Tonight's movie was "Kill Baby, Kill" (1966) directed by Italian Horrormeister Mario Bava, whose other noteworthy pictures include "Black Sunday" (with Barbara Steele) and "Black Sabbath", from which the legendary band took it's name. The title here is a bit unfortunate : "Kill Baby, Kill" sounds like something Russ Meyer might've made, a trashy exploitation flick with heaving bosoms. But it's only the title for the American release. The original title was "Operazione Paura", or "Operation Fear" for us Anglos, which in either language is much more appropriate for the subject at hand.
This was my first foray into the cinema of Bava, of whom I didn't know much about except for the two famous films mentioned above. Right off the bat, though, I was taken by his artistic approach. From the get go, this film looks like a moving pastel painting. Bava must have coordinated with his set designer, his cinematographer and his key grip to create this ultra-Gothic look, which as it will turn out, is the star of the show.
The story is promising to begin with : The time is late 19th century. A coroner is called to a remote European village at the behest of it's police inspector, who wants an autopsy performed on a young maid whose body was found impaled on the spikes of an iron gate. I must pause here to add "autopsy" to our list of horrifying words. I mean, who the hell came up with that one?
But in continuing the plot, the reason the inspector has requested the autopsy (ick!), is that he doesn't believe the lady committed suicide.
As the coroner arrives in the village, which is comprised of old stone buildings, many of them crumbling, we see a team of cemetery workers in the background, rapidly carrying a casket to it's burial site. What movie are we in, anyway? This graveyard skullduggery is reminiscent of Dwight Frye's late night Coffin Switcheroos in "Dead Men Walk", which we saw just the other night. Here, in "Kill Baby, Kill", the gravediggers are in a hurry to bury the same woman the coroner was summoned to examine! What is their hurry to get her in the ground?
The villagers feel there is a curse upon their town, cast upon them by the ghost of a little girl who died under tragic circumstances. She was the daughter of the local Baroness, an elderly woman who lives as a recluse in her cobwebbed mansion. I must also pause here to state once again the importance of Mansions in the Horror Milieu.
The coroner requires a witness to be present at the autopsy. The only person available with anything resembling medical training is a young woman with a degree in natural science. She has only recently arrived back in the village. Though it is her birthplace, she left it as a child for mysterious reasons. She and the coroner make a startling discovery during the autopsy; a special coin has been inserted into the dead woman's heart! How in the world did it get there, and what is it's purpose?
Better ask the local Sorceress, or Witch if you prefer. The coroner, being a Man Of Science, naturally doesn't believe in witchery and other such hocus pocus, so when the Sorceress explains the reason for the coin-in-the-heart, he scoffs. She also tells him that it would be better if he left town immediately. All this does is make him more determined to learn the real cause of the young woman's death, but then the police inspector turns up dead, and now he's got his hands full. He's now on the case all alone, and his female assistant is having nightmares about her childhood, that take place in the decrepit mansion of the Baroness. She hears terrible, cackling laughter. A rubber ball bounces down a stairway. A child's ashen face appears in a window.......and then disappears again into darkness.
The assistant tells the coroner that she must get inside the mansion. She must see for herself if it resembles the place of her nightmares. Though he scoffs yet again, he agrees to help her because he needs her for his investigation. Then the Sorceress appears to warn them once more : "Do not go into that house! The Baroness is a dangerous woman! You do not know what you are dealing with, and even I will not be able to protect you"!
If it were me, I'd have listened to the Sorceress, but then the movie would've ended on the spot, without much fanfare. Good thing for us that the coroner is a skeptic. Bava cranks up the art direction for a dazzling finale.
If I rated movies on production design alone, "Kill Baby, Kill" would get a 10/10 and Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. I'm not sure I've ever seen a motion picture that looks like this one, a ghoulishly colorful pastiche of grim imagery that reminded me of the cover of the first Black Sabbath album. There seems to be a Hieronymous Bosch influence as well. I think that Bava also must've been a big influence on Dario Argento of "Suspiria" fame, with his much earlier use of luridly colored spotlighting effects.
The film looks incredible, and the slow-tracking camerawork is hypnotizing. The story, as noted earlier, starts out with great promise, and as the intrigue builds, we are really sucked in to what seems like a Grand Guignolian Mystery. Unfortunately, the script thins out, or maybe Bava didn't know what to do with it, because he isn't able to sustain the tension through the last half hour of the film, when the movie so depends on it for a frightening finish. It's still scary, but it could've been major league, and Bava could've had an all-timer on his hands.
Instead, "Kill Baby, Kill" gets Two Regular Thumbs Up. It is without a doubt worth seeing, and I recommend it for it's look alone, but from Bava's reputation, he may have better films up his sleeve. I'll be checking the database for more. ////
That's all for now. I'm gonna head out to GNC to get some vitamins, then to the Libe if I have time. I have just begun reading "America Before" by Graham Hancock, the study of a possible Lost Civilization that existed here in antiquity, long before the Indians even arrived and prior to the Ice Age. As usual, it's mind blowing stuff. That's the only kind of stuff I read, haha. :):)
Have a great afternoon and I will see you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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