james1-494-826857 This movie ranks in my top five all time of over 8000 movies I've seen. My other top four hour before the Devil knows your dead with Rochester New York's Philip Seymour Hoffman. Sherlock Holmes smarter brother with Gene Wilder Dom Deluise and Madeline Kahn. No country for old man with Javier Bardem and Lucille fulcis beyond the door and Autopsy from 1975 and Death Laid an Egg from 1968.

Prichards12345 A Bay of Blood is easily the most disappointing effort from Mario Bava I've seen to date. Black Sunday, Black Sabbath, Blood and Black Lace and Baron Blood (did he have a thing about the letter 'B'?') are all superior to this effort, which in spite of good cinematography and an effective murder or two (or thirteen!) never quite gels and is often annoying and silly.Exploitation is to the fore as a group of randy teenagers hang out and get offed; one after a nude swim, two others caught inflagrante delecto! The influence on Friday the 13th is obvious (they ripped it off!), but like that movie Bay of Blood has perhaps acquired a reputation it does not really deserve.There's giallo-style plotting galore going on - which makes little sense - though the surprise opening murder of an old rich lady in a wheelchair is effectively done, but as the killings mount up it becomes pretty kitsch. All in all this is just not one of Bava's best, and not a very good introduction to him. Watch the other films I've mentioned first...

Stephen Abell Bay of Blood is listed as a Mystery, Horror, Thriller film. Well, two out of three ain't bad... this is NOT a horror film, it doesn't really fall into the Stalker genre either because at it's core is a solid Thriller and Mystery... just with lots of gore...The opening sequence is a masterful exercise in creating atmosphere and tension as the director, Mario Bava, shows us the death of a wheelchair- bound woman. Bava gives the audience an uneasy feeling by hinting that something isn't quite right. The elderly woman wheels herself slowly to the window and looks out, though when she doesn't notice anything amiss she starts back into the house. Something catches her attention and she turns round towards the window once again. It's at this point she spots the noose... hands push her towards the awaiting death... as the rope tightens around her neck, somebody kicks her wheelchair away... This is shot in minimal light, though Bava makes sure it's not too dark giving the scene an eerie feeling. This is one of the better opening sequences I've seen in a movie as it immediately grabs the viewer and pulls them headlong into the story... Who is this woman? Why has she been murdered? Who murdered her? These questions get answered but are replaced with more mysteries in the course of the movie.The writers, Franco Barberi and Dardano Sacchetti, and screenwriters, Filippo Ottoni, Giuseppe Zaccariello, and Mario Bava, have scripted a tight murder mystery. As grisly death after grisly death occurs the audience is wondering what is happening as four sightseers are slaughtered. Slowly, the killer's motives are exposed and revealed to the viewers, with a couple of twists in the tale. It's a very good story and I didn't really work out whodunnit until it was disclosed. This was fantastic for me as I usually work out the murderer and their motives well before the reveal.The special effects are extraordinary, even today... there's one scene where one of the sightseers gets a machete to the face, though the kill shot is off camera the scene where the killer pulls it out of his victims head isn't. I must admit it's more than a little disturbing due to the reality of the effects.I'm still not too sure about the ending though. I have a dark and morbid sense of humour so the finale made me smile, though I don't think it quite fits with the film. It also has a feeling of being added to try and give the story a moralistic finish.Should you like murder mysteries then I would advise you to give this a viewing, though you have been warned about the goriness of some of the death scenes.

Michael_Elliott Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971)**** (out of 4)Mario Bava's landmark film can now be considered one of the very first slashers and of course a major influence on Friday THE 13TH. The film takes place at a lake-side resort where a variety of people are brutally slaughtered by an unknown maniac. Also known as A BAY OF BLOOD and a dozen other titles, this Bava film mixes the giallo with what would become known as the slasher and the end result is certainly something special and ground- breaking. To say the film was a major influence on the genre to come would be an understatement because there's simply so much going on here that other filmmakers would steal from. Obviously there's the graphic violence, which is scattered throughout the film and this is what got the movie its original reputation. The effects are quite ghastly for their time and especially a couple throat slashings, a memorable beheading and of course a sex scene where two victims are offed at the same time (and later stolen in Friday THE 13TH PART 2). The film is also quite sleazy with not only the gore but a fair amount of nudity and sex. This certainly wasn't the first film to use sex and violence but Bava really puts his own spin on it because the movie just feels so dirty. I say that in a good way because the director adds a certain poetry to the death scenes and he also lingers on them for long periods after the victims are stabbed or whatever else their fate is. Instead of cutting to the next scene Bava just keeps the camera on the victims as they take their last few breathes and this here is quite effective and at times ugly. The film is certainly far from flawless as some of the performances aren't all that impressive and the director goes for way too many zoom shots. With that said, there are enough twists in the story for ten movies and it's constantly catching you off guard. No matter what you call the film there's no question about its importance to the genre and it ranks as one of the best in Bava's career.