But after the commercial failure of his later films, as well as the
But after the commercial failure of his later films, as well as the
unreleased works of
Rabid Dogs (1974), Bava went
into a decline and by 1975, retired from filmmaking all together. He
was persuaded to come out of retirement at the request of his son,
Lamberto, to direct Shock, as well as a made-for-Italian television
movie. Mario Bava died from a sudden heart
attack on April 27, 1980 at age 65. With his death, an era in Italian
filmmaking had come to a close.