Bay of Blood, when it was originally released, was extremely controversial. Director Mario Bava was well known and generally respected as a filmmaker up to this point. But Bay of Blood pushed the line for violence and gore during the time period. Some critics called the violence in this film "pornographic" at times. But it was the violence from Bay of Blood that helped the very beginning embers of the slasher genre start to glow. (Ultimately Halloween threw the gas can on the fire that exploded the slasher genre during the late 70s and through the 80s).
The film opens with a classic murder scene. An old woman in a wheel chair is looking out over the bay from her window of her estate house. As she goes to roll away from the window someone comes in and hangs her. The murderer throws the cord around her neck and pushes the wheel chair out from under her. Because she doesn't have the strength to stand she instead hangs there limply until she dies. (It was a fairly brutal murder of an elderly woman).This seems pretty normal for an opening scene until someone else comes in the house and stabs the previous murderer to death. So the murderer was murdered and then dragged to be dumped in the bay. Already the plot is getting strange.
We cut to a couple in bed as the discuss how they are going to get possession of the bay and surrounding estate now that the old woman is dead. This is the center point of the film. This old lady has died and everybody and their dog is coming out to try and inherit the land. It is a very typical story we've seen in hundreds of chiller films before. The difference in this film is the incredible gore.
During the early moments of the film a group of hapless teenagers stumble upon the bay and start running around causing havoc. I thought this group of kids was going to play a large role in throwing the inheritance to someone else or something along those lines. But no. One of the girls goes skinny dipping and she finds the dead body that was thrown in there earlier. (Which is an excellently creepy scene, I might add). Therefore, the kids are now a liability to the murderer. The kids are quickly dispatched one by one in the most gruesome ways possible.
Night falls as more people desiring the estate show up. Then a whole round of killing begins. Fairly quickly we figure out that there is more than one murderer. Multiple people are dispatching others in order to become the final inheritor of the bay. Blood is spilled, dead bodies are found and strewn about the many secluded locations around the bay, and multiple murderers are revealed.
It is a crazy and convoluted plot but I enjoyed most of the film anyways. The reason I looked past the crazy plot was the way some of the shots were made. So often I watch foreign films and realize how diluted much of mainstream American film is. Bay of Blood takes time to really concentrate on the important shots. Some of these are simply beautiful and others engaging. It gives the film a sense of the art house style while still retaining grit in between. The murder scenes have a violent yet artistic manner to them. It becomes quickly apparent why films such as Friday the 13th were inspired by--and borrowed elements from--this Italian film.
But this film is by far not a work of perfection. The acting was fairly decent for the time period and genre, and many of the shots look great. But sometimes a few of the elements get lost in the cracks. The story is difficult to follow at times and often far fetched. The cliches of the borrowed story ideas are apparent but then are mixed in a thick stew of confusion. It was as if the film was trying to be different and trying to have good twists and turns, but ultimately it doesn't work. In my mind much of this is forgivable except the ending. I won't say what the ending is but it is so ridiculous and out of the blue that I thought I was reading another poorly conceived Goosebumps book.
Summing it Up
Deaths: 14
Language: 2
Gore Factor: 4
Sex Factor: 4
Scare Factor: 4
Fun Factor: 4
Overall Rating: 4
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