Let’s Get The Banned Back Together - 11 BAY OF BLOOD 1971

“Entertaining, sometimes brilliantly funny…” Chortle.co.uk

Doing for the Italian town of Latzio what Michael Myers did for Haddonfield, what Leatherface did for Texas and what David Brent did for Slough…we arrive - at last - to dive deep into the murky waters of Giallo (remembering to hold our nose, clutch tight our baggy Speedos and avoid the bobbing corpses…) Ciao ragazze!

A splashy sinister world of mystery, inheritance, seduction, moustaches and dune-buggies! All the synths, all the sleaze, all the mascara, all the murder, all the black gloves and all the dark deeds of the stickiest and sexiest of genres, its time to discover the most influential work by the Master Of Macabre, Mario Bava!   

Who are the selection of misfits, oddballs and badly dubbed hammy twerps who inhabit the luxury Italian Bay? And why can't they seemingly stay alive for more than twelve minutes before getting a machete in the gums?

Why does everyone seem to have a rightful claim to the dead Countess's land? And why do those who are meant to be under twenty all look about forty-six?

Where did the trio of writers get the inspiration that created this efficient, strip-em-down and slash 'em up blueprint which would go on, from here, to inspire 20 years of Friday the 13th style horror knock-offs?   

And how did director Bava get the cast to keep a straight face when he had to fake the lushness of the location by waggling leaves in front of the lens while pulling the camera along on a child's wagon? (Note, he didn't).

Discover all this and much, much more, as we count down all fourteen juicy slayings, discover the origins of the Giallo genre, dig through the meatballs into the work of budget producer Dino De Laurentiis and try and keep track as the movie (rated V for Violence) is released, withdrawn, banned, cut, renamed and rereleased…only to eventually appear on Total Film's list of  Greatest Horrors Of All Time. All this while labouring under over twelve different preposterous titles at the box office… it's Mario Bava's carnival of carnage, "Twitch Of the Death Nerve," aka…BAY OF BLOOD!

Richard Asplin is an award nominated novelist, comedian, pub quiz host and has appeared on Smershpod, LBC and Radio 5 as well as writing for The Guardian and The Sunday Telegraph.

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