Editorial Reviews and
DVD Information about
Bay of Blood
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This late entry in Italian horror auteur Mario Bava's catalog is in keeping with much of his other work: a rather murky plot, inventive camera work and editing, gauzy lighting using red and blue gels, and an atmospheric, dreamlike feel throughout. Where it parts ways with many of his films is in the high body count--so high that many feel Bay of Blood was a likely influence on American slasher films such as Friday the l3th. The killing centers on a list of potential heirs to a piece of lakefront property ripe for development (a subplot involves camping teenagers who are also being slaughtered--sound familiar?). The slayings come fast and furious, with gunshots, chokings, stabbings, decapitations, and a two-for-the-price-of-one impalement, to name a few. Bava creates an off-kilter mood of melancholia for the film that makes it somewhat less fun than the mindless slasher flicks of the 1980s, but also renders it a more thought-provoking, cynical sort of movie. --Jerry Renshaw
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Customer Reviews for
Bay of Blood
bloody effects help boring movie
The beautiful colors, camera angles, and bloody effects are what kept me watching this movie. The actors in this have to be some of the most un-charismatic ever! it was fun to see them dispatched before they could say another word and put me to sleep! This is the english version and unfortunately the dubbing is not funny, something that would have helped the entertainment value. Like most european horror this is shocking because of the violence and not scary, with very little suspense(see "let's scare jesica to death" if you want all that). DVD picture is very good, bright and colorful. Audio is in english only and very low. special features trailers of other Bava titles.Bay of Blood
Bloody, but one of Bava's best
This movie is very violent - one of the first mad slasher, body count films. We are shown several violent murders in gruesome detail, causing some to consider this film a useless excuse for on-screen violence. Others, myself included, see quite a bit more in the film. I will try to minimize spoilers, but it is difficult to describe a film where eleven murders occur in less than one day without giving something away.
The film centers around the efforts of several greedy, unscrupulous people to gain control of a secluded bay owned by an elderly (and recently-deceased) contessa. There are a few weekend cottages around the bay, probably from an earlier failed attempt by the contessa's husband to develop the area, but otherwise the bay seems to be returning to nature.
A local architect and his scheming secretary want to develop the property, the contessa's Lady Macbeth-like stepdaughter and husband hope to inherit it, and the contessa's illegitimate son lives in a shack on the bay. There is also a local couple, an entomologist and his fortune teller wife, who oppose development. The conflicting interests of these individuals result in a series of violent murders.
Things are set in motion by the arrival of four teenagers out for a drive on a sunny autumn afternoon. The kids break into the architect's cottage and proceed to make themselves at home. Soon, all four have been brutally, and graphically, murdered by an unseen person.
When the architect arrives to find four dead bodies in his cottage, rather than being horrified, he takes advantage of the situation by encouraging the contessa's son to sign over any property rights to him in exchange for money and a passport. A fellow weekender who has seen the bodies must then be silenced, as must the insect collector who happens along at the wrong time. Meanwhile, the stepdaughter is working out just who still remains between her and the inheritance - while prodding her weak-willed husband to do something about it!
And so it continues, with each murder seemingly necessitating the next, all quite logically, and with less concern than the entomologist has killing insects. In fact, one of the many titles for this film was "Chain Reaction". By the end of the film the viewer has become so desensitized to murder that the final killings come almost as comic relief. Almost, because this is no black comedy, unlike Bava's "Five Dolls for an August Moon" where the killings take place off-camera and we only see bodies accumulating.
The film was beautifully photographed and expertly staged by Italian director and cinematographer Mario Bava. The beauty of the film and its location photography underscore the irony of people committing such violent acts in order to possess the beauty of nature - "Ecology of Murder" was a working title for the film.
Some reviews mention poor sound quality on the earlier release of this film by Image Entertainment; my comments concern the newer boxed set of Bava films from Anchor Bay, where both sound and the enhanced picture are fine. Others have complained that the story was difficult to follow, this may have been because the film had been cut in earlier releases. The new release seems complete and the plot is easy to follow.
This is one of those films you either like or don't like at all - I gave it five stars, you might give it only one! A must-see for Bava fans, but look for the Anchor Bay release.Bay of Blood
Stylistic but disjointed.
