Bay of Blood

Rating:
Summary: What a shame!
Review: I have never seen this movie. My first viewing should have been last night, but thanks to the horrible audio on this DVD it is virtually unwatchable. I have heard the the audio on the BAY OF BLOOD release is better, but that the picture is garbage. So, looks like this is a no win situation for the time being.

Rating:
Summary: Average Film, Atrocious Sound...
Review: I looked forward to this release for a long time, having just missed out on getting the "Bay of Blood" version and being interested in seeing the film that inspired so many rip-offs in the early 80s (especially Friday the 13th - shot for shot in one sequence). I sat down with some expectations, but not too many and what I got was a very boring, killer film with a few excellent setpieces.

The film kicked off brilliantly and the first ten minutes were quite something, but then the plot kicked in and the film bogs down and then bogs down some more as we are introduced to a variety of cardboard characters that youn couldn't give a ---- about. It was interesting to see Bond Girl Claudine Auger 7 years on from "Thunderball" though.

Being Bava, this has some great sequences (opening titles, the deaths, and an awesome scene involving a nude girl, swimming and some fishing line), the music too is really moody yet cruisy, and the killer is not your usual mad-slasher variety. However, the audio on the DVD is AWFUL!! Characters sound like they're whispering and you turn the volume up, only to have them start shouting and almost shatter your living room windows. The print isn't bad (Not great though), and it has some good extras like an Acid Drenched 70s trailer etc, and best of all a death menu (where you can access all the deaths in the film at a push of a button), but really you can save your money and go and buy a better film than this. Historical curio only.

Rating:
Summary: Average Film, Atrocious Sound...
Review: I looked forward to this release for a long time, having just missed out on getting the "Bay of Blood" version and being interested in seeing the film that inspired so many rip-offs in the early 80s (especially Friday the 13th - shot for shot in one sequence). I sat down with some expectations, but not too many and what I got was a very boring, killer film with a few excellent setpieces.

The film kicked off brilliantly and the first ten minutes were quite something, but then the plot kicked in and the film bogs down and then bogs down some more as we are introduced to a variety of cardboard characters that youn couldn't give a ---- about. It was interesting to see Bond Girl Claudine Auger 7 years on from "Thunderball" though.

Being Bava, this has some great sequences (opening titles, the deaths, and an awesome scene involving a nude girl, swimming and some fishing line), the music too is really moody yet cruisy, and the killer is not your usual mad-slasher variety. However, the audio on the DVD is AWFUL!! Characters sound like they're whispering and you turn the volume up, only to have them start shouting and almost shatter your living room windows. The print isn't bad (Not great though), and it has some good extras like an Acid Drenched 70s trailer etc, and best of all a death menu (where you can access all the deaths in the film at a push of a button), but really you can save your money and go and buy a better film than this. Historical curio only.

Rating:
Summary: bava forever
Review: I reviewed this movie a few months ago under one of its many alternative titles - Twitch of the Death Nerve- it seems to have fallen off amazon.com's catalogue but now we have this fab new release under the title Bay of Blood. This frenzied phantasia on ancient evil was banned in my country of birth (UK) and to my knowledge is still not available there uncut. I saw the movie last year at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, What a wonder - See how Sean Cunningham ripped off Bava to create the infintely inferior Friday the 13th ! Bay of Blood echoes those Jacobean revenge tragedies - a gory meditation on all-devouring greed, its characters locked in a bizarre danse macabre of hate and malice, driven by compulsions that all come down to "I want that ! Give it to me!" - if you've ever been involved in a dispute over a family inheritance - this one's for you. And what Bava was able to do with his camera - the angling and prowling and nervous probings into the heart of darkness ---as if the lens were a living animal and Bava its splendid trainer. Essential for fans of Cinema, of Horror, of the real art of moviemaking.

Rating:
Summary: Could hardly hear a full sentence
Review: I usually interpret criticisms of sound quality as coming from people who are hard-core audiophiles with unreasonably high expectations. In this case, the criticisms are absolutely valid. I can't even really tell you the plot of this movie (at least based on the dialogue), because I could hardly hear a complete sentence. It was an abyssmal experience to say the least, by the end I had a headache from turning the volume up and down so many times.

I agree with the reviewer who felt betrayed by Image for releasing this DVD. They indeed should have eaten the loss and tried again. This is a full-on defective product and I don't think Amazon should even offer it for sale.

