Kill Baby Kill
by Mario Bava
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DVD details
Actor: Erika Blanc, Fabienne Dali, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Luciano Catenacci, Piero LulliDirector: Mario Bava
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 84 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-10-24
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Vci Video
DVD Reviews of Kill Baby Kill
DVD Review: Mario Bava's "Operazione Paura"
Summary: 5 Stars
Operazione Paura (literally translated as Operation Fear), is Mario Bava's 1968 gothic masterpiece. Released in America as Kill, Baby... Kill!, this supernatural chiller draws not on gore for terror, but atmosphere. Graveyards with wisps of dancing fog, gloom-shrouded alleyways, decaying architecture and the sparse, forbidding landscape are the true stars of this film. As with most of Bava's works, the storyline and acting is somewhat commonplace; it is Bava's skills as a director and the cinematography he demands for his films which sets his works apart from many of the other Italian horrors to hit the drive-ins and grindhouses from the `60's through the `80's. Seen forty years later, Bava's ability to create such atmospheric films with the budget available is still extraordinary.
A fearful young woman runs from some unseen malevolence through the ruins of a rundown Transylvanian courtyard. Up stairs and onto a platform, the woman seeks refuge from whatever stalks her; then, with a shriek, she falls from the platform onto the sharp spikes of a wrought-iron fence. The silhouette of a small child darkens the wall beside the fence, laughing. Thus Operazione Paura sets its tone, and all before the opening credits role.
Dr. Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) is summoned to an isolated village to perform an autopsy on the impaled woman by Inspector Kruger, who is investigating the death. The young doctor soon learns the superstitious citizens of this village believe the town has been cursed, and that the spirit of a seven year old girl, Melissa Graps, haunts the town, killing with a glance and seeking revenge for her unfortunate death some twenty years earlier. As the doctor arrives at the gates to the city, the silhouetted forms of four men stealing away with the coffin for burial in an attempt to prevent the autopsy foreshadow the resistance that is to be met with from the locals. To assist with the autopsy, Inspector Kruger selected Monica (an early role for Erika Blanc, who would soon become a famous vixen of Italian horror), a local who left the village at an early age and only recently returned. The autopsy is performed as scheduled, and the fear escalates. Local residents begin killing themselves after reporting to have seen Melissa Graps. Despite the fact that it is unnatural to touch the dead for an autopsy, someone is planting silver coins into the hearts of the dead. People begin to venture to Villa Graps, former home of Melissa Graps, which is still inhabited by the reclusive Baroness Graps, Melissa's mother. In the most chilling and memorable scene, the hand Melissa slaps a grim coated window; her pale face then slowly becomes visible.
Generally, there are to two color schemes used for Kill, Baby... Kill!. The tangible and natural scenes of the film use a nearly monochromatic palette, shades of reds tinted with browns, while the supernatural occurrences tend to be filmed using complimentary colors, vivid greens and reds. This is most noticeable in Villa Graps, where entire walls are lit green and reds pour through doorways. Effective for the most part, but the number of fluorescent green spider webs hanging from ceilings only allow the viewer to suspend disbelief for a limited amount of time. The stairway of Villa Graps likewise is lit from below with orange, and the lighting from above is a cold blue. This use of color lends a sense of vertigo to the spiral staircase, and in all the complimentary color scheme scenes, adds to the implied conflict on screen. Implied conflict is central to this tale, so the complimentary scheme is a logical choice. The struggle of science and superstition, good and evil, natural and supernatural is both as basic and complex as red and green.
The unique way in which Bava directs the camera will occasionally require a bit of getting used to for the uninitiated viewer. A scene with the camera zooming forward and up, then down and back and up, over and over captures the point of view of Melissa as she swings, overlooking the local cemetery at night. This swinging point of view continues perhaps a bit too long, before the camera falls back and captures a view of the graveyard with Melissa swinging before it. Obtrusive use of the zoom feature reoccur throughout the film, and while not as zoom heavy as a Jess Franco film, for instance, just as unnecessary. The ability to capture the interplay between light and shadow, to transform a breathtakingly beautiful landscape into a surreal, gothic environment of isolation and decay, and construct such realistically detailed, atmospheric sets give any viewer cause to forgive the experimental cinematography.
