A BAY OF BLOOD (1971)
5-Disc Limited Edition
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Soundtrack CD
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free (UHD), A (Blu-ray)
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 84 minutes 46 Seconds (English Version), 86 minutes 15 Seconds (Original Italian Version), 86 Minutes 2 Seconds (Italian Re-Release Version)
Video: Dolby Vision/HDR10 2160p 4K Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Mario Bava
Cast: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Volonté, Laura Betti, Leopoldo Trieste, Brigitte Skay
The films of the Italian maestro of the macabre Mario Bava were not a part of my youth in the way that the Universal and Hammer horror films were in the late-70's and early 80's - which were broadcast on television during the Sunday monster movie matinee double features on WGN-TV or on the WPIX Chiller Theater. Even during the mid-80's when I was rabidly scouring the shelves of the one mom and pop VHS rental shop in my small village for previously unseen horror treats I do not remember ever seeing Mario Bava titles of the shelf, or maybe the artwork just did not jump off the racks at me they way the lurid cover-art of George A. Romero, Dario Argento, and John Carpenter did at the time. Bava's films were always there in the background throughout my 20's when I was discovering independent and arthouse film, yet somehow his films still eluded me. It would remain this way until the early 2000's when I caught the television airing of the documentary Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre (2000), which was directed by Garry S. Grant and Charles Preece. The clips in the doc from his films were so tantalizing, and I made a mental note to seek out the Bava's work. Even still, it would not be 'till 2007 when Anchor Bay Entertainment released the Bava: The Mario Bava Collection Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 DVD box sets that I would finally spend an entire weekend pouring through his films for the first time. I was instantly taken by his mastery of macabre, the surreal atmosphere and the skilled optical trickery. Each film a visual feast owing to the fact that Mario Bava himself was a cinematographer by trade until the late-50's when he delved into the world of special effects and co-directed a few films (though uncredited, initially) including Lust of the Vampire (1956). A few years later he made his mark directing the gothic horror classic Black Sunday (1960) and thus began wonderful legacy of genre filmmaking that included the iconic horror anthology Black Sabbath (1963), the giallo blueprint Blood and Black Lace (1964), the influential sci-fi horror Planet of the Vampires (1965) and the gothic body count nightmares Kill Baby, Kill (1966) and Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970) - I mean, talk about a run of classic genre films, each entry a visual delight. His mark on cinema is clearly evident, particularly in the Chiaroscuro lighting and technicolor vibrancy of the films of Dario Argento and the surreal nightmare atmosphere of Lucio Fulci.
Of all of Bava's films it's A Bay of Blood (1971) that I most often return to, it's toed as all-timer favorite with the black and white Gothic Black Sunday. While it may not be his most gorgeous or visually ambitious endeavor, it his most visceral and mean-spirited fun entry, and I think it's a particularly excellent choice for an introduction to Mario Bava for the uninitiated, especially for '80s slasher fans, because this is a total murder-parade. It also has the distinction of having one of the best alternate titles in all of film history in my opinion, Twitch of the Death Nerve, that is just an amazing title. Truly a classic of giallo and stalk and slash cinema that pretty much set the blueprint for the countless slashers that came afterwards, this flick was hugely inspirational. Having grown-up on a steady diet of Friday the 13th films I was a bit slack jawed when first watched this, realizing that several scenes from the film were emulated with exacting detail a decade later - the Friday the 13th films were hugely influenced by A Bay of Blood, right down to the from the quiet forested lakeside location and murder-parade body count.