Rating:
Summary: What's the Problem?
Review: I wanted to buy this film for a long time but I kept putting it off because of all the negative reviews I read, specifically about the DVD's sound quality. I bought it anyway, as I wanted to see the movie in its uncut entirety and now I have to ask...

What's the problem? The sound isn't that bad, it's barely in the realm of "bad" at all. I didn't have to raise or lower the volume once throughout the whole film.

The movie itself is pretty kick ass. The murders are great and gory, lots of spalshy red stuff. This film pretty much lived up to its reputation as a violent, early slasher. It succeeds in being a beautifully photographed, sloppily plotted, poorly acted, Italian bloodbath. Exactly the type of movie I like. If you're in my camp, don't let the reviews about the sound dissuade you from owning the true classic of the genre.



Rating:
Summary: The Original "Friday The 13th"
Review: I was lucky to catch this film on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) this past Halloween.

Mario Bava's "Bay Of Blood" is the definitive insperation for the "Friday The 13th" franchise, so much so, that I couldn't help but think that somewhere Jason Voorhees & his loving mama, Pamela, were taking cribnotes.

The film (from what I got out of it) is basically, a fight for Ventura Bay, prime, virgin, beachfront property that is ripe for development.

Things start to turn grim, when two couples show up looking for a place to fool around in & find it in an abandoned summer house. Before you can say "ki,ki,ki,...ma,ma,ma" (according to "Friday" composer, Harry Manfredini, thats, actually, the way Jason's cue is supposed to sound), the two couples go there seperate ways with one couple going into the bedroom to make love, while the guy from the second couple gets ditched by his girl who decides to go for a swim in the bay. When she finds a floating corpse in the water, the girl, naturally, freaks and runs to find her friends but gets her throat slashed by the unseen killer. After the killer dispatches the rest, the film gets a little confusing when a couple show up with their two young children & with so many double & triple crosses its hard to keep up. Needless to say no one is left standing at the end of the film.

"Blood" does have some creepy elements to it. The film is set in the late afternoon, early dusk. The first four murders happen all in daylight and the feeling of being safe in the daylight is all but gone. The ki,ki,ki,...ma,ma,ma, thats the staple for the "Friday" films is all but missing & I actually jumped twice during the film.

The main downfall for the film, this also includes a little plot clarity, is that "Bay Of Blood" doesn't generate hardly any suspense at all.

The film is interesting to watch, more so, as a curiosity to Italian Horror & of course, the connection to the "Friday The 13th" films.

Rating:
Summary: Twitch of the Deaf Nerve
Review: If you love buying videotapes mastered in the dreaded E.P. mode, with atrocious sound quality, improper letter- boxing and grainy picture quality-this title is for you. It's very fortunate I didn't waste more money by ordering the DVD edition, because apparently it isn't any better. As for the film itself, it is impossible to judge under these circumstances. The plot is difficult to follow due to the incomprehensible dialogue and the visuals are hard to appreciate. If Image is restoring this to add to their Bava collection, you would be well advised to wait.

Rating:
Summary: Bay of Blood (1977) d: Bava, Mario
Review: In England, during the eighties video scare, there weren't many classic films in the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) banned film listings, however Mario Bava's Bay of Blood (better known by its Video Nasty title Blood Bath) was one of them. With Bay of Blood, Italy's Mario Bava single-handedly invented the "body count" sub-genre. The film is a stylish, somewhat graphic, and gory whodunit. Although considered boring by today's standards, Bay of Blood has directly influenced many horror films later to follow. The more famous slasher film, Friday the 13th is essentially an unacknowledged remake, right down to the machete to the face, and the two lovers impaled on a spear that suddenly shoots up through the bed. If you are like myself, and are interested in the origins of horror film, or Italian cinema, then this is very well priced for you.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, shame on image entertainment!
Review: In short, another masterpiece from horror maestro bava and a beautiful widescreen transfer dvd with one litte exception, in terms of sound quality this is the worst dvd ever released!!!
The music is as loud and distorted as each dialogue is low and barely audible unless you have a stadium sound equipment of course. So DON'T BUY IT and go for a vhs or dvd english edition of this one, it's not uncut but the sound is perfectly OK. Shame, shame, shame Image Entertainment!!!