6th Sitting:
Bay of Blood AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve AKA Bloodbath AKA Carnage AKA Chain Reaction AKA about another 25 titles that I can't be bothered to type..., 1971, 81 mins (PAL): Successfully Prosecuted
Kev's blog - Right, when we started this we intended to do one film a week and we are clearly starting to fail this objective, but we promise we will keep this going - we are committed to this ridiculous task and by God we will see it through even though it now means that I can't spend any money on buying what most people would consider to be decent films as I track down this mixed bag of weirdness, watching these things so that, for the most part, you don't have to.... but it just might take a little longer than 72 weeks... it feels like we've already been doing it for half the year and we are still only now sitting down to our 6th film...
So, following a spate of grainy low budget oddities, we thought it was about time we treated ourselves to something with, dare I say it, a bit more class - and we've been allowed up from the basement to Jason's lounge as well, so we almost feel like normal film fans (we're starting to sell out!!!). We are watching the Another World Entertainment's 1.85:1 anamorphic Region 2 DVD of Mario Bava's excellent Bay of Blood, which as you can see has several alternative titles (look it up on IMDB if you really feel the need to trawl through the list of, and I do not exaggerate, 30 AKAs).I am actually not well versed in the films of Bava, but his shadow and influence looms long and dark over horror films of the 70s and 80s. The only film of his that I had seen previously to this one is 'Danger Diabolik', which is non-horror and very beautifully shot, colourful, stylistic and entertaining, as is Bay of Blood.
The basic premise for the movie is that there are a lot of people who live in and around the bay of the title being violently knocked-off by somebody. If you have ever seen Friday 13th (part 2 in particular) you will recognise both the type of setting and at least a couple of the methods that, we can politely say, were a major influence on those films. In general this film is widely accepted as the Grandaddy of the modern slasher movie and, particularly compared to some of the other films on the DPP list, although still shot on a very low budget it looks like it's been made by, gasp, a proper director with an artistic and ambitious drive!!! Shots are put together so that they actually look like someone cared about them, using colour placement to great effect, whether it's the red furniture dressing the set of the first death, or the fantastic yellow dune buggy driving under trees with yellow blossom, stopping to let out one of the teenage girls who accidently (yeah, right) 'flashes' her yellow knickers from under her mini-skirt as she climbs out of the vehicle (am I reading too much into this...?). Although made in 1971 it still has quite a '60s feeling about its look and tone, colours are vibrant and shots artistically composed, but the violence is actually pretty nasty when it occurs and definitely effective (my favourite is the bill-hook in the face - ouch!!!) In the first few films we haven't really worried about our inclusion of spoilers in our write-ups, particularly as we see ourselves as sort of 'taking one for the team' as we watch these titles, but some of the films do deserve a bit more respect and a recommendation that you should check them out for yourself and this is one of those cases. There's a touch of Hitchcock about Bava's little yarn and it keeps the whos and whys of the killings neatly tucked away until the reveal near the end of the film. Also like Hitch', there is an undercurrent of black humour about the piece and the couple of more over the top characters are knowingly so and don't distract you too much from the film.
Although an Italian production, Bava shot the film with the actors speaking English dialogue which was then overdubbed by voice actors, there is an Italian language version but don't feel obliged to track it down for the sake of any kind of 'world cinema' authenticity. One of the elements of the film that does mark it down as Italian cinema is a great soundtrack - excellent music and score from Stelvio Cipriani, with sparingly used fuzztone guitar stabbing in just when it counts, lovely!!!
So basically, if you're into your gore and slashers and want to see one of the key moments in the development of the genre, treat yourself and track a copy of this down - but make sure you get one with a decent print, there has recently been a UK uncut version released on Arrow, but a quick read down some of the reviews on the Amazon UK website indicates that the DVD authoring maybe hasn't provided the depth and vibrancy of colour that Bava films seem to demand.
There we go then, we've had something that although an official 'nasty', has been a great and enjoyable viewing experience with more than a few moments of visual beauty and artistic endeavour, I can't quite believe it and I have a horrible feeling our next one won't be in quite the same realm...
6 down, 66 to go.....
\Jay's Blog - Kev’s write up above pretty much covers it. As he said we both felt the need to watch something that had a little more ‘class’ to it this time round. When going through the infamous 72, ones definition of classy can be skewed to quite a considerable extent. Would I watch Bay of Blood after watching say…Das Boot and think it was a masterpiece of pace, colour palette and overall narrative? Well no…I wouldn’t. However watching it after Zombie Creeping Flesh or Mardi Gras Massacre or even Last House on the Left it takes on a level of almost Scorsesean proportions. If you’re like me you may well wonder what all the fuss was about….couldn’t see a great deal of offensive or gory scenes in it. Maybe I’m just hardened to it now since we can see much worse on TV….maybe there has been a moral decline in this Country that started with these 72…MAYBE ‘THEY’ WERE RIGHT TO BAN THESE….MAYBE WE SHOULD BAN EVERYTHING AGAIN….MAYBE BLANKET CENSORSHIP IS A GOOD THING!!!!....or maybe not. Anyway there is a lot to like about Bay of Blood, there is a definite use of key colour palettes in particular scenes (yellow and red spring to mind) and the performances on the whole are good. The storyline is surprisingly easy to follow for an seventies Italian ‘horror’ movie and fairly ambitious for a slasher (perhaps because it was one of the first). The main difference between this film and later efforts that imitated many of Bay of Blood’s ideas, is the motives that individuals have for murder. Some characters could murder for money (what’s left in the will etc), some to save the natural beauty of the bay and some because they’re just weird. The surprising and downbeat ending is also a nice touch that you won’t see coming. Even though I have told you to expect something….you won’t guess.
So next time we’ll be back down in the basement again and it’s time to watch something far from classy…..Nazis anyone?
