La Baie sanglante

A Countess (Isa Miranda) is murdered by her husband who in turn is also murdered. What follows is a series of grisly murders around the former Countess's lake.

Released in Italy with the original Italian title of ECOLOGIA DEL DELITTO and in the US with the colourful title of TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, this classic gruesome Mario Bava giallo thriller set the precedent for a new style of grisly horror films, but would later be recognised as one of the main influences of the slasher genre, most especially the FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH films, despite Sean S. Cunnigham's denials to the contrary.

A personal favourite of Bava's, the film found itself on the so-called video nasty list in the early 1980s, but is a good fun piece of macabre gruesomeness.

Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971)

**** (out of 4)

Mario Bava's landmark film can now be considered one of the very first slashers and of course a major influence on Friday THE 13TH. The film takes place at a lake-side resort where a variety of people are brutally slaughtered by an unknown maniac. Also known as A BAY OF BLOOD and a dozen other titles, this Bava film mixes the giallo with what would become known as the slasher and the end result is certainly something special and ground- breaking. To say the film was a major influence on the genre to come would be an understatement because there's simply so much going on here that other filmmakers would steal from. Obviously there's the graphic violence, which is scattered throughout the film and this is what got the movie its original reputation. The effects are quite ghastly for their time and especially a couple throat slashings, a memorable beheading and of course a sex scene where two victims are offed at the same time (and later stolen in Friday THE 13TH PART 2). The film is also quite sleazy with not only the gore but a fair amount of nudity and sex. This certainly wasn't the first film to use sex and violence but Bava really puts his own spin on it because the movie just feels so dirty. I say that in a good way because the director adds a certain poetry to the death scenes and he also lingers on them for long periods after the victims are stabbed or whatever else their fate is. Instead of cutting to the next scene Bava just keeps the camera on the victims as they take their last few breathes and this here is quite effective and at times ugly. The film is certainly far from flawless as some of the performances aren't all that impressive and the director goes for way too many zoom shots. With that said, there are enough twists in the story for ten movies and it's constantly catching you off guard. No matter what you call the film there's no question about its importance to the genre and it ranks as one of the best in Bava's career.

This film is the first i have watched from the infamous "video nasties" list (these were banned movies, in the 80s, that would result in you being prosecuted for owning them in the uk) .

I choose at random and thankfully this seems to be one of the better films of that ilk! The acting isn't going to win any awards but it is passable and in some cases genuinely good.

Theres some nudity, nothing too extreme. The reason i guess this film was banned was due more to the violence. Its nothing you haven't seen before and even for it's time it is not too over the top. There are some well executed kills, a good job by the special effects team! The camera work is quite good and there are some impressive shots.

The main plot revolves around the passing of an estate to the former owners children, it quickly turns into a whodunit with 90% of the characters being horrible caricatures! This makes for some fun kills and a pace that really ramps up in the 3rd act.

In closing this is an entertaining movie and if your looking for some competent early 70s schlock then id recommend giving this a whirl!

Having been a fan of 80's slasher movies since I was a teenager and embracing Friday the 13th (1980), Halloween (1978) and all the other low budget rip-offs that followed A Bay of Blood is a revelation after finally catching up with it some 50 years after it's initial release.

Mario Bava's controversial and ground breaking classic is often cited as the beginning of the modern slasher with unflinching graphic imagery, violence and blood letting however I hadn't appreciated just how much the Friday the 13th franchise owes to this cult film. Sean S Cunningham was obviously greatly influenced by the Italian filmmaker and even recreates some of Bava's scenes in the first couple of Friday the 13th movies, notably the spear going through a couple making love on the bed, the girl getting undressed and going for a skinny dip in the lake only to be watched and hunted down by the killer, the beheading of a woman and a machete embedded into a victim's face.

Having established himself as a horror filmmaker, firstly with Hammer style Gothic horror movies in the early 1960's then creating the much lauded Italian 'giallo' genre that combined film noir, murder mystery, eroticism and graphic imagery that inspired the likes of Dario Argento, Bava made a further shift in the horror genre with a totally unrestrained, uncompromising and visceral approach to shock audiences with extreme violence, gore and realism that set the template for the American slasher that followed having influenced the likes of John Carpenter, Wes Craven and many others.

The opening murder of a Countess sparks a number of unscrupulous characters, including her daughter played by Bond girl Claudine Auger, to go after her large estate on the bay with a series of brutal killings. People get slashed and slaughtered, including four unsuspecting teenagers (sound familiar), and it's Carlo Rambaldi's impressive makeup effects that help Bava achieve the level of realism not seen before with such brutal killings.

A Bay of Blood is a stylish, intense, visceral, nicely paced and well made film that influenced several generations of filmmakers and although prosecuted by the DPP under the Video Recordings Act of 1984 by people who didn't know what they were talking about, this is nowhere near as amateurish, exploitative or low rent as some of the titles that made it onto the list.

An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out massacre.

From legendary director Mario Bava (who doubles as cinematographer) and legendary horror screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti comes a film that essentially everyone (including Sacchetti himself) accepts as the original slasher film (now fondly referred to as the grandfather of the modern slasher film), and being a precursor to "Friday the 13th".

Some people have given "Black Christmas" credit for being the start of it all, and it does have more of the modern look, but "Bay" has so many stylistic flourishes and plot similarities that it has to be given credit. I also believe "Blood and Lace" is under-appreciated in this regard, though I suppose "Bay of Blood" is the more influential.

Aside from the obvious concept of kids going into the woods and dying, we have some of the classic slasher themes: camera from the killer's point of view behind a tree, the double impalement of a couple making love. Bava was way ahead of the curve with this film, despite claims from Luca Palmerini that it is "predictable" or Jim Harper's calling it "blackly humorous". (Harper also points out the "flimsy story", but seems to be a fan of the film overall and recognizes its importance.)

As usual, the biggest critic is Howard Maxford (who never ceases to amaze me how he got a gig as a horror critic when he seems to hate them all). He tries to be complimentary by saying the film has "occasional pretensions to style", but has the overall opinion that Bava's work is "hard to sit through". Sure, it was not the most exciting film in the world, but if Maxford cannot relax for less than 90 minutes, he should not be a film reviewer.

I think the opening with the old woman in the wheelchair being hung had plenty of style and called to mind the later works of Argento (by which I mean the middle of his career, the late 1970s). Argento was allegedly such a fan of this film that he stole a copy from a theater. That would not surprise me.

While the film as a whole has bland moments and your basic murder shots, this scene seals it for me as making the film more worthy of respect... Bava's influence on others is obvious (the entire Italian horror subgenre more or less owes its existence to his films), but I think the finer points are often overlooked. Do not overlook this film.