A Bay Of Blood Blu-ray Review

• 24th Dec 2010

Good God, how many different titles has this film had!  Well no matter now as this release is going under the title of A Bay of Blood which is one of the titles that does at least reflect more closely to the films content.

You may think it is a pre-Friday the 13^th type of set up with a bay of water and a group of assorted individuals being bumped off by a killer. It is actually a little bit deeper than that when the killing starts to become all the more complicated.

Welcome to the world of Mario Bava, where slasher films were both creative and not just dumb and disposable. Anyone familiar with the director’s work will know that they are actually very well shot, angles being a key thing in Bava’s work.

The script – although not about to win any awards – is more thought out than that of the modern day horror film and does actually get the old gears working. It is also full of some surprisingly funny black comedy as well as the odd moment of nonsensical bizarreness. Simply put, A Bay of Blood is a joy to watch from start to finish.

This edition comes with little on the extras despite it being such a well known masterpiece. It is also well known for being on the Video Nasty list back in the early 80s. What we do get instead is an old interview with Joe (Gremlins) Dante. An interview piece on the Giallo film makers and a couple of other interview pieces.  There is also a trailer selection, which highlight the films various other titles including Carnage and the preposterously dumb Twitch of the Death Nerve, which seems to be a particular favourite of Brit director Edgar Wright. He also provides a couple of quick commentaries over these two trailers.

If you are going to buy this title then get the Blu-ray. The extras are simply a case of watch them once and then forget about them forever, the film though is what is important and it looks absolutely beautiful on the Blu-ray definitions.

Steven Hurst