A Bay of Blood (1971)

The murder of a wealthy heiress by her husband triggers a series of brutal killings in the surrounding bay area.

Director:

Mario Bava

Writers:

Mario Bava (screenplay), Giuseppe Zaccariello (screenplay) (as Joseph McLee)

Stars:

Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Camaso

3 wins.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Claudine Auger	...	Renata Donati
Luigi Pistilli	...	Alberto / Albert
Claudio Camaso	...	Simone / Simon (as Claudio Volonté)
Anna Maria Rosati	...	Laura (as Anna M. Rosati)
Chris Avram	...	Franco Ventura / Frank Ventura
Leopoldo Trieste	...	Paolo Fosatti / Paul Fosatti
Laura Betti	...	Anna Fosatti
Brigitte Skay	...	Brunhilde
Isa Miranda	...	Countess Federica Donati
Paola Montenero	...	Thérèse / Denise (as Paola Rubens)
Guido Boccaccini	...	Luca / Duke
Roberto Bonanni	...	Roberto / Bobby
Giovanni Nuvoletti	...	Count Filippo Donati

Storyline

An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out murder spree as relatives and friends attempt to reduce the inheritance playing field, complicated by some teenagers who decide to camp out in a dilapidated building on the estate.

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Plot Keywords:

inheritance | murder | teenager | serial murder | wife killer | 

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Taglines:

The first film that dares to show 'hard-core' VIOLENCE!

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

3 May 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Last House on the Left, Part II

Filming Locations:

Fogliano, Latina, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nuova Linea Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min 76 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One promotional gimmick was that every ticket holder was required to pass through The Final Warning Station, where a theater worker warned you face to face that this may be the last 'shock' film you will ever want to see.

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Goofs

The Count is stabbed repeatedly in his back and then he falls on his back and dies. When the killer is dragging him away, there should be a blood trail leading from The Countess to the door.

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Quotes

Simon: Man should live and let live, and without any interfering.
Paolo: Even that poor squid was free once, Simon, eh? I study Coleoptera because I love them.
Simon: Sure, but the squirming little creatures still end up under your microscope. Yeah, he's dead all right but at least I eat my squid. But I don't kill as a hobby like you do.
Paolo: Good lord, Simon. You make me feel like a murderer.
Simon: I'm not saying that, Mr. Fossati, but if you kill for killing's sake, you become a monster.
Paolo: But, man isn't an insect, my dear ...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

The video released by Image Entertainment as part of their "Mario Bava Collection" is the director's cut, containing all the gore and violence.

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Connections

Referenced in Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

User Reviews

One of Bava's Best

This is one of horror master Mario Bava's best works. More than any of his other films, this one comes closest to a non-narrative "Ballet of Violence" with little regard for logic or plot line. What plot there is hovers around the struggle for control of a prime piece of seaside real estate, by the eccentric residents and a couple of outsider business people. A short but effective sub plot involves a group of kids who come to party down in a deserted house on the property. Little do they realize. . .! This is definitely the film that inspired "Friday the 13th" and no doubt many others of its kind.

This may be the most violent film ever made, if not the highest body count; no less than a dozen murders by various and often unusual means: Hanging, stabbing, decapitation, impalement (some two at a time!), choking, gunshot; quite a display of random, wholesale slaughter. While this may sound like a garden-variety slasher film; this is a prime example of the horror almost at its best, primarily due to Bava's excellent visual style. His camera is often prowling through the scene, in first-person and third, sometimes shifting from one to the other in the same shot; a technique pioneered by Orson Welles. In this particular film there is a slight overuse of the zoom, where he probably wanted to use a more effective dolly shot. This is probably because he had to work fast, however many of his zooms are absolutely beautiful, particularly the shots that move from the water on the lake to the house and trees in the distance. He also uses rack-focus to create a emotion within the same shot, as when the old woman looks out the window. We see her face in focus, then the camera racks to the rain drops on the window. This combined with the music creates a very deep mood of melancholia.

There are many great scenes in the film that display Bava's rich visual style and his ability to create suspense and shock. An lonely old woman sitting in her house and the brutal murder that follows, The girl swimming in the lake, the body in the boat, the prowler outside the house where the kids are screwing around, and of course, the out-of-left-field finale, one of the greatest endings in all of film.

I also admire Bava's control of pacing, emotion and mood; shifting from tenderness to horror, kindness to hate, trust to deception, often in the blink of an eye. He also makes it interesting with a bizarre assortment of characters; the milquetoast entemologist and his koo koo wife, a mysterious fisherman, with whom there's more than meets the eye, and those delightful children that any mother would love!

This genre has often been one of extremes; very bad films and some very good ones, and those are the ones from the hands of stylists like Mornau, Polanski, Freda, Romero, Argento, Franco (in some instances), and of course, Mario Bava and his son, Lamberto, and a handful of others much less prolific. "Bay of Blood" is a good example of the genre in the hands of a master. This is one of my favorite Bava films, although I must concede that I don't think it's his best. As always, he makes the most of his limited resources, but this film doesn't quite match the ideology or scope of say, "Black Sunday," "Kill, Baby, Kill," or "Beyond the Door Pt.2." "Bay of Blood" almost, but not quite reaches the same crescendo of delirium. However, if it did, then it would be one of the greatest horror films of all time.