Mario Bava is one of my all-time favorite directors and arguably THE greatest Horror director who ever lived. This man's repertoire simply includes more masterpieces than that of any other Horror director. His most essential masterpiece is "La Maschera Del Demonio" (aka. "Black Sunday") of 1960 (my choice for the greatest Horror film ever), but his filmography includes countless other masterpieces that come very close, such as the ingenious Giallo-milestone "Blood And Black Lace" (1964), numerous wonderful Gothic-tales, such as "Kill Baby... Kill! (1966) or "The Whip And The Body" (1963), or the brilliantly nasty 1974 crime thriller "Cani Arrabiati" (aka. "Rabid Dogs"), just to name some of the fantastic films the world of cinema owes to this great man. While "Reazione A Catena" aka. "A Bay Of Blood" aka. "Twitch Of The Death Nerve" (this is reported to be the film with the most a.k.a. titles) of 1971 is not nearly one of my favorites from Bava, it nonetheless deserves a solid rating of 9 out of 10. "A Bay Of Blood" is not quite as beautiful and moody as some of Bava's other films, and, to me personally, it is not quite as fascinating either. Yet, it cannot be denied that this film is immensely entertaining and even more influential. The plot, which revolves around bloody murders among the inhabitants of the eponymous Bay, may not be the most complex ever, but it sure is demented enough to satisfy every true Horror fan. And the manner the film is executed is nothing short of brilliance. "A Bay Of Blood" is extremely gory, yet very stylish, and maintains a morbid and gripping atmosphere throughout its 85 minutes. The greatest aspect of "A Bay Of Blood", however, are probably the ultra-demented characters.<br /><br />If there is one film that the Slasher-genre owes its existence to, it is this one. The bay is a superb location for a film of the kind, and makes it even more clear which film Slashers like "Friday the 13th" were inspired by. "A Bay Of Blood" sometimes is labeled as a Giallo. It is certainly not a typical example for Horror's most glorious sub-genre which was single-handedly invented by Bava himself, but it is also undeniable that "A Bay Of Blood" does include many Giallo elements. It is also one of the first films to include aspects of the future Slasher flick, and, along with Sergio Martino's awesomely nasty Giallo "Torso" (1973), it is THE film that influenced the genre the most. From the first minute, the film has a delightfully morbid atmosphere and an incredibly macabre sense of humor. One of the goriest films of the early 70s, "A Bay Of Blood" is outrageously violent for its time. Hatchets get smashed directly into faces, throats get slashed, and all that is shown in explicit detail. Remember, this was made several years before Dario Argento's Gialli became really gory starting with his masterpiece "Profondo Rosso", and "A Bay Of Blood" even puts a stronger focus on violence in explicit detail. The performances may not be the most important aspect of "A Bay Of Blood", but the cast includes several greats of Italian genre cinema, most memorably the great Luigi Pistilli (one of my favorite actors), the beautiful Claudine Auger, and Laura Betti, who also starred in Bava's "Hatchet For The Honeymoon". As mentioned above, "A Bay Of Blood" is not nearly one of my favorite films by Mario Bava. Even so, this is a brutal and stylish milestone that single-handedly buries all American slasher films, and that must not be missed by any Horror fan.