The story itself is a somewhat labyrinthine maze of death, betrayal and greed in the grand giallo fashion, and while the characters aren't particularly well developed, few are around long enough to establish themselves, their deaths are remarkably stylish and memorable. The film begins inside a bayside mansion where wheelchair-bound Countess Frederica (Isa Miranda, The Night Porter) is hanged in spectacular fashion by her husband Donati (Giovanni Nuvoletti, The Beast), who emerges from the shadows and throws a noose around her neck and kicks the wheelchair out from under her. The noose in only a few feet from the floor, but without the use of her legs she cannot right herself, and before you even understand what exactly is happening Donati himself is murdered mere moments later, savagely stabbed to death, his falling lifeless beneath his wife corpse, which is not even cold yet! We just a few minutes in and the body count has begun, setting in motion a continuing chain of murderous events. The cast of character include the Countess's illegitimate son Simon (Claudio Volonté, The Unnaturals), daughter Renata (Claudine Auger, Black Belly of the Tarantula) and her husband Albert (Luigi Pistilli, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key), a crooked land developer Frank (Chris Avram, So Sweet, So Dead) and his seductive lady friend Laura (Anna Maria Rosati, Silvia e l'amore), an amateur entomologist Paolo (Leopoldo Trieste, Don't Look Now) and his fortune teller/tarot card reading wife Anna (Laura Betti, A Hatchet for the Honeymoon), plus four horny teenagers, Brunhilde (Brigitte Skay, Four Times That Night), Sylvie (Paola Montenero, The Other Hell), Luca (Guido Boccaccini), and Roberto (Roberto Bonanni, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion), who arrive at the bay in a yellow dune buggy for some weekend fun - alright, the meat bags are assembled, cue the bloodbath! The deaths are fantastic, we get that fantastic hanging right at the opening, multiple stabbings, including a throat slash with a billhook that is absolutely iconic, and we even get a pretty gruesome beheading, and of course the wonderful skewering of a young couple in the act of coitus, which Steve Miner ripped-off for Friday the 13th Part 2, and a gruesome spearing. The death tally all-told is thirteen kills in a mere 85 minute - that's a pretty decent clip, even by today's jaded and desensitized standards, but rarely will you see deaths captured so gorgeously on film and the ending is one of the blackest finale shockers of all time. It's a real WTF moment that probably inspired hundred of similar WTF moments throughout the 70's and 80's.
This is pretty much an all-time for me when it comes to body count horror, it's a visually gorgeous looking film, the bloody special effects work is done by Carlo Rambaldi (Alien) are stunning, and the score by Stelvio Cipriani (Orgy of the Living Dead) itself is fantastic, a heady mic of cool cha-cha-cha percussion and lounge music, occasionally flaring up with some distorted, fuzzed-out guitar flourishes adding menace to it, it's just a really cool score.
Reversible Wrap Artworks
Audio/Video: A Bay of Blood (1971) gets a region-free 4K UHD from Severin Films, presented in 1.85:1 widescreen in both 2160p Ultra HD with Dolby Vision HDR10 and 1080p HD. The English version is sourced from the OCN, which is a first, all previous versions were not sourced from the OCN. For the two Italian versions of the film, this is sourced from a reconstruction using the 35mm OCN and other sources, including protection prints and elements sourced from the Italian censorship board, which includes alternate opening and closing credits, plus 25-min of alternate Italian-language sequences. The English version looks spectacular, there's some very minor scratches that pop-up, but generally it looks, film grain is intact and nicely resolved, black levels are strong and the colors, aided by the Dolby Vision/HDR10 color-grade, are warm and vibrant, skin tones look accurate, the day for night scenes look wonderful, this is just the best it's ever looked. The Italian versions are largely sourced from the OCN with the alternate Italian footage added, some of which has some soft fade to it, but generally looks terrific. The accompanying Blu-rays offer all three version of the film in 1080p HD without the WGC color-grade, and they look terrific as well, especially compared to previous Blu-ray editions, even without the Dolby Vision/HDR, but I would certainly give the edge to the 4K with the WGC, with it's 4K resolution and plumped up primaries, deeper blacks and more nuanced contrast, the $k easily looks the best the film has ever looked on home video, and probably better than when it first started screening at American grindhouse cinema in '71.
Audio for the English version comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono, while the Italian versions get Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono, all three include optional English subtitles. The tracks are clean and well-balanced, hiss or distortion is never a concern, the dubbed English and Italian dialogue is nicely prioritized, and that Stevio Cipriani (Voices from Beyond) score sounds terrific.
The 5-disc set feature over four hours of extras, new and archival, to pout through. Staring of with disc one we get the English version in 4K Ultra HD, accompanied by a brand new Audio Commentary With Tim Lucas, Author Of Mario Bava: All The Colors Of The Dark and the2-min U.S. Trailer. The audio commentary from Lucas is not the same one from the previous Arrow release, and others, this is a brand new and expanded commentary, and it's typically terrific, through and detail, het gets into the cast and crew, the production, the story structure, and how it's a direct progenitor tot he slasher genre. Lucas's demeanor is always scholarly and sort of like a cool grandfather who loves euro-cult. Onto disc two we get the 4K UHD presentations of both the Ecologia Del Delitio title Italian Version and the Razione A Cetena Italian Re-Release Version, plus the 3-min Italian Trailer, which is amazing with it's psychedelic-solarized coloring, very cool.