This film is not to be missed by anyone interested in horror genre films or Italian cinema. Bava has been referred to by some as the Italian Hitchcock, and this film is one of the reasons why. At one point, Warner Brothers' studios attempted to convince Bava to move to Hollywood for a contract with them. He turned them down, however, preferring Italy and its cinema to that of Hollywood. If Bava did not wish to move to Hollywood, his influence did, as can be seen in films by such directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch.
DVD Review: The new edition that everyone's waiting for!
Summary: 5 Stars
After announcing a March release, and selling some pre-orders (which is where most of these price gougers got their copies), Dark Sky delayed the initial release to a yet to be determined date.
Now, all of us Bava fans have to wait for this version to be released at a reasonable price (original listing price: $24.95) and now end up having to pay over a hundred dollars for an edition no one's rated or seen. I don't know anything about this Dark Sky Films and I will be suspicious until I see the transfer for myself.
I'll hang on to my older VCI version and suffer with a bad transfer until hopefully this version is released by this company or another.
But I do know something: I will not give in to these price gougers for an edition I don't know anything about.
DVD Review: wow.......................overpriced
Summary: 1 Stars
Very overpriced for a movie that is available by anchorbay.................also isn't ilegal to sell cancelled dvd's i'm sure the studio will be upset........Hello Amazon..........DVD Review: Kill, kill!
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay, it's a stupid title for a movie, and it sounds like it belongs to a cheap slasher flick.
But fortunately Mario Bava's "Kill Baby Kill" is much better than its hokey title suggests, as one would expect from a giallo master. Instead of a slasher movie, it's a gothic horror movie with impalements, ghosts and magic. It has all the beauty -- and terror -- of a decayed fairy tale.
When a young woman leaps onto an iron fence, young Dr. Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) is called in to do an autopsy, with the help of beautiful Monica (Erica Blanc). He finds a coin in the girl's heart, and none of the townspeople will tell him -- because if they do, they will suffer a similar fate. Eswai doesn't buy all this superstition.
He's even more annoyed when local sorceress Ruth (Fabienne Dali) begins using her powers to protect a young girl from a childlike specter -- little dead aristocrat Melissa Graps. But as the bodies pile up, and Monica is plagued by bizarre nightmares, Eswai must accept Ruth's help to save Monica from the ghost, and an evil baroness.
"Kill Baby Kill" is more gothic horror rather than straightforward "giallo." But it has the cinematic touches that Bava was known for. Bava fills the run-down village sets with broken doors, wrought-iron fences, coffins, and long fluttering canopies. It's gothically delicious.
Bava also adds dreamlike touches to his typical style-- the village is full of mist, tombstones, and green, blue and red lighting that flicks on and off. He packs this movie so full of visual opulance, it's like being locked inside a beautiful nightmare -- and it adds to the feeling of a fairy tale gone horribly wrong.
And he has a knack for the really spooky stuff too. A bouncing ball, childish giggling, and a little girl on a swing become really horrifying, not to mention all those impalements on everything from fences to, uh, candlesticks. Two particularly eerie scenes have Eswai chasing himself through endless rooms, and Monica running down an endless spiral stair.
The ghost story itself is quite simple, and the secret identities of two characters are quite obvious. But fortunately, this doesn't detract from the atmosphere. How could it? "Kill Baby Kill" is steeped in atmosphere from the first creepy scene, and rather than building in suspense, it runs steadily all the way to the end.
And the cast helps. Despite the emotionless dubbing, Rossi-Stuart and Blanc both do outstanding jobs, but the best performance of the movie belongs to Fabienne Dali, as a tragic sorceress who is trying to save the village from Melissa's revenge. The scene where she mourns her dead lover is exquisite.
"Kill Baby Kill" is a gorgeous, creepy ghost story, with good acting and stellar direction. Definitely a must-see for fans of atmospheric cult horror.
