a bay of blood (1971)

AKA Ecologia del delitto. Twitch of the Death Nerve.
"There will be tears shed over the bay."
A wealthy countess (Isa Miranda) is murdered by her husband who is in turn stabbed to death, a scenario that preticipates a slew of killings as their deaths unleash a land dispute with those hoping to inherit her large estate.
Often sited as the grandfather of the slasher movie and you can see the origins of the genre in this entertaining horror.

baron blood (1972)

AKA Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga
"If he were really to come back he would be a monster."
Peter Kleist (Antonio Cantafora) travels to his ancestral castle in Austria to researh notorious "Baron Blood" a renowned sadist who was reputedly cursed by a witch he had burned to death. At the castle Peter meets Eva (Elke Sommer) who is helping with renovations and they stupidly read an incantation which is supposed to bring the Baron back to life! Following their reading murders start occurring and the castle is subsequently sold to millionare Alfred Becker (Joseph Cotton). But why does he want it and who is the serial killer?
An evocative gothic horror, from a horror master, but this somehow lacks something.

the giant of marathon (1959)

aka La battaglia di Maratona.
"You are as beautiful as a statue of a god."
Phillipides (Steve Reeves) is having a good time winning Olympic wreathes and being a hero. But he has to battle politicial intrige whilst falling for Andromeda (Mylène Demongeot), and then Darius invades with his mighty Persian army.
Above average Peplum, that plays fast and loose with the legend.

what (1963)

aka The Whip And The Body. La frusta e il corpo.
"Kurt, you are not my son, you are a serpant."
A 19th Century nobleman (Christopher Lee) returns to the ancestral castle after years of wandering, and immediately sets about alienating his extended family. So much so that when he is subsequently found murdered, suspicion falls on all of them. Then his ghost is seen roaming...
Standard Gothic horror, with added sado-masochistic tendencies, and the visual flare that Bava brings to all his films.

a bay of blood (1971)

aka Twitch of the Death Nerve. Reazione a catena.
"I don't kill as a hobby like you do."
Following the murder of a Countess, her family scheme to take over her seafront property. Meanwhile a group of hippies arrive for a beach party, but are very quickly dispatched one by one.
Considered to be the grandfather of the slasher movie, this is a stylish experiment in exploring inventive ways to kill off it's actors, but shows little interest in using an engaging plot.

the day the sky exploded (1958)

aka La morte viene dallo spazio.
"To the successful conclusion of this venture."
Meteors are on a collision course with earth, so scientists are working against time to prevent this obviously disasterous occurance from happening.
Low budget oddity from Italy, known more for its director of photography, Mario Bava, than its plot. Mainly due to the fact that virtually all the film is set in a spaceship's control room.

hercules in the haunted world (1961)

aka Hercules In The Center Of The Earth.
"I almost wished you had left me here to die."
Hercules (Reg Park) has to decend into Hades to retrieve a stone that will allow him to free Princess Deianira (Leonora Ruffo) from a curse, set by King Lico (Christopher Lee).
Bava gives this installment some added lysergic qualities, that can only up the entertainment value.

hatchet for the honeymoon (1970)

aka Blood Brides. Il rosso segno della follia. An Axe for the Honeymoon.
"...I must go on wielding the cleaver...'
A man's childhood trauma causes him to end any thoughts of wedding bells for a number of brides to be, as he murders a number of buyers of his bridal gowns.
A twist on the usual giallo formula, as we start off knowing who the killer is as he tells us. Stephen Forsyth plays the murder, who in voice over narrates his torment and need to kill. So the final reveal is not the point here, but the journey, and what a stylish and entertaining journey it is.

a bay of blood (1971)

aka Chain Reaction. Carnage. Ecology Of A Crime. Twitch Of The Death Nerve. Reazione a catena.
"If you kill for killings sake you become a monster."
An elderly heiress is murdered by her husband trying to get his hands on her estate. In doing so he unleashes a wave of violence, as various relatives and friends get in on the act and start offing each other.
Directed with Bava's usual flare, this is a gorefest, and concidered to be the first slasher, but in truth, (like many of the films it influenced), this is not a great piece of entertainment. Definitely not one of Bava's best, but then a lesser Bava is still better than most.

lisa and the devil (1974)

aka Lisa e il diavolo.
"It is not always wise to stir up the past. We all have some hidden secrets."
Seperated from her tour group Lisa (Elke Sommer) is spooked when she meets a mysterious man (Telly Savalas), who bears an uncanny likeness to the Devil on a fresco she had viewed earlier that day. Later, and still looking for her group, she is forced to shelter at a villa for the night, where the same man is a butler...
An atmospheric and stylish nightmare world, leaning much on foreboding to build an atmosphere. Not well recieved at the time, this was reversoned as the over the top The House of Exorcism.

