A Bay of Blood
A Bay of Blood is a 1971 film from Italy, directed by Mario Bava, running 84 minutes. reelscum files it under giallo and slasher.
- Year
- 1971 · 1970s films
- Country
- Italy
- Runtime
- 84 min
- Director
- Mario Bava
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- known (18/100)
- Also known as
- Twitch of the Death Nerve · Carnage · Last House - Part 2 · Blood Bath · Last House on the Left 2
- Banned in
- UK
Defined in the glossary: Giallo, Slasher
A prosecuted DPP video nasty as Blood Bath, whose kills Friday the 13th Part 2 later reproduced almost shot for shot.
Bava invents the slasher a decade early. Friday the 13th copied two kills outright.
Mario Bava's proto-slasher, and one of the most influential horror films ever made. A tangle of heirs murder each other over a valuable bayside estate, and Bava strings the film together as a series of inventive, brutal set-piece killings with almost no connective plot, which is precisely what the American slasher would later do.
Friday the 13th Part 2 lifted two of its murders shot-for-shot. The nihilistic final joke is pure Bava. Made for almost nothing, it is the missing link between the giallo and the body-count film.
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Written about
- The giallo, 1963 to 1976
A line of yellow paperbacks, a killer in black gloves, and Mario Bava building the American slasher a decade before Hollywood cashed the cheque.
Filed alongside
Alice, Sweet Alice
American giallo in Catholic New Jersey. Genuinely disturbing and well acted.
StageFright
A killer in a giant owl mask, a locked theatre, and Soavi announcing himself.
Pieces
Spanish, incoherent, and gleefully stupid. 'Bastard! Bastard!'
Tenebrae
Argento's coldest and cleverest. That crane shot earns its reputation.
Phenomena
Insect telepathy, a Swiss boarding school, and a straight-razor chimpanzee. Argento off the leash.
High Tension
Aja before Hollywood, at maximum brutality, with a twist that still starts fights.
Inferno
Argento's sequel to Suspiria. Even less plot, even more colour. A building that is alive.
Maniac Cop
A dead cop stalks New York in uniform. Larry Cohen writes, Robert Z'Dar's jaw does the rest.
Blood and Black Lace
The template, and still the best-looking film on this list.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
Argento's debut, and the film that made the giallo an export.
The Cat o' Nine Tails
Argento's least favourite of his own films. He is roughly right.
Prom Night
Jamie Lee Curtis, a masked killer, and a decade-old secret. Halloween cashes in, disco included.