Mario Bava Collection - Volume 2 (2007)

House of Bava

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Mario Bava Collection - Volume 2 on DVD

The companion piece to last spring's Mario Bava Collection - Volume 1, this new set contains more movies, eight as opposed to the previous set's five, but they draw much deeper from Bava's filmography. These are the films that went unappreciated (or even unreleased) in their own time, or they otherwise departed from the horror genre, thereby alienating even Bava's own fans. Some of his clunkers are here, and sadly, some of his best films, such as Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970), have been omitted (is there a Volume 3 in the works?). I suspect that this second box will appeal mainly to die-hard fans. That said, a box full of Bava is still something to celebrate and cherish, especially since it goes a long way toward establishing his rightful place in the pantheon.

By far the set's best film is Bay of Blood, also released as Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971). A predecessor to the slasher subgenre, it's said to have heavily influenced the Friday the 13th films. It begins with a vicious murder, then resumes as a group of frolicking young people arrive for some time away beside the lake, only to find themselves in danger with a mysterious killer on the loose. The plot has something to do with ownership of the valuable lakeside land, and you'll never guess who the killer really is. The film contains some of Bava's finest, and most naturalistic work as well as some innovative gore effects and a memorable lakeside striptease from Brigitte Skay. Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli and Laura Betti star.

Four Times That Night (1972) is an intriguing non-horror entry from Bava, a kind of Rashomon look at a sex comedy. A man meets a beautiful woman (Miss Italy Daniela Giordano) in the park and asks her out on a date. They go dancing, then return to his place. She winds up with her dress torn and he with scratches on his forehead. How did it happen? In her version, she tried to protect her purity. In his version, she was a sex-crazy maneater. The ending turns a little rote when a man in a lab coat comes in to explain it all to us, but until then Bava has a real handle on the eroticism as well as the unique staging within the apartment building set. This double-feature disc also comes with Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970) on the flipside. It's another non-horror film, a kind of Agatha Christie murder mystery.

In Baron Blood (1972) Massimo Girotti plays the descendent of an evil baron, a vicious killer with a chamber full of torture equipment. Together with architectural student Elke Sommer, he reads an incantation to bring the baron back to life. Joseph Cotten co-stars as a millionaire who buys a castle that may or may not be haunted by its original owner. Bava uses his trademark brilliant color cinematography to amazing effect within the huge, old castle, though the movie as a whole is a shade or two less effective than the similar Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966).

The box also includes one of Bava's own personal favorites Lisa and the Devil (1973), starring Elke Sommer as a lost tourist who stumbles into a den of weridos, complete with plastic dummies, preserved corpses, past lives, doppelgangers and chocolate cake. Alida Valli plays a creepy, blind old woman, and Telly Savalas plays a bald butler who sucks on a lollipop! (This was Savalas' trademark on his hit TV series "Kojak," which debuted the same year.) Oddly enough, this strange brew is actually a love story, which probably explains why Bava and producer Alfredo Leone were unable to sell it. So they were forced to re-edit, incorporating some "exorcism" elements cribbed from The Exorcist, and finally released it as House of Exorcism. Both films appear here, and a great Tim Lucas commentary track talks about both versions. (Leone and Sommer provide a second track on House of Exorcism.)

Bava's previously lost film Rabid Dogs, which was released as a single disc in April, is here, paired with its alternate version Kidnapped. The final disc contains one of Bava's Spaghetti Westerns, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack (1970), which is difficult to sit through and is roundly considered one of Bava's worst films. It's a transparent knockoff of the very popular Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, though Bava clearly wasn't cut out for that type of masculine humor. Still, it's a great looking Western for fans of the genre.

All of the films have been remastered, though few are as pristine as you might expect (they're the best possible versions of films that have never been very carefully preserved). All of the films are apparently uncut and 16x9 enhanced. Only a few contain optional subtitles, however. Most discs come with trailers and commentary tracks by Bava biographer Lucas.

Starring: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Laura Betti, Massimo Girotti, Elke Sommer, Joseph Cotten, Telly Savalas, Alida Valli, Daniela Giordano, etc.
Written by: Mario Bava, etc.
Directed by: Mario Bava
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: English, Italian with English subtitles
Running Time: 800 minutes
Date: October 31, 2007