DVD Review: Bright and sinister
Summary: 3 Stars
The worst thing about this film is the title..."Kill Baby Kill" is far more suitable for a schlocky blood 'n' breasts romp than this stately gothic. Everything else about the film is pretty good. The story tells of a doctor who arrives in a remote village to investigate some mysterious murders. The coach driver who delivers him will come no nearer than the village outer walls, and the villagers inside either give him the silent stare treatment or tell him to leave if he knows what's good for him. The only person to befriend him is an attractive young female scientist, who assists him in his investigation despite fearing for her own safety...because the village is being haunted by the apparition of a young blonde girl, who's appearance is said to mark the person who sees her for a violent death.
Now, after being faced with that many horror movie cliches in the opening 20 minutes, you might be forgiven for losing interest with this pretty quickly. And it's true to say that few movies starting with this premise ever approach the realms of the "classics". But stick with this one and you might see some scenes that surprise you.
Firstly, the thing that every reviewer seems to mention is the colour. Scenes are bathed in all sorts of unnatural shades of blues, reds and yellows, and the effect makes the film take on a very luxurious appearance. The photography is mostly very beautiful. Shots of the ghostly girl peering through windows, along with the general eye for compostion in most shots is very accomplished. The location the film is set in is also pretty striking, seemingly filmed in an almost totally derelict village. I don't know how the viewer is supposed to believe that people actually carry on their lives dwelling in what appear to be roofless ruins!
The atmosphere is postitively dripping with gothic trappings. Every scene takes place in either a ruin of some sort, a heavily decorated room or a cobwebbed passage or tomb. The characters all wear richly detailed period clothes. The best scenes of the movie take place in a grand, isolated villa - the source of the villager's terror and the home of the murderous phantom child who seems to be terrorizing the place. The only living inhabitant is the child's mother, a reclusive and half-mad Baroness, played up to the hilt by the actress in a full-on "Miss Haversham" style. She hates the villagers and holds them responsible for the death of her young daughter many years ago. Will she help or hinder our heroes as they try to end the ghostly reign of terror?
There's no denying the fact that although it's strikingly filmed, the movie still looks a bit cheap and formulaic. But Bava was always adept at making a lot out of a little, and he succeeds here. There's a great dream sequence that the heroine experiences at one point, plus another scene in which the hero runs through a maze of identical rooms in the Baroness's villa, running so fast he actually catches up with HIMSELF at one point - a very bizarre sequence! The ending is also quietly satisfying, if maybe a little muted.
You won't find any gore or nudity in this horror tale, but you will find plenty of flair for period gothic. The sombre ghostly girl and her bouncing ball (it often appears, plopping down a staircase or corridor, even though she is nowhere in sight) are great horror movie motifs. Sadly, the English dubbing is rather lame as usual, and the DVD's available of this film in English are reportedly not the greatest image quality. it would be nice to see this in widescreen and re-mastered, and apparently there is an Australian DVD release that has managed this...let's hope some copies of that make their way around the world.
Description of Kill Baby Kill
From the title, you might expect a modern slasher picture or a serial killer drama, but Mario Bava's Kill, Baby... Kill is actually an eerie gothic ghost-story-with-a-body-count set in a quaint Italian turn-of-the-century village. When a city coroner arrives to examine the latest victim in a long string of "suicides," he discovers a town of deserted streets, suspicious and terrified townspeople, and a conspiracy of silence. The town is haunted by the specter of a homicidal adolescent girl, a creepy vision in white whose little-girl giggles become chilling as she randomly chooses her victims and sends them to their gory deaths. Bava sets a moody stage of empty streets blanketed nightly in a swirling mist and flooded with lights of red, blue, and green--an expressionist night-cum-nightmare as unreal as it beautiful. This fanciful nocturnal world becomes the stage for virtual pageants of death in which the victims become tortured puppets of the malevolent spirit and are forced to murder themselves. The often arch and operatic performances are deadened by flat dubbing and an often prosaic translation, which creates an odd dissonance between the story and style. Though hardly to the tastes of modern slasher movie mavens, Bava's imaginative horror-thriller is full of grotesque and sometimes grueling murders, but trades the gore for an unsettling mood of doom. --Sean AxmakerGeneral DVDs
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