There are films that wrap themselves in riddles. Then there’s Lisa and the Devil, which doesn’t just wrap—it duct-tapes, zip-ties, and throws the riddle in a blender. Mario Bava’s 1973 fever dream is what happens when a director forgets he’s supposed to make sense and instead takes acid with a mannequin, a dead priest, and … Read More “Lisa and the Devil (1973): Bava’s Beautiful Death March Into Surreal Hell” »
By 1972, Mario Bava had already delivered eerie Technicolor nightmares, helped give birth to the giallo genre, and practically made blood into a cinematic art form. So when Baron Blood came shuffling onto the screen like a drunk relative in a moth-eaten cape, expectations were cautiously optimistic. Maybe it wouldn’t reinvent horror, but at the … Read More “Baron Blood (1972): Bava’s Haunted Slumber Party for the Narcoleptic” »
Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood is legendary in horror circles—credited with inventing the high body‐count slasher before slashers were trendy. But legend aside, this 1971 feast of severed limbs and moral bankruptcy feels hollow. It’s gore for gore’s sake, with characters as thin as tissue paper and suspense thinner still. It’s all sizzle—13 kills in … Read More “A Bay of Blood (1971): Bava’s Bloodbath Blueprint That Somehow Ran Out of Juice” »
Mario Bava, horror maestro extraordinaire, decided in 1971 to skip the blood and dread and dive straight into sex comedy with Four Times That Night (Quattro volte…. Productions listed this as a sexy whodunnit, supposedly R-rated and titillating. What we ended up with felt like a canceled late-night sketch—one where the punchline is missing and … Read More “Four Times That Night (1971): Mario Bava’s Whodunnit Whirl with No Clues and Four Identities” »
There’s a theory in cinema that even the greats are allowed a mulligan. Some say Scorsese had New York, New York. Kubrick had Fear and Desire. And Bava—Mario Bava, godfather of giallo and gothic dread—he had Roy Colt & Winchester Jack, a film so aimless it makes you long for a rattlesnake bite just to … Read More “Roy Colt & Winchester Jack (1970): A Fistful of Nonsense” »
🎩 1. Premise Lost in Couture Mario Bava’s Hatchet for the Honeymoon sets up a deliciously twisted premise: a bridal boutique owner, John Harrington, serially murders brides to trigger repressed memories of murdering his own mother. It’s American Psychomeets Psycho—but the mind behind the camera seems to have misplaced the pulse. What could’ve been an … Read More “Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970) – Mario Bava’s Glamorous Misfire” »
🏝️ Premise: A Villa, a Beach, and an Invited Murders Picture a glamorous Italian villa beachfront: white-clad socialites, champagne flutes, cliché suspicion, and waves crashing like criticism. Five Dolls for an August Moon opens with a group of would-be vacationers who just happen to be heirs and hangers-on, summoned to a balmy Mediterranean estate. The … Read More “Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970): Villa Bloodbath with No Pool Party Vibes” »
🏚️ 1. Premise: Small Town, Digging Up Regrets & Corpses “Homecoming” opens with Jim Owens (Michael McKean) returning to his sleepy hometown of Hollis for the fiftieth anniversary of the famous Hollis High massacre—a fatal fire that killed six students. Cue ominous crows, sticky heat haze, and townsfolk who look like they just stepped off … Read More “Masters of Horror Season 1 Episode 6 – “Homecoming” (Directed by Joe Dante): Haunted High School Reunion with No Style Points” »
Joe Dante—director of the mischievous Gremlins and satirical horror auteur—swished his camera into the late‑’90s with Small Soldiers, an idea so perfectly retro it could only have been conceived during a nostalgia flashback in a toy aisle: small toys, tiny guns, and explosive firepower meant for 4‑year‑olds. Because nothing says “family entertainment” like children ducking … Read More “Small Soldiers (1998): Toy Soldiers With Red Alert, But No Strategy” »
There are movies that feel like time machines. Matinee is one of them—taking you back to 1962, splitting lanes between Cold War anxiety and campy B-movie charm, and inviting you to snack on popcorn while a rubber-suited monster eats the projectionist alive. Directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, Innerspace), this film isn’t just nostalgia—it’s escapism with … Read More “Matinee (1993): Joe Dante’s Love Letter to Drive‑In Horror—With More Laughs Than a Lip-Synced Skeleton” »