Disc three features the English version on Blu-ray in 1080p HD, plus the same Audio Commentary With Tim Lucas, Author Of Mario Bava: All The Colors Of The Dark, and the English Trailer as the 4K disc, plus a host of new extras. First up is the 15-min All About My Father – Interview With Assistant Director Lamberto Bava, the director's son, a legendary director in his own right, offers warm memories of his father as a person and as a director. He gets into working on his father's sets beginning with him on Planet of the Vampires, where he learned many important lessons about making films, as well as stories about the making fo Shock and Danger: Diabolik. Next is the 13-min It Was Just A Children's Game – Interview With Actress Nicoletta Elmi, who played one of the children who figure prominently into the surprise ending of A Bay of Blood. She talks about getting her start in films as a young child of 5 or 6 through modeling and commercial work, later working on films like Who Saw Her Die?, A Bay of Blood, Baron Blood, and Deep Red, offering some brief memories of her co-stars and directors she worked with. Lens Of Blood – Interview With Assistant Camera Operator Gianlorenzo Battaglia runs 28-min, who first worked with Bava on Five Dills For An August Moon, he speaks fondly of the director as someone who created an atmosphere of fun and playfulness on his films sets, and how a mix of high-level cinematic skill and playfulness was a rare combination in his experience. He too talks of how Bava treated his actors, as well memories of his interactions with Claudio Volonté, who was somewhat sensitive and temperamental, specifically a story about Bava telling Volonté to bite the octopus during a scene, and how that went down. The last of the extras on disc three is the 46-min That Will Teach Them To Be Bad – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Books On Jess Franco And Lucio Fulci who gets right into the myriad alternate title the film went under, including Carnage, Carnage Erotica, and Twitch of the Death Nerve, as well as the marketing of the film which included a face-to-face warning from theater employee warning theater patrons about the horrors they're about to watch, plus how it was marketed in the late 70's under the exploitative title Last House Part II, even using the Last on on the Left ad campaign with David Hess prominently featured on the ads! Thrower also discusses the theatrical rollouts for the film in different territories, censorship issues in the UK, and various home video releases. He also talks about the cast, the Sabaudia location in the Lazio region of central Italy where it was shot, the characters and motivations, plot synopsis, a breakdown of the murders, how it informed the slasher genre, especially Friday the 13th, and the tragic death of actor Claudio Volonté.
Disc four offers both the Original Italian Version and the Italian Re-Release Version in 1080p HD, plus the Italian Trailer and a different set of extras, starting off with the 20-min The Hallmark Of Horror: Carnage, Death Nerves & Last House Part II – Video Essay By Film Writer Stephen R. Bissette who offers tales catching a drive-in triple-feature he attended featuring Last House on the Left, Twitch of the Death Nerve and Mark of the Devil, how he was already a fan of Mario Bava after seeing Black Sunday on late-night TV as a kid, He also sheds light on the oddball Hallmark Releasing distribution model, and pretty thorough accounting of the various titles it went under, and the advertising campaign which included handing out barf bags, which Severin is nice enough to include with this limited edition set, and closing the piece out reading various reviews that were published at the time of release, which were very harsh, with the exception of a very enthusiastic review that appeared in the pages of Castle of Frankenstein, written by future Gremlins/The 'Burbs director Joe Dante, who has always been a champion for Mario Bava. Next, the 20-min The Art Of Crime is an archival featurette featuring assistant director Lamberto Bava, screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti, CSC director Steve Della Casa, still photographer Franco Vitale, Bava's grandson Roy Bava. Bava Biographer Alberto Pezzotta, and director Joe Dante. Other archival extras include the 22-min (Sittin' On) The Blood Of The Bay – Archival Interview With Lamberto Bava, 21-minute 13 Ways To Die – Archival Interview With Dardano Sacchetti, and the 12-min Bava And The Grindhouse – Joe Dante On Mario Bava. Additionally the disc is rounded out with a brief 40-second Severin Super-Shock 2025 Intro by Lamberto Bava, 2-min Storyboard Comparisons, 2-min Radio Spots, plus the 3-min Italian Trailer. Disc five is CD Soundtrack highlighting the cool score by Stelvio Cipriani, featuring 31 tracks, running 45-minutes .
