Episode 41 – Mario Bava’s SHOCK w/guest Troy Howarth
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A fascinating director. Black Sunday is a masterpiece of a vampire film. The Italian filmmakers from the 60s, 70s and 80s produced so many wild and eclectic films. Westerns, sci-fi, horror as well as numerous unofficial sequels and remakes of blockbuster American films. Bava was one of the best.
If you haven’t seen it, I implore you to check out Demons directed by Mario’s son Lamberto. It’s a high energy Evil Dead style film that takes place in a haunted movie theater. Also seek out Bruno Mattei’s final film, Zombies:The Beginning. There’s so much to say about it. Like the fact it’s not “The Beginning”. It’s actually a sequel to his previous film Island of the Zliving Dead. It’s also a blatant scene for scene R.I.P.-off of… well… you’ll figure it out pretty quick.
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I’ve seen DEMONS a few times, it’s such a gooey blast. In fact, DEMONS was really the Italian horror movie that “taught” me how to enjoy the genre. For the longest time I had pretty much seen only American or British horror which is very plot centric. It took seeing a few Italian horror movies to pick up on the idea, oh, this doesn’t make “sense” on purpose, it’s a mood piece or whatever and the “plot” is secondary or tertiary. That opened me up to enjoying these kinds of movies going forward.
Another entertaining episode! I have a collection of Bava DVDs (not his complete filmography, but a good portion of it), so I pulled out my copy of Shock and watched it again before listening. That really enhanced the listening experience!
I was first introduced to Bava through the Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film (a great introduction to many genre films and creators in those pre-internet days), and I think the first Bava movie I rented must have been “Blood and Black Lace”–probably the second-best introduction to Bava’s stylish visuals, after “Black Sunday.”
At one point as I was building my Bava collection, I had the idea of doing a “Bava countdown” based on the various alternate titles of some of his films: “Blood and Black Lace” (“Six Women for the Murderer”), “Five Dolls for an August Moon”, “Four Times That Night”, “Black Sabbath” (“Three Faces of Fear”), “Shock” (“Beyond the Door 2”), and since there wasn’t an actual title using “One,” I’d finish it with his FIRST film, “Black Sunday.” But then, when I finally got to see “Four Times That Night,” I realized it really wouldn’t fit in with the rest of the countdown.
Sad to hear that Vincent Price didn’t want to work with Bava again after “Girl Bombs”…I can understand that it was a miserable experience for all, but it sounds like all the negatives were outside Bava’s control, and I think they could have worked well together under other circumstances.
Regarding Bava’s skill with practical effects (and the closing scene of “Black Sabbath” taking us behind the illusion), I remember reading how Bava achieved the effect of Dora’s hair floating around her face: Daria Nicolodi was strapped to the bed with the camera rigged up to it, and the entire mattress/camera setup was rotated so that her hair would naturally fall while she seemed to be remaining stationary.
Great discussion! I don’t know as much about Bava as I should, and this was a great education. Because I’m a huge Karloff fan, I have a soft spot for Black Sabbath, and even though I know “The Drop of Water” is probably the best sequence, I still always think of “The Wurdalak”. I find it equally effective, especially Karloff as the resurrected grandfather praying on his own family. Very disturbing, and his only turn as a vampire.