Editorials
[Butcher Block] Mario Bava’s Gory ‘A Bay of Blood’ Paved the Way for the Slasher
Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
Italian director, screenwriter, special effects artist, and cinematographer Mario Bava has often been credited as birthing the giallo, which subsequently played a major influence on the rise of the American slasher. Bava’s major style departure from gothic to shocking carnage in A Bay of Blood in 1971 made the biggest impact, with popular slashers like Friday the 13th Part II borrowing heavily from the outline Bava laid out right down to some of the deaths. The plot is simple; a wealthy heiress is murdered in the opening scene, leaving her estate ripe for the taking and setting off a chain of murders as a result.
Also known as Carnage, Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood Bath, and even Last House on the Left – Part II when it was released in drive-in theaters stateside, A Bay of Blood has a high body count at 13 kills, each death sequence topping the last. Fans and critics who previously admired Bava’s work hated this film, its nonstop brutal slaughter and gore without much in the way of coherent plot striking a nerve. Nothing had been released quite like this before. Actor Christopher Lee, who’d previously starred in Bava’s The Whip and the Body, was so disgusted with the violence on screen that he walked out of the theater when it opened. Though it may not have a familiar gothic aesthetic, the film still bears the marks of Bava’s eye for visual flair and a dark sense of humor. Bava establishes early on that it’s not one murderer behind the slayings, but quite a few greedy heir hopefuls. Very few endings have such a wry wink and a twisted sense of humor either.
Between the film’s title and the visceral deaths that included double impalement of a couple mid-coital, decapitations, impalements in the face with a billhook, throat slitting by billhook, and more, it should surprise no one that this film made the persecuted list of Video Nasties. Despite a low budget, which forced Bava to also assume the role of cinematographer, his experience in filmmaking and legendary special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi worked in tandem to create memorably effective gore for the deaths.
Rambaldi’s work meant for some gruesome viscera, and Bava wasn’t afraid to get up close and personal with it. Rambaldi has worked with the most influential of Italian horror directors, and his work with Lucio Fulci in the film A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin earned the special effects artist the rare distinction of being the first forced to prove in a court of law that his special effects work on a film wasn’t real. Rambaldi was a master of gore in the early to mid ‘70s, and would go on to win Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects for his work on Alien and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. All of this to say that A Bay of Blood brought two masters of horror together to create a unique bloodbath of a film that’s left an indelible mark on the slasher.
The slasher subgenre owes a lot to A Bay of Blood, particularly it’s body count. There are a few deaths in Friday the 13th Part II that seems to lift directly from Bava’s splatter filled slasher prototype, but the long-lasting influence continued for decades from films like The Burning to even Scream, and beyond. It’s a film that absolutely delivers for rabid fans of splatter, but it does so with some clever changes to convention and a twisted sense of humor.
Editorials
‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel
The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.
The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.
With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).
It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.
The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.
The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.
Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.
Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
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