Maestro of Macabre: The 6 Most Influential Mario Bava Horror Films
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Italian horror is known for its lush visual style, brutality, and its own, well-regarded sub-genre of horror called Gialli. Auteurs like Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, Michele Soavi, and many more have staked a claim on the genre and left a lasting imprint. But Mario Bava, an essential Italian filmmaker that worked in all genres of film from the early ‘40s up until his death in 1980, is responsible not just for influencing Italian horror but modern horror as we know it today.
Beginning his film career as a cinematographer, a role that no doubt played into his stunning visual style, Bava would transition into directing horror films in the ‘50s, though uncredited, as well as work in special effects. But when he began to work under his own name starting in the ‘60s, everything changed. His opulent cinematography, inventive use of modest budgets, innovative storytelling and atmospheric style not only contributed to the birth of giallo and modern slashers, but played major influence on filmmakers that would further shape both horror and film itself. While there’s an extensive filmography of great Bava films worth seeing, here are the six most influential horror films that shaped the genre:
Black Sunday (1960)
Bava’s directorial debut, or at least the first in which he actually received credit, launched his career and that of lead star Barbara Steele’s. It was a huge success in terms of box office and critical reception, made more impressive considering its censorship for being very gruesome for its time. Opening with an inquisition that sees a witch sentenced to death by her own brother for her dark ways, she vows revenge in the form of a curse. 200 years later, she returns to possess her young descendent and enact her retribution. A tribute to black & white Gothic horror of the 1930s, Bava keeps it modern with the level of bleak violence, especially the opening scene featuring the iron maiden. The most well-known of Bava’s films, it’s played a major influence on films like Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow.
Black Sabbath (1963)
A horror anthology with a trio of tales introduced by iconic horror vet Boris Karloff, Black Sabbath was made with foreign financial backing with the intent of putting it in American theatres. The segments “The Telephone,” “The Wurdalak,” and “The Drop of Water,” spin tales of a stalked call girl, a vampiric creature terrorizing a family, and a nurse haunted by her stolen ring’s rightful owner. Be sure to seek out the Italian version, as the American edit cuts out more controversial plot elements and rearranges the segment order that places the best of the bunch first (“The Drop of Water”). The most obvious influence from Black Sabbath would be its name appropriation from Ozzy Osbourne’s heavy metal band, originally titled Earth before they saw the film in theatres. The film’s story structure played a vital role in the creation of Pulp Fiction, as well.
Blood and Black Lace (1964)
This bright Technicolor murder mystery is often cited as the origin of the giallo, or at least what brought it into prominence and served as the template of gialli that would follow. With a murder whodunit plot surrounding a killer decked in black that brutally dispatches fashion models, the saturated colors, vicious slayings, and even killer trademarks like black gloves would set the blueprint for films to come. It’s a film that had a notable influence on filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Dario Argento.
Planet of the Vampires (1965)
The plot follows a group of astronauts responding to a distress call coming from a strange planet. Upon descent, the crew initially turns on each other and attack, but once that passes they begin to be hunted by a strange, unknown presence. Sounds like a 1979 horror sci-fi classic by Ridley Scott, doesn’t it? While writer Dan O’Bannon and director Ridley Scott have denied seeing Bava’s film during their creation of Alien, the resemblance can be uncanny. Bava fully embraced the pulpy nature of the narrative, making it feel like a brought to life sci-fi comic. The ideas introduced here seem to play a vital role in similar films besides Alien, like Pitch Black and Prometheus.
Kill, Baby…Kill! (1966)
A return to gothic horror, this highly regarded feature was centered on one of Bava’s favorite themes; fear. Following a village haunted by the ghost of a homicidal little girl, Bava’s use of saturated color keeps this gothic tale of ghosts and witchcraft feeling like a fevered dream. Exploring themes of distrust and a haunted past, this film also played a major influence on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Argento’s Suspiria, and Scorcese’s The Last Temptation of Christ.
A Bay of Blood (1971)
Also known as Twitch of the Death Nerve, this giallo was also Bava’s most violent. When a wealthy woman is murdered by her husband, it triggers a series of murders where no one appears to be safe in the surrounding area. Bordering on dark comedy, it features a gory body count filled with beheadings, stabbings, and strangling. It is essentially the outline for modern slashers as we know it. Between the one by one body pile up and the POV shots, this is the one Bava film that’s perhaps most obvious in its legacy. The giallo influence is clear, but more than that is its influence on Friday the 13th. Even a major death in Friday the 13th Part 2, in which a couple gets skewered mid-coital, seems borrowed from this Bava classic.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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