Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Bay Of Blood, A (Kino Lorber)

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Bay Of Blood, A (Kino Lorber)



    Released by: Kino-Lorber
    Released on: September 3, 2013.
    Director: Mario Bava
    Cast: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Camaso
    Year: 1971
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    Also known as Carnage and Twitch Of The Death Nerve, Bava's Bay Of Blood is not only a really solid and fantastically bloody giallo, it's also one of the most influential horror films of the seventies. A huge influence on the slasher films that would follow in its wake, it may not have been as gory as the films H.G. Lewis was making around the same time but it certainly helped set the standard for stylish kills and beautifully macabre murder set pieces.

    A wealthy old countess (Isa Miranda) trapped in her wheelchair is murdered one dark and gloomy night, and her killer is then murdered himself! It turns out the killer was the countess' husband and that the body is nowhere to be found. The motive for the slaying? The countess was the sole owner of a sizeable amount of land surrounding a large bay - someone wanted it, and she wouldn't sell. Shortly after her death, four teenagers show up in the area to party on the grounds once owned by the countess. They start off having a great time until slowly but surely someone begins slaughtering them one by one.

    Noted as the film responsible for launching the slasher film craze and an undeniable influence on Sean Cunningham's Friday The 13th, the film is famous (or maybe notorious is a better word) for its creative kill scenes. Brigitte Skay returns after her stint in Four Times That Night to have her throat whacked with a machete. A man and a woman are punctured by a spear while having sex in the bedroom (a scene blatantly swiped later on in Friday The 13th Part 2) and one unlucky man gets a machete blow to the face. Certainly gorier than any other film Bava would make, Bay Of Blood's murder set pieces are aided considerably by the inventive special effects work of Carlo Rambaldi and an excellent and tense score from Selvio Cipriani.

    Performances from Luigi Pistilli (from The Case Of The Scorpion's Tale) and Claudine Auger (who starred in Black Belly Of The Tarantula) stand out in the film and the script not only provides ample opportunity for creative bloodshed but also for a fair bit of genuine mystery and suspense. Bava plays the selfish and greedy characters off of one another nicely and it's interesting to watch as the killer eliminates almost everyone who gets in the way. The strong script, good performances, inventive camerawork and stylish cinematography all work alongside the impressive body count scenes to make for one of Bava's most enjoyable films.

    The whole thing moves to a rather fantastic rhythm, with Bava's skill behind the camera made all the more obvious by the way in which the director paces the picture and integrates it with the score. It's edited quite masterfully, not quite wallowing in the gore the way later slasher pictures would but certainly showing us more than audiences of the day likely expected to see, but the film is cut really well. Each edit has a purpose, and each camera angle was obviously quite carefully planned and set up with a very specific intent. Bava's renowned eye for detail helps this picture overcome its fairly basic (and at times almost pedestrian) script and stand out as a seminal horror film whose influence would reach far wider than anyone involved with it ever likely expected.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Bay Of Blood is presented in 1080p AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen with the quality of the American cut of the movie looking very nice indeed. Colors look nice and natural and detail is consistently impressive - you could count the hairs on Luigi Pistilli's crazy eyebrows if you were so inclined. Texture in clothing also looks good, fibers are evident and you can even notice where some of the stitching pops out a little bit if you really watch for it. Shadow detail is solid and color reproduction seems accurate. Skin tones look nice and natural, not overly pink and never waxy. There aren't any problems with edge enhancement and aside from some minor ringing evident in a couple of spots, this is a nicely authored disc of some impressively clean and crisp looking source material.

    The only audio option for the feature is an English language LPCM 2.0 mono track. No issues here, the movie sounds quite good. There's nice depth to the score, the levels are properly balanced and there are no issues with hiss or distortion to note. Dialogue is always easy to understand and all in all, the movie sounds just fine.

    The Italian cut of the film is presented as an extra feature and includes a disclaimer noting that it was taken from an inferior source. The difference is in quality between the two cuts of the movie is painfully obvious (it's not hard to see it in the screen caps below). The video quality is pretty messy here, there are compression artifacts and macroblocking problems, dark scenes are overly murky and colors are noticeably faded - to be fair, it's never looked good on home video. The Italian cut of the film includes an Italian language LPCM 2.0 mono track with optional English subtitles.

    The disc includes an audio commentary track from Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas overtop of the American cut of the film. Lucas does a fine job of explaining the history of the film as well as covering its influence. He discusses the Italian language version of the film, talks about his own personal experience seeing the film for the first time, and he discusses the production in a fair bit of detail providing criticism, trivia and anecdotal information. Never at a loss for words when discussing Bava, Lucas proves to be an amiable and interesting source of information. This track was ported over from the Anchor Bay release which was included in the Mario Bava Collection Volume 2 boxed set release and also appeared on the Blu-ray released by Arrow Video in the UK a few years ago.

    Additionally we get a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other Mario Bava releases available from Kino, menus and chapter selection.

    The Final Word:

    It would have been nice to see the Italian cut in better shape than it is here but outside of that, this is a good release. The transfer on the US cut of the movie is excellent and the audio is quite good too. Tim Lucas' commentary from past releases has been carried over and the theatrical trailer is a fun piece of vintage promotion. As to the movie itself, it's a classic and its influence on modern horror cinema cannot be overlooked.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps from the US cut!































    And what about some caps from the Italian cut?





















      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X