Review: Kill, Baby…Kill
Doctor Giacomo Rossi-Stuart arrives in a small village
on business and is greeted by a town full of superstitious, frightened
villagers who believe they are cursed by the murderous ghost of a young girl.
Erika Blanc plays one of the townsfolk.
In my estimation the finest film from director Mario
Bava (“Black Sunday”, “Black Sabbath”, “Hatchet for the
Honeymoon”), he co-wrote this ghostly mini-masterpiece from 1966 with Romano
Migliorini (“The Inglorious Bastards” with Bo Svenson and Fred
Williamson) and Roberto Natale (“Vengeance is My Forgiveness” with Tab
Hunter and Erika Blanc). Fans of Hammer Horror and the Roger Corman cycle of
Edgar Allen Poe films are advised to check this one out because this is of a
similar vein, whilst having its own vibe and atmosphere. Oh the atmosphere!
It’s thick and foreboding from start to finish, and the colour cinematography
by Antonio Rinaldi (Bava’s underrated “Five Dolls for an August Moon”)
and an uncredited Bava himself is to die for. Look at that shadowy, spiral
staircase for one thing. Bava paints an entire village overcome with terror and
superstition, and visually the village looks wonderfully decrepit. It seems
covered in dust, cobwebs, crumbling stone – and it only gets more so as the
film goes on. Talk about a city of the dead. I also have to mention the
outstanding, creepy soundscape and the music score. Credited to composer Carlo
Rustichelli (“God Forgives, I Don’t!”, Bava’s “Blood and Black Lace”
and “The Whip and the Body”), it’s mostly comprised of stock music from
other films but you wouldn’t really know it unless you’re a true cinephile and
it works wonderfully well here. Seriously, the whole film sounds creepy as
fuck.
The plot is twisted and messed up, too. I mean, it’s
about the ghost of a dead girl cursing a town and causing all who see her image
to bleed to death. Sure, we don’t see the bleeding given this was 1966, but
still…that’s rather disturbing. Look out for the bizarro scene where our hero
goes running through an estate and seems to run into his doppelganger. The
final 20 minutes are particularly twisted and bizarre.
If there’s any flaw here it’s that lead actor Giacomo
Rossi Stuart is a bit of a bronze statue, though Erika Blanc is a Barbara
Steele mix of gorgeous and otherworldly, and Luciano Catenacci is rock-solid as
the bald-headed Karl, the Burgomaster. It’s particularly interesting seeing
Blanc play such an innocent here given her rather devilish performance in the
later sexy camp classic “The Devil’s Nightmare”.
A weird but spellbinding, creepy, stunningly shot and
scored film. It’s a masterpiece of mood and atmosphere, if not exactly
character depth. Witchcraft, cursed townsfolk, foggy graveyards, and a fetching
Erika Blanc – what more could you possibly want from a horror film? It might
not be your thing, but this is very much my thing.
Rating: B+
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