Reazione a catena (A Bay of Blood) (Twitch of the Death Nerve) (1971)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Stephen M

  
  It just goes to show that the most influential movies are not necessarily the best; this one spawned <i>Friday 13th</i> and a whole host of slasher movies, and yet it's the weakest giallo of Bava's I've seen to date. With thirteen murders and five different… More
  It just goes to show that the most influential movies are not necessarily the best; this one spawned <i>Friday 13th</i> and a whole host of slasher movies, and yet it's the weakest giallo of Bava's I've seen to date. With thirteen murders and five different murderers running around, no matter how high your tolerance for the ridiculous, sooner or later this movie is going to tip over into farce, though if you're anything like me you'll be too bamboozled by the plot - or lack of it - to pinpoint exactly when this happens. A shame really because things get off to a brilliant start with bravura double murder which breaks the first rule of the giallo, by revealing the killer's identity, then blindsides us with a stunning surprise while we're still catching our breath. I read somewhere that Bava enjoyed working with Laura Betti so much on <I>Hatchet for the Honeymoon</I> that he came up with <I>Bay of Blood</I> purely as an excuse to work with her again. This may well be true but the fact remains that Betti, so good in <I>...Honeymoon</I> (as the wife who comes back from the dead to haunt the husband who murdered her), is totally wasted here; her fake medium is the most trivial character in the film. A movie with very little to recommend itself besides its bloodthirstiness, although the violence here lacks the sadistic cruelty of <I>Blood and Black Lace</I> and is less striking for that reason.

• Tim S

  
  THE SLASHER FILM. This is the beginning.

• Ken S

  
  An important pre-cursor to Friday the 13th, Halloween and Black Christmas. Mario Bava's Bay of Blood is a little short of story and a little heavy on visuals (it's Italian so that's no surprise), but overall it's only modestly entertaining.

• Cassandra M

  
  Many films on the Video Nasty list are horror cinema's answer to well-respected classics; The Last House on the Left offers a new spin on Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, Island of Death is a more brutal telling of the story of Bonnie and Clyde and, indeed, this Mario… More
  Many films on the Video Nasty list are horror cinema's answer to well-respected classics; The Last House on the Left offers a new spin on Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, Island of Death is a more brutal telling of the story of Bonnie and Clyde and, indeed, this Mario Bava film owes its plot to the French classic, La Ronde. Bay of Blood is often noted as being an obvious inspiration on the Friday the 13th series, and when taking things such as the setting and a certain murder sequence into account, that is certainly true; but let's not forget that this is also a fantastic movie in its own right. The film starts off with a glorious sequence that opens inside a beautiful manor house. We watch as a wheelchair-bound baroness is brutally strangled, only for the rug to be torn from under us moments later when her assailant is the next one to bite the bullet! It has to be said that the film never tops its opening sequence, but Mario Bava's gore-fest manages to remain fascinating all the way through, as it turns out that the first murder scene sets off a violent chain of events that results in a very high body count. This film would be properly categorised as a slasher, but its Italian roots ensure that it's often labelled a Giallo, and indeed Mario Bava does include Giallo elements; from black gloved killers and an array of odd characters, all the way to an amazingly convoluted plot. Indeed, the storyline here gets so complicated at times that it's liable to give the viewer an extreme headache, but Bava is always on hand with another glorious murder scene, and as the film features thirteen deaths in it's eighty one minute running time - there's certainly no lack of the red stuff. Bava ensures that the murders are suitably varied, and we get treated from an array of methods of dispatch, including axes, a spear through a lovemaking couple and an excellent scene that sees someone skewered to a wall. Mario Bava's eye for detail doesn't wane with this film, as despite being a grisly slasher; there's still more than enough time for beautiful scene setting. The bay itself looks great and excellently lends itself as a location for savagery, while the decors of the character's homes are elaborately Gothic. With the pitch-black ending, the director shows us that the film isn't meant to be taken seriously, and overall, Bay of Blood is both influential and a great time - and therefore shouldn't be missed by horror fans.

• A.D. V

  
  It's deaths have been imitated countless times which makes it worth watching for that alone but the ending is a jaw-dropping piece of cinema that is probably the most unintentionally funny thing I've ever seen in a straight horror movie.

• Lafe F

  
  A very gorey Italian slasher film directed by Mario Bava. The murder mystery plot is confusingly hard to follow because there are at least 4 killers. The high body count death scenes were the inspiration for the Friday the 13th series. People get it bloodily and painfully in inventive… More
  A very gorey Italian slasher film directed by Mario Bava. The murder mystery plot is confusingly hard to follow because there are at least 4 killers. The high body count death scenes were the inspiration for the Friday the 13th series. People get it bloodily and painfully in inventive ways. You need a scorecard to keep track of the survivors. There are two DVDs: one has terrible sound quality and the other has terrible picture quality.

• Michael G

  
  Complete and utter crap, which is surprising seeing as how A Bay of Blood, Twitch of the Death Nerve or whatever the hell you want to call it comes from one of my favorite directors. It starts off with one of the most surprising and shocking murders I've ever seen, woos you with… More
  Complete and utter crap, which is surprising seeing as how A Bay of Blood, Twitch of the Death Nerve or whatever the hell you want to call it comes from one of my favorite directors. It starts off with one of the most surprising and shocking murders I've ever seen, woos you with a few beautiful landscape shots and a reasonably cool score then goes straight to hell with some lame slasher plot that comes off like a low-rent Dementia 13. It was boring, I stayed up too late watching it and the only payoff will come when I sell my copy on Amazon.

• Chris W

  
  Very influential slasher film, whose influence can heavily bee seen in Halloween and throughout the Friday the 13th series. This is a pretty interesting film that all slasher films fans should watch.

• Daniel P

  
  Review soon.

• Quinto W

  
  It's amazong how many movies this has inspired, the murders and gore are both truly spectacular, and it's definitely one of the most important horror films ever because it laid out many of the rules that are still closely followed. The problem, however, is that what could… More
  It's amazong how many movies this has inspired, the murders and gore are both truly spectacular, and it's definitely one of the most important horror films ever because it laid out many of the rules that are still closely followed. The problem, however, is that what could potentially be a great whodunit becomes too messy and is stuck doing nothing for the majority of the running time.

• Anthony V

  
  Many sequences stolen by Friday the 13th.

• John M

  
  Obviously this movie inspired Friday the 13th and the second sequel, most of the elments and deaths were taken from this flix. "Bay of Blood" is a gory, early 70's mystery which has creepy atmosphere and plenty of gruesome gore, Known by many different titles, among… More
  Obviously this movie inspired Friday the 13th and the second sequel, most of the elments and deaths were taken from this flix. "Bay of Blood" is a gory, early 70's mystery which has creepy atmosphere and plenty of gruesome gore, Known by many different titles, among them "A Bay of Blood", "Carnage", "Twitch of the Death Nerve", and "Last House on the Left, Part II",

• Patrick D

  
  You're gonna want to watch this film for it's style. Mario Bava's direction is just amazing to watch unfold. In this film he definitely creates a film style that is all his own, and at the same time you can see, with all the movies out today, how influential he was.… More
  You're gonna want to watch this film for it's style. Mario Bava's direction is just amazing to watch unfold. In this film he definitely creates a film style that is all his own, and at the same time you can see, with all the movies out today, how influential he was. Let's not forget the plot either that is just twisty as hell and of course suspenseful and creepy. The opening scene is one of the best ever committed to celluloid.

Read all 13 featured audience ratings