blood and black lace (1964)

aka Sei donne per l'assassino. Fashion House of Death.
"Perhaps the sight of beauty makes him lose control of himself, and kill."
A model working for the fasion house run by Max Morlacchi (Cameron Mitchell) and Countess Cristiana Como (Eva Bartok) is murdered. Then when a diary is found, which purports to include evidence to the killers identity, more women are bumped off as the murderer attempts to gain possession of it.
Classic from the master of Italian murder mystery, that purports to have kickstarted the Giallo genre.

shock (1977)

AKA Beyond The Door II. Schock.
"Mama, I have to kill you."
Dora (Daria Nicolodi) is emotionally unstable, after the apparent suicide of her first husband and years of abuse at his hands. Newly re-married to Bruno (John Steiner), he insists they move back to the home she once shared with husband number one. But she is uneasy about it, especially when her son Marco (David Colin Jr.) starts talking to an imaginary friend, a friend that seems to have a malevolent agenda.
Bava's last film isn't his best, but is still an entertaining suspense filled horror with some interesting plot twists to keep you guessing. Unfortunately much of the movie centres on the child, who is more than annoying and difficult to ignore.

planet of the vampires (1965)

aka Terrore Nello Spazio. Demon Planet. Planet of Blood. Space Mutants. Terror in Space. The Haunted Planet. The Haunted World. The Outlawed Planet. The Planet of Terror. The Planet of the Damned.
Two spaceships, the Argos and the Galliot are investigating a new planet and decide to land and explore. When the Galliot lands it looses contact with the Argos, which then crashes to the planets surface. When the crew wake they start attacking each other, before coming to their senses. They then find the Galliot, with its crew dead, but before they can bury them all, some of the corpses go missing. They slowly realise that they are not alone and there is the possibility that a race of bodiless aliens are taking over their bodies!
AIP co-produced this film giving them some control over decisions and installed an international cast of actors including American Barry Sullivan and Brazilian Norma Bengell, as the two leads. Bava in turn provided AIP with a wonderfully realised sci-fi, featuring beautiful fog shrouded landscapes, and crews in futuristic leather space suits, belying the low budget nature of the film.

black sabbath (1963)

aka I Tre volti della paura. The Three Faces of Fear. The Three Faces of Terror. Les Trois visages de la peur.
A horror in three parts, introduced by and featuring Boris Karloff as the Wurdalak. Firstly, The Telephone where a woman recieves a series of phone calls from her ex-pimp who has escaped from prison. She enlists the help of her lesbian ex-lover Mary, who comes over, but this just serves to rack up the tension and claustrophobia as they await the coming of Frank. Second we have The Wurdalak: A 19th Century tale of a young man who stumbles on a family awaiting the return of their father, who they now believe to be a Wurdalak. A walking cadaver who feeds on the blood of the living, preferably close friends and family. The final story is The Drop Of Water. In Victorian London a woman is called to a house to dress the corpse of a medium, and whilst doing so steals a ring. She is subsequently plagued by a fly and visions of the corpse. The fantastic photography and lighting lends extra atmosphere to these three very claustrophobic and stylish stories. See this film, but preferably in the original Italian version. AIP for some reason decided to tamper and released it with the stories rearranged and eliminating some of the sub plot elements.

kill baby kill (1966)

aka Operazione Paura, Curse Of The Living Dead, Curse Of The Dead, Don't Walk In The Park.
"If you value your lives you will not continue with this investigation."
Transylvania, and the ghost of a small girl plagues a village. The mysterious deaths come to the authorities attention and they send a doctor to investigate.
Beautifully shot Mario Bava atmospheric horror. The slow pacing only serves to heighten the atmosphere of menace.

knives of the avenger (1966)

aka Bladestorm , Raffica di coltelli, Viking Massacre.
A lesser Bava Viking film. Cameron Mitchell is a mysterious stranger who comes to the aid of a woman and her son. A long-winded story then unfolds, at a very slow pace.

the girl who knew too much (1963)

aka The Evil Eye, La Ragazza che sapeva troppo.
Credited as the first giallo film, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, was a Hitchcock style thriller where an American tourist (John Saxon) gets caught up in the hunt for a killer whilst in Rome. It even has time to throw in some comedy along the way. Well worth the price of admission and a glimpse at the future of Italian horror courtesy of Mario Bava.

mask of satan (1960)

aka Black Sunday. House of Fright. Mask of the Demon. Revenge of the Vampire. The Demon's Mask. The Hour When Dracula Comes.
Or La maschera del demonio as it was known in Italy, was an early indication of Mario Bava's talent, being his directorial debut. It was considered gruesome at the time and was banned in the UK for eight years. But don't let the squemish British censors put you off - it's really a beautifully evocative piece of storytelling.

danger diabolik (1968)

A fine example of a comic book adaption by Mario Bava. Staring John Philip Law as Diabolik, and Terry Thomas as a hapless government minister. 1968 will never look so good in any other film.