Bay of Blood (1971)
Mario Bava's last and arguably most iconic Giallo. Banned as part of the ludicrous "Video Nasties" witch hunt and listed as one of the 50's scariest movies of all time by Bravo (make of that what you will).
I enjoyed it. I've mentioned I love giallo so it's a surprise it's taken me so long to watch this. Though hardly scary, many of the effects are very well executed including the notorious throat slitting and fish hook to the face scene. Though well done the actual gore scenes are somewhat few and rather tame by today's standards. The decapitation and the two aforementioned killings are the most gruesome, while the pole to the spine was very restrained indeed. You could get all the others into a 12A movie right now.
Plot hardly takes center stage in this film, as with many giallo not directed by Argento, with the first ten minuets setting up the key players, the next 30 to teenagers being killed off (possibly this movie was the birth of this trope) and the rest focusing on two parents jumping from incident to incident trying to make clear of whats happening. It's a fairly more structured affair than other Italian murder mysteries, but still somewhat jumbled. But I find that part of the charm of this genre and why I can take it less seriously.
Probably most confusing about the film is the facts it had the most alternative titles of any horror movie. Besides the title it was banned under it was also named Carnage, The Oder of Flesh, Thus Do We Live to be Evil, Blood Bath (The title it was resubmitted as and subsequently banned again as), Before the Fact, The Ecology of Crime, Chain Reaction, Bay of Death and Last House on the Left-Part II (!!!).
The Arrow Video BD has one of the cleanest transfers I've ever seen for a movie of this age and pedigree, and can be bought fairly cheaply on amazon at the moment. The extras include a slightly extended cut with Italian subtitles and plenty of interviews and a reversible cover for the original Blood Bath VHS cover (which I use).
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