A Bay of Blood 4K 1971 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

An elderly woman in a wheelchair was admiring the view from the window of her own home when someone's treacherous hands in black gloves tightened a noose around her neck. A man stood over the emaciated corpse of the elderly lady and was already rubbing his hands in anticipation of his inheritance (he was her husband, and she owned vast tracts of land) when someone stabbed him several times in the stomach with a knife. A cheerful group of teenagers, passing by, decided to stop near what appeared to be an abandoned house. Upon entering the house, the young people fell victim to an unknown assailant who punished them for trespassing on private property. A young woman arrives in the same area with her husband, hoping to find her father, who has not called or written recently. Her arrival is accompanied by a new wave of violence and deaths, making it easy to conclude that all this bloodshed is happening because of the inheritance of an old woman who owns a picturesque place known to everyone as "the bay"...

Review 4K Movie

If we're being honest, then “Blood Bay,” a 1971 film, is the most authentic slasher movie ever made. But it can't be a slasher for one simple reason: the first slasher came out in the late 1980s, in 1978, and it was John Carpenter's film Halloween. You may ask, what's the point? I will answer you: slasher films, paradoxical as it may seem, existed long before the first Halloween. Nothing in the world can ever appear unexpectedly, all at once: without taking small steps, it is impossible to make a huge leap into the future. Slasher films appeared gradually. Gradually, film after film in the horror genre honed this future genre, its unique style, and its characteristic features. It was simply Halloween that was dubbed a slasher, which marked the beginning of the reign of this elegant genre in the world of horror cinema, but slashers existed before that. Yes, that's true. They just weren't called slashers back then.

Many people mistakenly call the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre the first slasher film. But this is really a mistake! It's just that most people today are not very interested in old horror films. They mainly watch legendary films, but nothing more. Therefore, seeing echoes of the slasher genre in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they mistakenly believe that it is the first slasher film. But what would happen if many people started watching older horror films? Then almost any horror film, starting with Psycho, released in 1960, could be called the first slasher film. No, ladies and gentlemen, the first slasher film was indeed John Carpenter's Halloween. It was this film that first brought together all the features of a genre that had been emerging for twenty years. Everything that came before it was just a warm-up. And let's forget once and for all about the excesses and fainting spells when some impressionable person recognizes an older film as a slasher.

Yes, Blood Bay is very reminiscent of a slasher film. It has slasher dynamics, beautiful murders, a whole series of elegant killers opposing each other, cold weapons as the main murder weapon, serious intrigue, almost always nighttime, and—as the main argument! — one double kill. All of this is stunningly staged, looks damn stylish, and is truly insanely intriguing. The plot is truly delightful; from the very first frames, it begins to resemble Agatha Christie's novels rather than the beginning of a slasher film (this is a point of distinction). Firstly, slasher films don't feature several maniacs killing each other. The very possibility of this is unthinkable, as it contradicts all the norms of the genre.

And the film is too epic for a banal, meaningless slaughter. On the contrary, Blood Bay carries with it, believe it or not, a certain amount of meaning. The film really resembles a detective story, the film adaptation of some detective novel. I agree that some people won't like this film nowadays, because it has long since become outdated (after all, it's been forty years since its release!). But I think any fan of retro horror novels will be satisfied if they don't disdain watching it.

Horror films aren't made like this anymore. The film grabs you from the very first minutes. We are shown scenes of the bay that are unrelated to the plot, accompanied by otherworldly music, which puts the viewer on edge, even though the credits are still rolling and nothing is actually happening. Then we are shown the countess. The film deliberately drags on, like rubber, while the music continues to mesmerize the viewer with its unhurried rhythm. Something like that. You won't find this technique in any horror film today — it's all in the past of the genre. But music really means a lot in a horror film.

Verdict. Blood Bay is a brilliant classic, an unforgettable film from the early 70s, made by Italians. It is very similar to a slasher, but at its heart it is a typical thriller, detective story, horror... whatever you like, in general. I recommend this film to connoisseurs of horror classics!