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Mario Bava
Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the Macabre". His low-budget genre films, known for their distinctive visual flair and stylish technical ingenuity, feature recurring themes and imagery concerning the conflict between illusion and reality, as well as the destructive capacity of human nature. He was a pioneer of Italian genre cinema, and is regarded as one of the most influential auteurs of the horror film genre. After providing special effects work and other assistance on productions like ''Hercules'' (1958) and ''Caltiki – The Immortal Monster'' (1959), Bava made his official feature directorial debut with the horror film '' Black Sunday'', released in 1960. He went on to direct such films as '' The Girl Who Knew Too Much'', ''Black Sabbath'', ''The Whip and the Body'' (all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caltiki – The Immortal Monster
''Caltiki – The Immortal Monster'' ( it, Caltiki, il mostro immortale) is a 1959 black-and-white science fiction film, science fiction-horror film. The film's storyline concerns a team of archaeologists investigating Maya peoples, Mayan ruins, who come across a creature that is a shapeless, amorphous blob. They manage to defeat it using fire, while keeping a sample of the creature. Meanwhile, a comet, which previously passed near the Earth around the time of the collapse of the Mayan civilization, is due to return, raising the possibility of a connection between the creature and the comet. After the success of their film ''Hercules (1958 film), Hercules'' (1958), Galatea Film began production on films in other genres that they hoped would entice the international market, which led to Riccardo Freda being hired to direct ''Caltiki – The Immortal Monster''. Freda left the project during filming, later explaining that he wanted to give his friend Mario Bava, who had been hired a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Directorial Debut
This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early works by Orson Welles such as his filming of his stage production of ''Twelfth Night'' in 1933 or his experimental short film ''The Hearts of Age'' in 1934. Often these early works were not intended for commercial release either by intent, such as film school projects or inability to find distribution. Subsequently, many directors learnt their trade in the medium of television as it became popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Notable directors who did their first directorial work in this medium include Robert Altman, Norman Jewison, Sidney Lumet, and Alfonso Cuarón. As commercial television advertising became more cinematic in the 1960s and 1970s, many directors' early work was in this medium, including directors such as Alan Parker and Ridley S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabid Dogs
''Rabid Dogs'' ( it, Cani arrabbiati) is an italian thriller- noir film directed by Mario Bava, starring Riccardo Cucciolla, Don Backy, Lea Lander, Maurice Poli, George Eastman and Erika Dario. Taking place largely in real time, the film follows a trio of payroll robbers who kidnap a young woman and force a man with a sick child to be their getaway driver, all while trying to avoid being caught by the police. An adaptation of the ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' short story "Man and Boy" by Michael J. Carroll, ''Rabid Dogs'' was a departure for Bava, as its emphasis on realism sets it apart stylistically from his colourful horror films. Following three weeks of principal photography, producer Roberto Loyola declared bankruptcy, resulting in the then-incomplete film being shelved due to his ownership of the rights. ''Rabid Dogs'' remained unseen for over two decades, but following an acquisition of the rights by Lander, it has since been released on home video in multiple v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisa And The Devil
''Lisa and the Devil'' is a 1974 horror film directed by Mario Bava. The film was first released in Spain as ''El diablo se lleva a los muertos'' (''The Devil Takes the Dead'') and stars Elke Sommer as a young tourist who loses her way in Toledo and spends the night at a villa belonging to a family of mysterious Spanish aristocrats. After the popularity of the film ''The Exorcist (film), The Exorcist'', scenes were added by producer Alfredo Leone and Lamberto Bava which gave the film an exorcism theme and re-released it as ''The House of Exorcism'' (Italian language, Italian: ''La casa dell'esorcismo'') in the United States; this recasts the film as a clone of ''The Exorcist'', with the main character possessed and recounting to the priest who is seeking to save her the story of how she became possessed. Plot Tourist Lisa Reiner wanders away from her tour group in Toledo, Spain, Toledo to go shopping inside a store, where she encounters a man named Leandro, who is purchasing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baron Blood (film)
''Baron Blood'' ( it, Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga, lit=The horrors of Nuremberg Castle) is a 1972 horror film directed by Mario Bava. An international co-production of Italy and West Germany, the film stars Joseph Cotten as Baron Otto Von Kleist, a murderous noble who is resurrected from the dead by his descendant, Peter ( Antonio Cantafora), and a college student named Eva (Elke Sommer). Plot American Peter Kleist arrives in Austria to take a break from college studies and look up his family's history. At the airport, he is greeted by his uncle, Karl Hummel, who invites him to stay at his house. Peter learns from Karl that his great-grandfather, Baron Otto Von Kleist, nicknamed "Baron Blood", was a notorious sadist who tortured and murdered over 100 villagers. Legend says he burned a witch named Elizabeth Hölle, who cursed him with a spell that would allow him to rise from the dead so she could take her revenge on him eternally. The Baron's old castle and former reside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Bay Of Blood
''A Bay of Blood'' (Italian: ''Ecologia del delitto'', lit. "Ecology of Crime", later retitled ''Reazione a catena'' it. "Chain Reaction" (also known as ''Carnage'', ''Twitch of the Death Nerve'' and ''Blood Bath'') is a 1971 Italian giallo slasher 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 a string of mysterious murders that occur around the titular 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. Plot At night in her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diabolik
