Bay Of Blood (1971) (a.k.a. Twitch of The Death Nerve)

Director: Mario Bava
Starring: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Camaso, Anna Maria Rosati, Chris Avram

Taglines: "They came to play, they stayed to die."

"13 Characters, 13 Murders"

"Terror Flows Deep"

SYNOPSIS

An old woman is murdered, although the killer has made it appear to be suicide. Soon, friends and relatives are battling against each other not only for the inheritance but also against a gloved killer who is murdering anyone who gets in their way.

REVIEW

The Italian giallo genre is often cited as being the inspiration for the American slasher genre. However, you'd be hard pressed to see it among many of the genre's bigger movies - films like Bird With the Crystal Plumage only bear a relationship with the slasher in the sense that they contain murders. However, Bay of Blood really represents the first movie that can be called a slasher template - to the point where several of its murder sequences were lifted wholesale for Friday the 13th Part 2!

The movie opens as it means to go on - or at least as it should have gone on. After a slow title sequence, we see not just the old woman killed, but her killer is also murdered directly afterwards! It's a masterful sequence and should have set the stage for what's to come. Unfortunately, Bava then dials down the pace. We're introduced to different sets of characters - tenants of the bay who have their own petty grievances, the old woman's family and a group of random teenagers who just happen to be in the area. Any one of these groups may have been interesting on their own, but throwing them all in together just makes the movie messy and rather annoying as we get a lot of pointless dialogue. This is punctuated by some interesting POV shots from the woods (which could literally have come from a Friday the 13th movie), which add some atmosphere.

But, like the slashers that eventually borrowed the template, we're only really here for the murders. Here, Bava delivers in spades. Axes and machetes, shotgun blasts and spears are all used to great gory pay-offs to the murder sequences - a couple of shots are as good as anything Savini did in the Friday series. However, like many of the later slasher cycle - the film is upset by a couple of bizarre revelations and a shocking/silly final twist.

Overall, a decent movie but one which - unlike Bava's masterpieces Black Sunday and Blood And Black Lace - I can't see myself re-watching.

7 / 10