A BAY OF BLOOD (1971)

 

(a.k.a. TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE; a.k.a. CARNAGE; a.k.a. THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, PART II; a.k.a. ECOLOGY OF A CRIME. Director/co-screenwriter: Mario Bava. Co-screenwriters: Fillipo Ottoni and Giuseppe Zaccariello, billed as Joseph McLee, their work based on Dardano Sacchetti and Gianfranco Barberi’s story and four other writers’ ideas.)

Storyline

The supposed suicide of a rich countess─shown as a murder─kicks off a spiral cycle of murders along a small shoreline over the course of several days.

 

Review

After a wealthy, wheelchair-bound woman, Countess Federica Donati (Isa Miranda, THE NIGHT PORTER, 1974) is killed by her husband─a crime made to look like a suicide─it sets into motion twelve more violent murders on the Countess’s privately owned island.

Her death is ruled a suicide, and it’s not long before other people come to the island, some to party (four young adults), some to kill and claim the old woman’s property.

BAY is credited with being a proto-slasher flick, a bleak, dark-filtered work that heavily influenced (possibly began) the slasher genre, along with Bob Clark’s 1974 grim-humored masterpiece, BLACK CHRISTMAS. Bava’s last giallo is an atmospheric, hazy, nightmarish succession of clever and cruel deaths, including the simultaneous spearing of two lovers, and a machete to another character’s face (both would later be used in FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 2, 1981─this recycling of these kills, according to FRIDAY producer/director Steve Miner, is because of Phil Scuderi, who co-produced and helped distribute both films. (Miner made these comments in Calum Waddell’s article “Steve Miner Talks About the ‘Friday the 13^th’ Franchise,” The Dark Side magazine, issue 210.)

For viewers trying to follow BAY’s wild storyline, good luck. Few clues are provided for much of the film, and the deaths─in their execution styles and order of dispatch─have a random feel until near the end, when certain facts come to light (via an exposition scene or two), and there’s only so many people left to off. Fans of bright red splatter may delight in Carlo Rambaldi and Bava’s FX, which were graphic, even for a Bava film.

What makes BAY distinctive from other stalk-and-slay gialli is its blending of distinctive quietness between kills (during locale shots of flora, buildings, and water), its spare-use soundtrack (courtesy of Stelvio Cipriani), and its mostly greed-based character motivations and palpable sense of mystery (giving it an almost traditional crime thriller feel).

There’s not a lot of backstory given about the twisty characters, but the actors are effective in their roles.

Claudio Camaso, billed as Claudio Volonté, played Simone, the fisherman. Chris Avram (THE KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS, 1974) played Franco Ventura. Anna Maria Rosati, billed as Anna M. Rosati, played Laura, Ventura’s lover. Claudine Auger (BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA, 1971) played Renata Donati, Filipo’s estranged daughter. Luigi Pistilli (YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY, 1972) played Alberto, Renata Donati’s husband.

Leopaldo Trieste (DON’T LOOK NOW, 1973) played Paolo Fosatti, one of the Donatis’ neighbors. Laura Betti played Anna Fosatti, Paolo’s wife.

An uncredited Renato Cestiè played Renato and Alberto’s tween son. His same-age sister was played by Nicoletta Elmi (DEEP RED, 1975).

BAY is a standout flick for many reasons, among them its stylistic choices, many of them made because of its ultra-limited budget─only a master filmmaker like Bava could turn serious monetary constraints into a spooky, dreamlike, shocking (for its era) and influential virtue, something he and his crew pull off with relative aplomb. It’s not perfect, but given the conditions it was made under, it’s nothing less than a nasty-minded and miasmic miracle, one that viewers seem to love or hate.