The 5-Disc Limited Edition Set from Severin arrives in a Rigid Side-Loading Slipcase designed by Eric Lee which looks great, honestly, it'd be hard to top the iconic movie poster artwork with the Brunhilde getting her throat slashed with the billhook, or the alternate illustrated Blood Bath VHS artwork, both of which are featured on the wrap, but Lee does good work bringing something new to the table. The slip also has embossed title treatments on the front cover and spine. Inside we get an oversized alpha-case with two flipper trays housing the 5-discs, all of which have their own unique artworks, which is cool. Tucked away inside is a insert card with the music credits and trac klist for the Stelvio Cipriani Soundtrack CD.
Also included exclusively with the Limited Edition of set is a replica of Hallmark Releasing’s original Carnage Barf Bag which was issued during the film's run under the alternate title of 'Carange', advertising, 'CARNAGE – the second film ‘Rated V For Violence!’ that was the original title used by Hallmark prior to their roolouts using the Twitch of the Death Nerve and Last House Part II titles. It;s a cool bit of ephemera to have in your collection, Kudos to Severin who with the help of Simon Bissette were able to track down perhaps the only known surviving Carnage barf bag through collector Robert Deveauto, which is meticulously reproduced here.
Keep in mind the the Rigid Slipbox, CD Soundtrack and Carnage Barf Bag are exclusive to the 5-disc limited Edition, the standard release version is a 4-disc UHD/BD set does not include them, and while I could live without the barf bag or slipcover, that CD Soundtrack is worth the premium price in my humble opinion.
Special Features:
Disc 1 UHD (A Bay of Blood: English Version)
- Audio Commentary With Tim Lucas, Author Of Mario Bava: All The Colors Of The Dark
- U.S. Trailer (2:22)
Disc 2 UHD (Ecologia del Delitto: Original Italian Version / Reazione A Catena: Italian Re-Release Version)
- Italian Trailer
Disc 3 Blu-ray (A Bay of Blood: English Version)
- Audio Commentary With Tim Lucas, Author Of Mario Bava: All The Colors Of The Dark
- All About My Father – Interview With Assistant Director Lamberto Bava (14:30)
- It Was Just A Children's Game – Interview With Actress Nicoletta Elmi (13:22)
- Lens Of Blood – Interview With Assistant Camera Operator Gianlorenzo Battaglia (27:57)
- That Will Teach Them To Be Bad – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Books On Jess Franco And Lucio Fulci (46:20)
- U.S. Trailer (2:22).
Disc 4 Blu-ray (Ecologia del Delitto: Original Italian Version / Reazione A Catena: Italian Re-Release Version)
- Hallmark Of Horror: Carnage, Death Nerves & Last House Part II – Video Essay By Film Writer Stephen R. Bissette (19:35)
- The Art Of Crime – Archival Featurette With Lamberto Bava (Assistant Director), Dardano Sacchetti (Screenwriter), Steve Della Casa (CSC Director), Franco Vitale (Still Photographer), Roy Bava (Mario Bava's Grandson), Alberto Pezzotta (Mario Bava's Biographer) And Joe Dante (Filmmaker) (19:57)
- (Sittin' On) The Blood Of The Bay – Archival Interview With Lamberto Bava (22:19)
- 13 Ways To Die – Archival Interview With Dardano Sacchetti (21:09)
- Bava And The Grindhouse – Joe Dante On Mario Bava (12:26)
- Severin Super-Shock 2025 Intro By Lamberto Bava (0:40)
- Storyboard Comparisons (2:12)
- Radio Spots (1:31)
- Italian Trailer (3:08)
Disc 5: Soundtrack CD (Stereo, 44:32)
It was Mario Bava who set the tone for the stylish Italian giallo with Blood and Black Lace in the 60's, and it was A Bay of Blood that set the blueprint for mean-spirited 80's slasher films, a full 10 years before Friday the 13th ripped it off. This limited edition 5-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray/CD set from Severin is an essential must-own for fans of Mario Bava and '80s body count slashers, full stop.
Screenshots from the Severin Blu-ray:
