Aka: Twitch of the Death Nerve, Carnage, Blood Bath etc etc
DVD / Blu-ray review (region 2)
Directed by Mario Bava
Starring Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Laura Betti
Release date Out now

When a wealthy countess is murdered, various characters descend upon her estate in the hope of snaring her inheritance. Turns out no one is above killing to get what they want…

A Bay of Blood (also known as Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood Bath and numerous other titles) is one of Mario Bava’s best known works, partly due to its influence on the slasher film (Friday the 13th Part II directly lifted the speared-during-sex moment) and partly because it was banned under the UK Video Recordings Act.

The film is a typically colourful, beautifully shot work from Bava that's brimming with brilliantly crafted sequences (a stylish opening double-murder, an octopus-on-a-corpse shock, a lights-out scrap). Unsurprisingly given its previously banned status, it is also one of Bava’s goriest films – blood spurts, heads are hacked off, victims are shot, strangled and impaled – though Carlo Rambaldi’s fun, elaborate effects are too OTT to really disturb.

The majority of the characters are undeveloped and unsympathetic, but the smart multiple-killers plotline allows for plenty of surprises, and the violent action benefits from Stelvio Cipriani’s score (which veers from pop-jazz to hypnotic drum beats) and jet-black humour (the movie ends on an unforgettable gag).

As usual with Arrow releases, there are lots of worthwhile extras here, including two versions of the film, an exhaustive commentary by Video Watchdog editor Tim Lucas, a poster, a booklet by Jay Slater, and two trailers with commentary from Edgar Wright (courtesy of Joe Dante’s site, Trailers From Hell).

Joe Dante himself talks about Bava and grindhouse cinema in the short documentary ‘Shooting a Spaghetti Classic’, while there are other interviews with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti (who compares the directing styles of Bava, Argento and Fulci) and assistant cameraman Gianlorenzo Battaglia (who muses on how Bava could have been much bigger than he was). There are also two radio spots, which boast how the film is “diabolical, fiendish, savage… You may not walk away from this one!” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves…Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
Multiple killers, inventive gore effects and colourful visuals: a true Italian horror classic.