Synopsis

For Master Of The Macabre Mario Bava (BLACK SUNDAY), it was to be the most startling film of his entire career: After a botched payroll heist, a trio of vicious criminals take hostages in a desperate getaway that explodes with cruelty, degradation and shocking violence. But when the film’s financier was killed during the last stages of production, his entire estate – including the sole unfinished work print of RABID DOGS – was seized and impounded by an Italian court. Mario Bava’s final masterpiece – and one of the most intense EuroCrime thrillers of all time – would remain locked away for nearly 23 years.

Official Review

Mario Bava was an exceedingly seminal director of horror cinema before his death in 1980, an Italian master of the genre who strongly influenced the likes of Dario Argento, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese. Although he dabbled in several different genres, Bava specialized in moody horror films featuring dazzling art direction and garish color schemes. His second-to-last film, Rabid Dogs, is a heist movie, a rare departure for the director, and due to problems with the film’s financiers, the movie was “lost” for over 20 years. Mario’s son, Lamberto Bava (Blade in the Dark, Demons), along with the assistance of Alfredo Leone, one of the film’s producers, shot additional coverage and reedited the movie, and it was briefly released in 1998 before spiraling into DVD moratorium. Anchor Bay, forever the pimp daddy of quality horror re-releases, has finally coughed up a combo DVD containing both Kidnapped (the version shot by Lamberto and Leone) and Rabid Dogs (Bava’s original film), and fervent Bava fans should be eternally grateful. …Read More