A Bay of Blood
| Twitch of the Death Nerve (Ecologia del delitto) |
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Original poster
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| Directed by | Mario Bava |
| Produced by | Giuseppe Zaccariello |
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| Music by | Stelvio Cipriani |
| Cinematography | Mario Bava |
| Edited by | Carlo Reali |
| Distributed by | Nuova Linea Cinematografica (Italy); Hallmark Releasing Corporation (U.S.) |
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Release date
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Running time
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84 minutes (uncut) 76 min. (cut version) |
| Country | Italy |
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A Bay of Blood (Italian: Ecologia del delitto; also known as Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood Bath and Reazione a catena/ Chain Reaction) is a 1971 Italian horror film directed by Mario Bava. Bava co-wrote the screenplay with Giuseppe Zaccariello, Filippo Ottoni, and Sergio Canevari, with story credit given to Dardano Sacchetti and Franco Barberi. The film stars Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Brigitte Skay, Nicoletta Elmi and Laura Betti. Carlo Rambaldi created the gruesome special make-up effects. The story details the simultaneous murderous activities of several different characters as they each attempt to remove any human obstacles that stand in the way of an inheritance of a bay.
Widely considered Bava's most violent film, its emphasis on graphically bloody murder set pieces was hugely influential on the slasher film subgenre that would follow a decade later. In 2005, the magazine Total Film named A Bay of Blood one of the 50-greatest horror films of all time.
At night in her bayside mansion, wheelchair-bound Countess Federica (Isa Miranda) is attacked and strangled to death by her husband Filippo Donati (Giovanni Nuvoletti). Moments later, Filippo himself is attacked and brutally stabbed to death by an assailant, and his corpse is then dragged to the bay. Upon investigation, the police find what they believe to be a suicide note written by the Countess, but Donati's murder goes undiscovered.
Real estate agent Frank Ventura (Chris Avram) and his lover Laura (Anna Maria Rosati) are plotting to take possession of the bay. After the Countess refuses to sell her home and property to them, the couple hatch a scheme with Donati to murder his wife. To finalize their plan, Ventura needs Donati's signature on a set of legal documents. They have no idea, however, that Donati himself has been killed.
Their curiosity piqued by news of the murder, four local teenagers break into the seemingly deserted mansion. Shy teen Bobby (Robert Bonnani) stays behind in the house while his date Brunhilda (Brigitte Skay) skinny-dips in the bay. She has barely begun her swim when Donati's rotting corpse rises from the water and collides with the nude girl. Terrified, Brunhilda rushes out of the water towards the mansion only before the unseen assailant catches up and murders her with a billhook. After Bobby is killed with the billhook slammed into his face, the killer takes a spear and impales Duke (Guido Boccaccini) and his girlfriend Denise (Paola Rubens) while they have sex.
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