It inspired the slasher genre in terms of violence (cool ways to kill people, as opposed to horrifying) but its influence really stops there. A purposely twisted plot full of twisted people, all done with tongue twisted firmly in cheek (take note of the juxtaposition of insanely graphic murders immediately followed by impressionistic shots of abandoned cars, the sun setting over the bay, etc., set to nothing more than Cipriani's stark and beautiful piano theme), it's horror camp played very, very straight. Bava had too great a sense of humor to take his movies seriously, and his best later efforts (this, Danger: Diabolik!, House of Exorcism) showed him playing and commenting on the genres he was working in, rather than submitting to them. This is my favorite Bava film for those reasons, and this: it's just so much fun! Wildly stylish, it also features cinema's greatest rack focus, starting in close on a drop of rain running down a window pane, racking to the leaves on the trees outside in the yard, and finishing on a house ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BAY! At night, no less!! None of my cinematographically inclined friends have been able to figure out how he got the light needed to use a lens long enough to get that shot; he was his own DP on this one, too. A wild ride to be sure, and absolutely unique among horror films.
Review of A Bay of Blood