Bay of Blood single-handedly invented the slasher sub-genre with it's use of a high body count (around a dozen), ton's of gratuitius nudity, and it is the first movie to use the first person camera from the murderers' point of view. Some of special effect's are a little dated now, but they are pulled off very well for their time (70), and this is a very stylistic murder mystery. The only reason I gave this four star's is because there are a lot of character's in the story, because of that it becomes a little disjointed and hard to follow. Also, sometime's the cinematography is a little too experimental with constant fade's, zoom-in's, zoom-out's ect., and even though I usually enjoy experimental cinematography, I thought they went a little overboard. Overall it was a highly enjoyable slasher/giallo with a good plot and stylistic kill's, but I think it could have been better.Bay of Blood
Solid, but flawed Giallo
In many ways Bay of Blood can be seen as the first slasher movie, while the years prior to the release of Bay of Blood there were other movies that inspired many slasher movies and you can even see the influence in Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace, but here with Bay of Blood there are a lot more slasher elements than most Giallos, which already have some to begin with. A lot of the clichés that would later become very common with slasher flicks are seen in Bay of Blood.
This is a very interesting Giallo where pretty much every character is some how involved with murder. There really aren't any innocent characters. But the problem is the concept while excellent it isn't really executed that entirely well. I do think Bay of Blood is a classic of the genre, but as classic as it is, it's also very flawed.
The screenplay by Mario Bava, Filippo Ottoni & Giuseppe Zaccariello is rather weak. The characters really lack any depth and it's kinda hard to tell them a part. There is actually a lot of plot here. Everybody is some how tied into the murders and it's hard to keep track of all the plot twists. Bay of Blood is a little complicated to follow. It's not that the plot is complicated it's just the writing is weak. There are many ideas, but they are sort of poorly delivered.
I'm as big a fan as you will find of Italian horror flicks, but in general it's not about the writing. I have seen many Italian horror flicks that are very well written, but normally it's about the look and murder scenes rather than a coherent plot.
As a director Mario Bava is able to keep the pace moving pretty good for the most part. Bava is a great director, but his storytelling skills might be a little weak. There is more to directing than just telling a story, granted that is the most important aspect, but there is more and Bava is able to create a great visually stunning movie with a lot of tension. While I don't think Bay of Blood is his strongest picture I do think it might be his most enjoyable.
The first half moves rather quickly with about 6 murders in a 40-minute span; but after that the pacing is a bit uneven mainly due to the amount of plot twists. Bay of Blood isn't the first Giallo, but you can see the impact this movie made on filmmakers like Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. The biggest impact Bay of Blood made was on Friday the 13th and it's first sequel. The setting is similar, plus the murder scenes are a lot a like. It's very clear where the makers of the first 2 Friday the 13th movie got their ideas from with the murder scenes.
As I stated there were other Giallos before this as well as other movies that inspired the slasher flick, but this was one of the first if not the first to feature characters we would later see in countless slasher flicks. There's a subplot involving 4 characters, two guys and two girls. They are young and looking to party, but meet rather grizzly ends.
The biggest problem with Bay of Blood is the writing; the characters lack depth and the writing wasn't strong enough for all these plot twists, and the 2nd half can have some boring moments, but as a whole Bay of Blood really is a well done movie. Despite the flaws Bay of Blood works well; this is also possibly the first body count film, visually the movie looks amazing and the kill scenes are excellent. There is some decent gore, but remember this is 1971, gore flicks were still sort of new and the Make Up F/X artists were still learning their craft, but you get a double impalement, a cleaver to the face, slit throats and even a decapitation.
The ending has been described as idiotic by some and brilliant by others. One thing I can say is the twist is something you would never see coming. As idiotic as it is, it's also really brilliant.
Bay of Blood
Murky plot, silly dialog, vague motives, creepy fun and the birth of
[...]While parts of this are beyond belief the camera work is fluid and the murders are very interesting.
A piece of prime property will be inherited by someone in this large circle of people and someone wants that circle just a little tighter and starts to bump the others off. There is also something about Campers on the land. It's all delightfully surreal with murders that top each successive murder.
Watching this one you will be struck at how much "Friday The 13th" owes to this movie. Some scenes were lifted wholesale from this into the story of Jason and his blood fetish. Not for all taste to be sure, but for it's nightmare like mood I found that I really liked this oneBay of Blood
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