Popular reviews

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  Review by claire 👁️ diane ★★★★ 2

  i still think of Black Sunday as one of the best lit films of all time. perhaps my favorite black and white aesthetic next to kurosawa. but this was a revelation: bava has a supreme magic in how he can make darkness overflow with color, too. this is perhaps the most perfect wedding of virtuoso chiaroscuro lighting and brilliant color i've ever seen. the striking shots are countless. and the locations are brilliant. there's this pervading sense that they're hanging right at the edge of the world.

  the long zoom out from a distant sun as night falls, until it is nothing but a glowing dot over the horizon. or the arms clutching candles (a nod to Cocteau?) in the…

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 3

  84/100

  Bellowing, screeching winds and suspicious residents wander within luscious, radiant spaces; a town crumbling under the weight of curses and paranoia. Color paints and sings its way across a lonely town with secrets, practically engulfing its own atmosphere through multicolored mazes of exterior tunnels, interior passages and foggy, vividly textural cemeteries. Set design and camera movement each embody the aura of a restless specter, roaming and gliding across an environment which is representative of the last town on the face of the Earth. Nothing is even remotely familiar, even the genre cliches, because of Mario Bava's spin on the world of Gothic horror. It's all trickery, an arresting cinematic painting oozing with scare tactics and indescribably lucid images. Bava…

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  Review by Slig001 ★★★★½ 1

  This is definitely the underrated gem of Mario Bava's filmography! Kill Baby Kill is a Gothic horror taking influence from the likes of Roger Corman's Poe cycle but spicing things up with plenty of Italian flair! The plot focuses on a coroner who travels to a village where strange murders have been happening. He faces fierce opposition from the local people as he tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. The strong point is certainly the atmosphere. Bava's use of colour is masterful. The village setting is spooky and provides an excellent location for a story like this. The central mystery escalates well and there's more interesting revelations to come even after the initial reveal. The melodramatic acting bodes well with the striking score. Theres plenty of disorientating scenes - the spiral staircase section towards the end is a particular highlight! Overall, it's great stuff despite being overshadowed by more popular Bava efforts.

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  Review by 1313: Tony the Terror🌨️ ★★★★★ 7

  Film 9/15 for BB and BC Podcast Movie Challenge November 2017

  1 movie that English is not the native language

  Oh, how I love this movie! I have seen it before (but never enough) but this challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to revisit it.

  The plot involves a murderous young girl ghost who is terrorizing a village. Basically, if a townsperson sees her, they will die. So...she’s the OG Sadako, y’all! This movie is pretty much the perfect 60’s gothic horror film. I mean, if someone wanted me to recommend that type of film I’d almost definitely suggest this one. I’m not entirely sure why Black Sunday is the more well-known of Bava’s works. I mean, I love that…

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  Review by Mondo Cinema ★★★★½ 2

  "The night brings terror! Blood chilling fear!"

  Mario Bava is the king of gothic horror. Kill Baby Kill is a candy-colored horror show, filled with cursed villages, fog-shrouded graveyards, creepy chateaus, superstitious villagers, and the frightening spectral child who giggles while forcing you to kill yourself in various gory fashions.
  It's everything you could have dreamed of in a gothic horror along with that beautifully unique "Bava look".

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  Review by laird ★★★★

  kill babies need the most attention

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  Review by Joe Lynch ★★★★ 1

  Surrealist Bava firing on all cylinders. Pre-black glove Giallo that proves Bava was mastering atmosphere, color and style well before his successors.
  So amazing.

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  Review by Matt Winfield ★★★★★

  Melissa, Melissa, Melissa... Every scene involving that girl is such frightening stuff. You watch enough horror movies and you pretty much become immune to any "scary stuff", but this movie still scares the bejesus out of me! Goosebumps every time! There's just so many amazing scenes, hard to single out only one or two. Melissa peeping in the windows, swinging in the graveyard, her disappearing dolly, the hallway scene with her and Paul, the ball bouncing over the dead body, her running down the spiral staircase. And on and on and on. Every scene is a thing of horrific beauty, shot in a way only Bava can capture. And the sequence with Paul running through the same room over and…

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  Review by Wade ★★★★ 2

  My favorite from Bava thus far. This was a neat surprise and a well needed change for him. The gothic aesthetics are so rich in mystery & horror. The production values and lighting definitely made me more immerse in this strange villa haunted by a vengeful spirit. The ending gave me vibes from Fulci’s The Beyond which is weird but a high compliment. I love anything very otherworldly slow, kind of like limbo-ish. I just admire 18th century period tales with a traveler, doctor or lost relative stumbling upon a little town with a big secret. I know it’s not original but it’s so good even more so in the gothic atmosphere. 

  I’m adoring the italians genre of horror every year. Now with the inclusion of Bava’s work so far that love keeps growing.

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 6

  When it comes to the Italian genre known as giallo, immediately the name of Dario Argento's comes to mind. And why now? After all, his film Suspiria launched that particular genre into a much mainstream and international appeal. However, as everything in life, everything has a beginning, a name that has mostly fallen into the obscure is Mario Bava, arguably the man that actually started it all.

  In fact, looking through some trivias and information you will find that everything from the style of Suspiria to even the visuals of The Last Temptation of Christ were heavily influenced by this movie. The use of striking zoom ins, the closeups, even the allegories that comes with the evil child. What's more,…

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  Review by DBC ★★★★ 2

  Hooptober Fest 5.0
  Film 21/46
  Six films from before 1970 (4/6)
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  Shout-out to BAKA's review for turning me on to this flick. If you're a genre fan who's not already reading his succinct and wonderfully worded horror reviews, I highly recommend 'em!

  The ghost of a young girl named Melissa (Valerio Valeri) is holding a small Carpathian village captive and punishing them for past sins. Will dapper brown-suited doctor Paul Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) and his mighty blonde swoop of hair be able to stop her before she kills again?

  Mario Bava gives me just about everything I'd hoped (and expected) of a mid-60's Italian Gothic horror directed by one of the founding fathers of giallo: dark rich atmosphere, memorable…

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  Review by belial_carboni ★★★★ 2

  First time viewing. Bava brings the goods here. I don't usually venture too far into horror films pre 1970s and I've never been super into the gothic stuff. With that said Bava's direction truly gives a unique viewng experience to a film that had potential to be a little dry.

  Thick atmospheric dread oozes through this film making it feel intriguing yet uncomfortable in the best of ways. With the haunting score and slow crawl of the cameras I was given this sense of uneasiness like something horrible was just waiting to happen.

  The old town is a perfect setting for this film as it's cold and dark presence adds to the feelings of bleakness and fear. Bava really had a knack for picking perfect filming locations.

  The only regret I have is watching this on a summery June day rather than a dark and cold October night! I think I'll be revisiting this in the fall.

  Brava Bava...Brava