I've never stopped being impressed by this director. Bava co-directed the first Italian horror movie in sound ( I Vampiri), kickstarted the Italian gothic horror revival by directing Black Sunday, and also has been credited with directing the first giallo ( The Evil Eye). Bava not only influenced his countrymen Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, but he also made an impact on John Carpenter, Tim Burton, Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. Outside of horror fans, however, people don't really know who he is.


Bava had a knack for creating an oppressive atmosphere through effective lighting and judicious use music and silence at the right moments. A complete absence of music during a suspenseful scene can create tension. Music can accomplish the same ends but a bad score or poorly chosen soundtrack could easily kill it too. So many horror movies these days have a soundtrack that won't shut the hell up but that goes for so many non-horror movies too (one of the reasons I'm not a big fan of the Watchmen movie.)

I came to realize that I was a fan of Bava once I noticed that so many of his films made it to my personal favorites list. These horror movies endured with me and earned the description of being timeless.

Black Sunday isn't a fast-paced vampire film but the visuals are amazing for its time. The set pieces are convincing and the make up for villains is nicely handled. Barbara Steele sells it as a compelling antagonist. This is a black and white film, and Bava took full advantage of that with well-placed lighting that created a profound chiaroscuro effect. As a result, the shadows in the movie are full of menace.

Blood and Black Lace is a memorable giallo with a pervasive sense of dread. It didn't fail to excite and I look forward to seeing it again in the near future. Kill, Baby...Kill! is a powerful ghost story and one that even disturbed me. Gloomy and disorienting, this one is worth watching over and over again.

One of Bava's most widely discussed works is the anthology film Black Sabbath, starring Boris Karloff. I saw the Italian and English versions but I prefer the English. Watching Karloff with a dubbed Italian voice is perverse in a way that isn't complementary to horror movies. Karloff's story is the longest and best portion in which he plays a patriarch who has returned home from hunting a killer but has been turned into a wurdulak. As a wurdulak, he is compelled to drink the blood of his loved ones.

Lastly, I'll mention The Whip and the Body starring Christopher Lee. After he died, I learned about his Italian movies and decided to watch this one. I've only seen it once but it stands out to me as one of Bava's best. Christopher Lee added poise and class to most of his roles and this was no exception. The film is another supernatural gothic but has sadomasochism as its central theme which made controversial and subject to heavy editing. As with all of the other Bava films I mentioned, this one has a potent atmosphere as well.

Bava directed numerous movies and there's so much that I haven't seen that I can't pretend to be an expert. What I do know is that he succeeded where several other capable horror directors failed: he made me want to rewatch his movies. I'm on a Bava kick now and recently ordered some of his movies, but if you haven't seen any of the ones I mentioned then I recommend you give them a shot.


Written by Nicholas Montelongo

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