It just goes to show that the most influential movies are not necessarily the best; this one spawned Friday 13th and a whole host of slasher movies, and yet it's the weakest giallo of Bava's I've seen to date. With thirteen murders and five different murderers running around, no matter how high your tolerance for the
ridiculous, sooner or later this movie is going to tip over into farce, though if you're anything like me you'll be too bamboozled by the plot - or lack of it - to pinpoint exactly when this happens. A shame really because things get off to a brilliant start with bravura double murder which breaks the first rule of the giallo, by revealing the killer's identity, then blindsides us with a stunning surprise while we're still catching our breath. I read somewhere that Bava enjoyed working with Laura Betti so much on Hatchet for the Honeymoon that he came up with Bay of Blood purely as an excuse to work with her again. This may well be true but the fact remains that Betti, so good in ...Honeymoon (as the wife who comes back from the dead to haunt the husband who murdered her), is totally wasted here; her fake medium is the most trivial character in the film. A movie with very little to recommend itself besides its bloodthirstiness, although the violence here lacks the sadistic cruelty of Blood and Black Lace and is less striking for that reason.
December 28, 2008
