[Daemonia]

My favourite Bava film is, surprisingly, Five Dolls for an August Moon. I absolutely adore this tongue-in-cheek Giallo that oozes 60's mod coolness, even moreso than Danger: Diabolik IMO. Five Dolls is cheesy but wonderful. The score by Piero Umiiliani really underscores the whackiness of it all and Bava is in a playful mood, even though he's essentially just a director-for-hire here. Nevertheless, its has some fine moments of Bava greatness. I love how the bodies are piling up in the freezer and still the avarice and wheeling 'n' dealing just carries on, in spite of everyone being bumped off around them. And notice the spiral staircase in the house, every now and then Bava frames it in such a way that it looks like a huge dollar sign. Genius.

Now I know most will not agree with me, but it's my fave anyway. But for balance, my next favourite would be Bay of Blood, as I'm a huge slasher movie fan and it could be argued that this is really where it all began.