There's rumored to be another release of this coming from the same folks who recently released "Black Sunday", with which they did an excellent job. Wait for that, and pick up "Black Sunday" or "Baron Blood" in the meantime.


Could hardly hear a full sentence   February 16, 2005
 17 out of 18 found this review helpful

I usually interpret criticisms of sound quality as coming from people who are hard-core audiophiles with unreasonably high expectations. In this case, the criticisms are absolutely valid. I can't even really tell you the plot of this movie (at least based on the dialogue), because I could hardly hear a complete sentence. It was an abyssmal experience to say the least, by the end I had a headache from turning the volume up and down so many times.

I agree with the reviewer who felt betrayed by Image for releasing this DVD. They indeed should have eaten the loss and tried again. This is a full-on defective product and I don't think Amazon should even offer it for sale.


Bay of Blood (classic film, atrocious print)   March 25, 2000
 15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Simitar video's transfer to DVD of this classic slasher film is nothing short of an abomination. The picture quality is inferior to my VHS print. Amazon have the aspect ratio as 2.35:1.It is 1.77:1 at best!


Friday By The Bay??   May 5, 2005
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

Bay of Blood (AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve), a 1971 film by Italian horror director Mario Bava, is often called the "Grandaddy of all slasher movies". Many reviews have made the reference to Friday the 13th and very similar killing styles. After watching "Bay of Blood" you can definitely see where "Friday the 13th" (made in 1980) got a lot of it's ideas. One scene, where two teens are getting 'hot and heavy' the killer comes in and, with a spear, stabs both of them with the camera showing the spear going through the bottom of the bed. "Friday the 13th part 2" uses the EXACT killing scene in a similar situation.

With that being said "Bay of Blood" does not possess the single element that defined the slasher film, the indestructable, omnipresent killer. Ignore the synopsis, it has next to nothing to do with the college kids. This film is about greedy family members trying to aquire a wealthy piece of property [The Bay] and doing whatever it takes to get it.

The movie succeeds almost entirely thanks to Mario Bavo, who serves as both director and cinematographer, with his typical stylish flare which heavily influenced the great Dario Argento, his eye appealing use of color and interesting editing techniques, which include a lot of blurry dissolves give "Bay of Blood" an almost dream-like, surreallistic feel.

"Bay of Blood" could certainly be credited with starting the slasher film craze. However, I wouldn't go as far as to call it "The grandaddy of them all". All and all worth an evening for the avid Italian horror fan.


What Happened to the Sound???? Hello????????????   January 7, 2001
 14 out of 16 found this review helpful

Bava's "Twitch" was the first "body count" horror film and it's release on DVD by Image has long been awaited. Unfortunately, there are serious problems with the sound. The audio is extremely tinny and much of the dialog is incomprehensible. Many dialog scenes are so low that I needed to raise the volume up ALL the way (something I have never had to do on viewing over 500 DVD's) while some scenes are so loud and overmodulated that they crackle and reverberate. You will need to have remote in hand throughout the whole film because it's either way too low or way too loud and you'll be hitting that volume button constantly. And none of the sound feels "real"...it all sounds like it has been run through some kind of electronic filter. This is not just a "minor" sound glitch - it's truly bad ...I don't need 5.1 or surround sound - I just want to be able to hear and understand the film! I have not viewed the prior DVD released by Simitar, but from what I've heard, the audio was fine (although the picture apparently was not). And the audio on the old VHS release from Gorgon Video was fine as well. It's truly a shame that this important DVD release has been blotched by haphazard mastering by Image.

The film itself is a lot of fun (part giallo, part gore flick) and was the first to introduce the now common "body count"....if you though "Friday the 13th" was the first, think again. There are so many plot twists in this one as well that new viewers may need to have a scorecard to keep up with it. The complexity of the narrative is also hampered by the atrocious sound. Keep that rewind and volume button because you'll want to hear all of the muffled dialog. And the dialog is critical.

The DVD also has a couple of radio spots, a bizarre trailer for the film (under it's "Carnage" title), a menu to access the 13 murders directly, and trailers for other Bava DVD's from Image. Wish they would have spent more energy on the film itself. The image is fine and crisp, and although there are scratches and other defects sporadically throughout, it is still very satisfying. The audio, however, is unforgivable. Is there no quality control during mastering? This is not a source problem...it was obviously a mastering error. Hello Image - what gives? Can you hear me??????