, when I compared this to the R1 DVD (from The Mario Bava Collection: Volume 2), the picture (with a very high AVC level of around, and mostly over, 30Mbps) is a marked improvement with much of the heavy grain, scratches and other detritus having completely gone and the majority of the scenes having brighter colours and much more detail than the upscaled standard definition picture.


The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono soundtrack is an excellent choice for this release as it would have been shown in cinemas with a mono soundtrack when it was originally released and, as this isn't a film that has big action sequences, car chases or explosions, all you really want for the sound mix is to do a great job with the dialogue, score and ambient sounds (if there are any) well.

The sound comes across beautifully clearly, presenting the dialogue extremely well and the marvellous score by Stelvio Cipriani, which goes from piano music to jungle drums, doesn't interfere with the other aspects such as the dialogue and atmospherics. There are fairly long sequences when no one speaks and you just have the sound design and score and this is probably just as effective in mono as with a 5.1 surround track.

There are excellent English subtitles are available should you need them which are very well written and presented.

When it comes to the Italian version, this has a LPCM 2.0 mono track which is less impressive than the DTS-HD Master Audio track on the English version but is still very clear and does a fine job with Cipriani's score. The (optional) English subtitles are clear, error free and (seemingly) faithful to the Italian so you have no problem following this version.


Final Thoughts
A Bay of Blood is the most influential film that Mario Bava ever made and he always considered it his favourite. It is my favourite Bava film even though it isn't his best as it is one that I could watch over and over due to the inventive kills (with great work by Rambaldi), change in tone from his earlier work and the acting, which is much better than usual for an Italian genre film.

The good folk at Arrow Video have surpassed my expectations for this release and I can't wait to get my hands on a proper version with the different covers, booklet and poster.