Day 8 of #10daysofjezoween! As enjoyable as this has been,
I’m looking forward to the end. Being forced to watch (and later write about) a
movie every single day is kind of exhausting. I just want to watch reruns of
What Not to Wear! Anyway, our movie for today is *Bay of Blood* a 1971
Mario Bava movie that is as influential as it is disgusting.
Plot? Eh, who cares. A family is trying to kill off anyone
that stands in the way of their inheritance in as gruesome and bloody a way as
possible. Look, I know that everyone likes to consider Black Christmas (1974)
or even Texas Chainsaw Massacre (’74) to be the great grandfathers of the
slasher films but as South Park would say “Bava did it!” Well, I would extend
that to most of the Italian schlockmasters, Bava, Argento, Fulci, etc. Anything
that was done in American Horror Cinema was done by the Italians years or even
decades before. This predates the aforementioned Black Christmas and Texas
Chainsaw Massacre. It also predates Halloween, Friday the 13th, I
Spit on Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust, and yes, even Last House on the Left.
Those that bemoan the recent trend of so called “torture p**n” would do well to
remember that the Italians have been produced this for FORTY YEARS. Not that it
excuses this, but it’s by no means a recent phenomenon or sign of the times or
evidence of social decay, or anything along those lines.
This movie, above any other, I would probably classify as
such though I am loathe to use that term. It is intensely violent, gory, and
bloody. That being said the gore is well executed, Oscar winner Carlo Rambaldi
(Um, ever heard of Alien? Yeah) can be thanked for that (heh), the direction is
stylish and striking, and the overall production is relatively top notch. There
are some beautifully well done shots and the landscape itself is quite lovely
to look at. This is probably the most influential and important movie in the
slasher genre. It kicked start the 1980s trend of teen horror films and even
still today 45 years later it still manages to inspire and demand homage.
Friday the 13th, Part 2 directed cribbed at least two death scenes
nearly shot for shot. I Know What You Did Last Summer? Cribbed it.
Another interesting thing to note that while this movie was
almost exclusively ABOUT the death scenes (13 in all) in the previous year Bava
made 5 Dolls for an August Moon which is a murder mystery film without any
actual murders witnessed. An interesting juxtaposition when viewed together.
That being said I would recommend this movie to almost no one. It’s hugely
influential and important to the genre but it’s also difficult to watch. It’s
as brutal as it is beautiful and the score is effective and haunting but it’s
also a hard pill to swallow. This is for (heh) die hard fans only. Those with
sensitive constitutions should stay away. I give it 4.3 butts out of 5. The
point 3 is because someone hacked away most of the butt so you’re just left with
a tiny, bloody chunk.
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