Scott LeBrun The people of a late 19th century European village are beginning to perish in incidents that could be accidents, suicides...or murders. A dedicated police inspector, Kruger (Piero Lulli), investigates the case, while calling in a doctor from out of town. Dr. Paul Eswai (Giacomo Rossi Stuart) arrives to find a community full of frightened and deeply superstitious citizens, which frustrates the practical man of medicine. Dr. Paul even goes so far as to perform an autopsy on a young woman, a practice that these locals find to be abhorrent. In an odd touch, victims are found with gold coins placed inside their hearts.The relatively simple story actually isn't hard to follow at all, and in fact much crucial plot information is conveyed through pure exposition. Still, when this exposition is so vividly delivered by such an eclectic cast, it's hard to complain too much. Master of the macabre Mario Bava does go overboard with his frequent zooming in on people and then zooming back out. Other than that, this is an engaging example of the whole Gothic horror genre, with Bava working at the peak of his abilities. As he demonstrated so stylishly in previous efforts such as "Black Sunday" and "Black Sabbath", Bava was expert at creating an otherworldly atmosphere. He's capably assisted by his set decorator, Alessandro Dell'Orco, and cinematographer, Antonio Rinaldi. Bava also helped with the lighting, uncredited. Carlo Rustichellis' music is excellent, and the sound design is another plus, with that infernal giggling helping to put us on edge.The handsome Rossi Stuart is a jut jawed, stoic hero. Erika Blanc is beautiful and appealing as Monica Schuftan, who assists him with the autopsy. Gorgeous raven haired Fabienne Dali is intoxicating as Ruth, the local sorceress. Lulli, Luciano Catenacci, and Giovanna Galletti round out our interesting primary cast. One key casting decision is crucial in keeping the film somewhat off kilter.The finale is over awfully quickly, but there's still a fair bit to recommend here. The sequence that takes place about a quarter hour from the end is the most striking of all.Seven out of 10.

Lee Eisenberg It's easy to think of Italian cinema as exclusively Fellini or Visconti (both of whom definitely have their merits). But it's also worth knowing about Mario Bava, probably Italy's most renowned horror director. He directed a number of eerie movies in the giallo genre, among them 1966's Gothic "Operazione paura" ("Kill, Baby, Kill" in English). In this movie, a doctor goes to a Carpathian village to investigate a series of deaths. All of the victims have had coins embedded in them. The answer to the mystery lies beyond the grave.Martin Scorsese apparently considers this Bava's best movie. I don't know if I personally have a favorite Bava movie, but this one is certainly up there. There are of course a few cheap shocks, but two scenes really caught my eye. One is the scene looking down the staircase, which looks as if it's paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo". But even more impressive is the scene where the doctor is repeatedly running through the same room. I assumed that he had ended up in some sort of existential hell (as in Jean-Paul Sartre's "No Exit"). A really neat trick.The characters themselves didn't come across as all that important. While watching the doctor, I kept thinking that he looked like Rod Taylor. Meanwhile, the main woman looked like Julie Christie, and the burgomaster looked like James Carville.All in all, a really fun movie. Grazie, Signor Bava!

gavin6942 A doctor (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) goes to a small town in the Carpathian mountains some time around 1910 in order to perform an autopsy. The villagers are generally not pleased with this, but he presses on. At the same time, there is rumor of a ghost that appears just prior to death... and somehow these two events are connected.I had not much experience with the work of Mario Bava, having been more familiar with the splatter subgenre of his son Lamberto. But I had always heard great things of Mario, and knew this film was considered by many to be a strong, memorable piece... most notably for a scene where the doctor chases himself or a doppelganger through a series of identical rooms. This scene is pretty great and pulled off very well for the time, no special effects needed. The Gothic atmosphere is also well captured, on par with Hammer films or the Poe works of Roger Corman.I find this film to be something of a tightrope between Fritz Lang's "M" and Peter Medak's "Changeling". Like "M", there is a leitmotif connected to the evil force -- in "M", the whistled tune. Here, a bouncing ball. Likewise, the ball here is somewhat replicated in "Changeling", though no longer as a forewarning to the killer. Also, the colorful imagery here really anticipates the later Italian directors, particularly Argento.Although Luca Palmerini calls the film overrated, he does say the "to the devil a daughter" theme started here and was taken up by Fellini in Toby Dammitt in "Spirits of the Dead" and later in Friedkin's "The Exorcist". I think this is a bit of stretch to connect this film to "Exorcist". Again, the white, bouncing ball symbolizing a dead child, as would later be done to great effect in "The Changeling", is the real key here to future film.To really understand and appreciate Bava, I feel one would have to watch "Black Sabbath" or "Planet of the Vampires", but this film shall be considered my introduction to the man, and I loved him from the first camera shot. I would strongly urge others to meet him in a similar way. Different releases exist, some probably better than others. I watched two different DVDs, the better one being produced by Diamond Entertainment, but I assume a still better print exists.

MovieGuy01 I really enjoyed Kill Baby Kill, directed by Mario Bava. It is about a doctor called Dr. Eswai, he is called by a man called Inspector Kruger to a small village to perform an autopsy on a woman who has died under suspicious circumstances. The coachman leaves Dr. Eswai at the boundary of the village and advises him to return, since the place would has been abandoned by God. Dr. Eswai is helped in the autopsy by Monica Schuftan, and they find a coin in the heart of the woman. Inspector Kruger goes to the Graps Villa to investigate the rumours about a local curse that is around the village. The villagers say that the curse is the ghost of a girl called Melissa. which is harming the villagers. Ruth, who is the local witch and mistress of Burgomaster Karl, tries to protect the daughter of the innkeeper, Nadienne, with magic under the demand of Dr. Eswai. Dr. Eswai goes to the villa and trys to stop an evil curse on the superstitious villagers brought on by Melissa. I found this to be a very creepy film even though it was made around 40 years ago it still had an effect on me.