(1971)Mario Bava's Bay of Blood, originally released as Twitch of the Death Nerve is one of the first, if not the very origin of the modern slasher flick. What separates Bava's work from Friday the 13th or Halloween is the intelligence of the story. Not mere revenge or psychopathic murder rage but real motive. No oversexed teenagers or supernatural beings who can't be killed here, everyone and anyone is fair game. There is no mistaking where the title comes from as the body count rises and a seemingly endless flow of bloated corpses are dragged from the bay.
Bava wastes no time delving into murder either. In the very first scene we witness a wheelchair bound elderly woman being rolled directly into a noose. Once it encircles her neck she is ejected from her chair and left to helplessly hang until she is dead. He takes the mystery and suspense of a good whodunnit and adds the flash of gore and lots of it too!
It's no secret that I do love me some Italian horror so I won't go for the hard sell since I'm quite biased here. I will just say that Bava is up there with Fulci, Argento, Soavi and Margheriti as one of my favorites. If you've never seen this film I highly recommend it, truly a must see classic for any hard core horror fanatic. The ending is mind blowing and I guarantee you will not see it coming.
