Bay of Blood

Wow. The influence of this film on horror cinema history is HUGE, and I, like many others, had never really heard of it. Helmed in 1971 by Italian giallo legend Mario Bava, Bay of Blood (alternately known as Chain Reaction, Bloodbath, and the intriguingly esoteric Twitch of the Death Nerve) is the father of the heyday of slasher films in the late '70s and '80s, and by extension, the grandfather of the modern slasher. Bay of Blood lays almost all the groundwork in its modest 84 minutes: isolated & wooded location, stupid horny teenagers to serve as the blood sacrifice, killer POV, an assortment of weapons, gore galore, an intense, catchy, and hypnotic score, and a twist ending.

For a lifelong slasher fan like myself, it was amazing to see all the elements assembled in one film at such an early time. Of course, elements of the slasher genre had been established previously, from Psycho's (1960) throbbing score, shower scene, and mentally unstable killer; to the gore and brilliant plot twists of fellow Italian auteur Dario Argento's debut, Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970); to Dementia 13 (1963), Francis Ford Coppola's debut tale of family revenge, twisted southern gothic style. But Bay of Blood assembles all the popular tropes and flash-fries them into our collective cultural brain, a full year before the first American "slasher", Clive Barker's Last House on the Left (although I for one would very much beg to differ about LHotL's slasher status). Bay of Blood also has 3 years on 1974's Black Christmas, a film which definitely qualifies as an early slasher (and which, I might add, is one of the creepiest, scariest movies you will ever see). It would not be until 1978 that John Carpenter brought slashers to the mainstream with Halloween, and 2 more years until the subgenre exploded with Friday the 13th, a film which bears an eerie (read: copied) resemblance to Bava's Bay of Blood.

It's difficult to break a movie like this apart and review it piece by piece. Yes, the tribal drums and screeching strings of Stelvio Cipriani's score propel the action with heart-pounding intensity. Yes, the visual effects from monster movie veteran Carlo Rambaldi were masterful for the time (although comparatively speaking, the blood looks more like orange spaghetti sauce than blood). The performances were adequate for a slasher horror, but nothing special.

But the real worth of a film like this is not in its constituent parts, but in its cultural and cinematic impact. Bay of Blood's cinematic imprint is huge. Horror films are big business, and slasher films have been a large part of the market in the last 30 years. There's something deeply unsettling and deeply personal about an unidentified killer stalking you through the woods, or your neighborhood, or your own home. With Bay of Blood, Mario Bava handed future filmmakers all the tools they would ever need to construct a slasher film, and that is quite an achievement.

Storyline & plot: 7/10
Cinematography & effects: 7/10
Music & mood: 8/10
Performances: 6/10

The Reverend says: 8/10