REVIEW - A Bay of Blood (Mario Bava, 1971)

A Bay of Blood is a film that has been distributed under a large number of different titles, including Bloodbath, Carnage, Chain Reaction, Twitch of the Death Nerve, Reazione a Catena (which roughly translates as 'The Ecology of Murder') and it was even baffling released in the USA as Last House on the Left Part II. The film is directed by Italian visual master Mario Bava and is perhaps best known as being considered by many to be the first 'slasher' film.

A Bay of Blood begins with two murders, the first an inventive and twisted hanging in which a woman in a wheelchair, the Countess, has a noose tied around her neck and then her wheelchair pushed out from under her. The perpetrator of this murder is then stabbed by an unseen second murderer. This little comic twist in the opening is a taste of the film that unfolds as Bava injects black comedy into the film's dark and lurid plot. The film then cuts to pastoral music and shots of the lake that is the film's setting and only location. The camera then settles on a fly that dies, dropping into the lake.

The plot of the film centres on the struggles by the various characters to seize ownership of the lake area which is somewhat up for grabs following the death of the Countess. The characters are all willing to commit acts of violence in order to get the area for themselves and deaths begin to start stacking up. The plot is actually somewhat complex and with a lot of the characters given limited screen time it is sometimes hard to keep track of their motivations and keep up with the plot's twists and turns. There is a definite Shakespearian influence to the story, even down to the Lady Macbeth figure of Renata and an allusion to the play in Albert's blood stained hands.

That said it is not the story that grabs one's attention when watching A Bay of Blood and it is not it's strongest point. The violence, gore and proto-slasher elements are what makes A Bay of Blood such an entertaining watch. It is quite surprising when watching A Bay of Blood quite the impact that it clearly had and it's huge influence on the Friday the 13th series. The setting of course is very similar in both and there is even a reference made in the diary entry in A Bay of Blood to the date of Friday the 13th. There are also 13 murders in this film and it is two of these murders that are so noticeably similar to murders in Friday the 13th Part II, in the scene where one of the characters has a machete embedded in his face and also in the sequence where a couple having sex in bed are impaled with a spear that goes through them both and out through the bottom of the bed. There are many other small similarities between the films, the most amusing probably being the use of the same knitted jumper being worn by a killer in A Bay of Blood and Mrs Vorhees in the first Friday the 13th.

A Bay of Blood is perhaps the first true slasher film, and it is without doubt definitely a hugely influential one. The visuals that Bava creates, he was credited as both cinematographer and director, are stunning. In particular it his expert use of colour and composition that makes each frame look so exquisitely crafted. One criticism of the Itallian Giallo masters has always been an accusation of style over substance and although the film does touch on ideas surrounding greed and man's impact on the environment these are not well developed and add little to the film. There is substance but it is perhaps overshadowed by the masterful direction and stylistic choices. The style of the film is impressive though and with the blackly comic tone and thrilling pace the film is enjoyable and beautiful if a little lightweight. It is a pleasure to watch though and the ending is enough to warrant checking the film out, with a dark sequence that would not look out of place in the films of Todd Solondz.

I have embedded a trailer below and although it goes under the title Carnage and does little to give a good sense of the film it is a well put together trailer that has unique style of it's own and is well worth watching.