''Diabolik'' ( or ) is an Italian comics series created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani. One of the most popular series in the history of Italian comics, Diabolik was created in 1962 and consists of more than 800 volumes, and has led to the birth of the ''fumetti neri'' comics subgenre. The series is named after its protagonist, an anti-heroic thief, inspired by several previous pulp fiction characters from Italy and other countries. Its stories consist of monthly black-and-white, digest-sized volumes. The series takes place in the fictional town Clerville and stars the titular Diabolik, initially represented as a ruthless and cruel thief who does not hesitate to murder anyone in order to accomplish his deeds, aided by his partner and lover Eva Kant. Over the time, the character evolved his personality, developing healthy roots and ethical principles such as honor, the sense of friendship and gratitude, and respect for noble souls, robbing and killing other criminals. Thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kill, Baby, Kill
''Kill, Baby, Kill'' ( it, Operazione paura, ) is a 1966 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava and starring Giacomo Rossi Stuart and Erika Blanc. Written by Bava, Romano Migliorini, and Roberto Natale, the film focuses on a small Carpathian Mountains, Carpathian village in the early 1900s that is being terrorized by the ghost of a murderous young girl. Overseen by one-time producers Nando Pisani and Luciano Catenacci of F.U.L. Films, ''Kill, Baby, Kill'' was considered to be a small-scale project compared to Bava's earlier films, as it was made without internationally recognized stars or the support of a major distributor. Although a complete script was written by Migliorini and Natale prior to the start of production, Bava claimed that much of the film was improvised. Shot partially on location in Calcata, Faleria and at the Villa Lancellotti in 1965, the film underwent a troubled production due to F.U.L. Films running out of money during principal photography, prompti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planet Of The Vampires
''Planet of the Vampires'' ( it, Terrore nello Spazio, lit=Terror in Space) is a 1965 Italian-Spanish science fiction horror film, produced by Fulvio Lucisano, directed by Mario Bava, that stars Barry Sullivan and Norma Bengell. The screenplay, by Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Antonio Roman and Rafael J. Salvia, was based on an Italian-language science fiction short story, Renato Pestriniero's "One Night of 21 Hours". American International Pictures released the film as the supporting film on a double feature with Daniel Haller's ''Die, Monster, Die!'' (1965).Lucas, Tim. ''Mario Bava All the Colors of the Dark'', pg. 600, Video Watchdog, 2007. The story follows the horrific experiences of the crew members of two giant spaceships that have crash landed on a forbidding, unexplored planet. The disembodied inhabitants of the world possess the bodies of the crew who died during the crash, and use the animated corpses to stalk and kill the remaining survivors. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood And Black Lace
''Blood and Black Lace'' ( it, 6 donne per l'assassino, lit=6 Women for the Murderer) is a 1964 ''giallo'' film directed by Mario Bava and starring Eva Bartok and Cameron Mitchell. The story concerns the brutal murders of a Roman fashion house's models, committed by a masked killer in a desperate attempt to obtain a scandal-revealing diary. The film began development shortly after Bava had ended his long-time association with Galatea Film, for whom he had made most of his earlier works as a cinematographer and director. Made with a budget that was lower than several of the director's prior horror films, ''Blood and Black Lace'' was an Italian, French and West German international co-production between Emmepi Cinematografica, Les Productions Georges de Beauregard and Monachia Film. Different sources and ministerial papers provide varying degrees of information on the authorship of the film's screenplay, with most sources crediting Marcello Fondato, Giuseppe Barillà and Bava as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Whip And The Body
''The Whip and the Body'' ( it, La frusta e il corpo) is a 1963 gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava under the alias "John M. Old". The film is about Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) who is ostracized by his father for his relationship with a servant girl and her eventual suicide. He later returns to reclaim his title and his former fiancée Nevenka (Daliah Lavi) who is now his brother's wife. Menliff is later found murdered, but the locals believe his ghost has returned to haunt the castle for revenge. Italian censors removed the film from cinemas due to its sadomasochistic themes. The international cut features some significant changes, and runs for 77 minutes. It was released theatrically as ''What!'' and ''Night Is the Phantom'' in the United States and United Kingdom, respectively. Plot An isolated castle on the Eastern European coast. Kurt (Christopher Lee), the older son of Count Menliff (Gustavo De Nardo), was in marriage preparations with Nevenka (Daliah Lavi). Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Sabbath (film)
''Black Sabbath'' ( it, I tre volti della paura, lit=The Three Faces of Fear) is a 1963 horror anthology film directed by Mario Bava. The film consists of three separate tales that are introduced by Boris Karloff. The order in which the stories are presented varies among the different versions in which the film has been released. In the original, Italian print, the first story, titled "The Telephone", involves Rosy (Michèle Mercier) who continually receives threatening telephone calls from an unseen stalker. The second is "The Wurdulak", where a man named Gorca (Karloff) returns to his family after claiming to have slain a Wurdulak, an undead creature who attacks those that it had once loved. The third story, "The Drop of Water", is centered on Helen Corey (Jacqueline Pierreux), a nurse who steals a ring from a corpse that is being prepared for burial and finds herself haunted by the ring's original owner after arriving home. Being a low-budget horror film with multiple storie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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