Reazione a Catena: a Bay of Blood

Even for slashers there's a first time.

2016 is proving to be a very sad year for fans of pop culture as they're seeing their precious childhood memories butchered by heartless Hollywood producers. Before I decided to review Rezione a Catena I watched Batman: The Killing Joke hoping to find a fantastic animated adaptation of Alan Moore & Bryan Azarello's groundbreaking graphic novel, I found nothing but a kitsch parody, just like our previous entry. 

You know who else butchers? Every character from today's review! Mario Bava's masterpiece, Reazione a Catena (Chain Reaction) AKA a Bay of Blood AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve is one of those films that deserve to wear the "unique" ribbon label from our humble blog. How many movies have you watched where every single character in it gets killed in the most brutal possible way? How many movies have you watched that hold the title of first slasher film ever? fasten your seat belts for  today's review!

A death rich lady.

an all-seeing eye.

The definition of a horror film hasn't been the same since Reazione a Catena premiered in 1971, and chances of its influence ever completely receding are next to nil. The first film to exploit its body-count as the main reason for viewing, the flick even hits the ground running (or wheeling rather), with the first two of its thirteen ghastly murders occurring in the first scene alone. Besides the high mortality rate of the characters, and Bava's diabolical tunnel vision of the carnage, another not so easily noticeable (yet perhaps most lasting) influence of this film reliance on set pieces to reach its sadistic goal. Every murder is methodically, systematically designed for optimum shock, and the film's cameraman (Bava himself), art director, actors, writers, editors, FX men, etc., all play their crucial and individual parts to perfection each time, thereby making each piece stand alone like masochistic movements in a sadistic symphony.

Said actors run the gamut from fallen icons of World Cinema (like Isa Miranda), and ex-Bond Girls (Thunderball's Claudine Auger), to Laura Betti, and a Brechtian spaghetti western star (Luigi Pistilli). The writers include none other than Dardano Sacchetti, who had just recently penned Argento's Cat O' Nine Tails, and would go on to give Lucio Fulci one of the finest scripts of his career – The Beyond. Carlo Rambaldi, who would go on to win two Oscars for Alien and E.T., created the then-state-of-the-art special effects. I suppose I should mention the story line, which is often attacked for being inconsequential, illogical, irrational, impossible to sort out, or simply the odious ex machina to simply get from one murder to another. I find it all pretty simple to explain myself – I don't see what's so difficult to understand. Bava's penchant for cynicism and his fascination with humanity's dark side has never been more apparent than on this film, whose plot concerns greed, real estate, the raping of the environment, and revenge.

I wanna buy that bay no matter the cost honey.

The smell of death is upon us, dear.

All the action transpires around a beautiful, undeveloped bay and its surrounding picturesque landscape/acreage, whose owner (Isa Miranda) has been murdered. Those who wish to convert the entire area into a fashionable resort now threaten the forests and natural life. But just who is the real heir to this potential fortune now? And who won't stop at nothing to own it all, or to preserve the land's natural state. Throw in some sex-crazed teenagers who stumble and wander where they shouldn't belong, and you've got the makings for wholesale slaughter. Beheadings, faces cleaved in two, necks gouged apart, bodies run through with spears & tridents, flying pots of boiling water, hangings, strangulations, bodies being blown to shotgun bits – Reazione a Catena's got it all! Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas said it best, "…the horror genre had seen nothing quite like it before – and it's seen very little unlike it ever since." Touché. As with his work on I Vampiri and Black Sunday, Bava likely had no idea that what he was making would change the course of horror film history. Reazione a Catena was a film for which Bava was especially proud – the body count, the blatantly offensive amorality, the over-indulgent carnality, and the ludicrous lump of unlikable characters.

All these things were purposeful commentary on Bava's part – to take a stab at the industry, the genre; to see what he could do with a little bit of money; to push the envelope; to push the buttons and watch people's reactions. Such are valid and fun reasons for doing what he did. Little did Bava know that this film's genius would be singularly responsible for a whole bevy of '80s crap, including Friday the 13th,Part II's blatant theft of two of Twitch's death scenes. Argento's Bird and Bava's Reazione a Catena were the nails in the coffin for the first half of Italian Horror's heyday. The dark, alluring fantasies were now gone. No longer would the plots be semi-innocent, or quasi-Victorian. No more wandering through fogged graveyards and abandoned castles. Though Bava continued to make some work of merit in the '70s (Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil), never again would he find himself at the forefront of the genre he almost single-handedly created. The future belonged to perversion, degeneracy, gore, hysteria, cannibalism, Teutonic witches, zombies and Goblins…lots and lots of Goblins.

Death is here to stay.

The very first teens to be slashed on the big screen.

The story has it, legendary film maker Dario Argento loved the film so much, he had a friend (who was a projectionist) steal him a print of the film during its first run in Italy. The theater ended up showing Blood Brides (1970) to replace the stolen print for the remainder of the film's run there (about a week and a half according to Argento. He possesses the print to this day).  

The film not only had numerous release titles, but also several working titles throughout the production. Among them "The Stench of Flesh", "Thus Do We Live To Be Evil" and "That Will Teach Them To Be Bad". "Reazione a catena" was the final choice for the local release. 

One of the re-release titles for this film was "The Last House on the Left Part II", even though this film has nothing to do with Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972). In fact it was made a year earlier than "Last House".

Splitting headache.

Together forever.

The origin of the film was Mario Bava's desire to work with Laura Betti again. Betti had previously appeared in Bava's Blood Brides (1970) and the two had gotten along so well they concocted the premise of this film for another project together.  

The film's low budget resulted in Mario Bava being his own cinematographer. He had to utilize a simple child's wagon for the film's many tracking shots. Due to the film's low budget, most of the locations in the film belonged to director Mario Bava or members of the crew. The interiors of Countess Federica's home was shot at a favorite villa of Bava's and the interiors of Frank Ventura's country house were shot at a summer home owned by the producer. 

The 1971 Avoriaz Film Festival jurors awarded the film the Best Makeup and Special Effects Award. Carlo Rambaldi's effects work also earned the film a "Special Mention" Award at the prestigious Sitges Festival in 1971.  

That's the biggest cock I've ever seen!

I better hurry to get some Vaseline to stick it in with ease.

Although nudity is one of the key elements in a slasher film, Reazione a Catena only features a single scene where we are able to see gorgeous men magazine model Brigitte Skay sporting nothing but her curves and blonde pubes. Coincidentally, her character is the first to witness something terribly wrong is going on near the abandon mansion  but just before she's able to tell her friends about it, she's bloodily terminated, and so will her friends. Brigitte passed away in 2012 at the age of 72. During the 70's she would star several Italian exploitation films such as Man of the Year (1971), San Babila 8 P.M.(1976) & La Bestia in Calore (1977)  among others.

According to IMDB, Reazione a Catena is probable the number one film of all time to have a lot of different international titles. Some of the titles are: A bay of Blood, Blood Bath, Bloodbath Bay of Death, The Antecedent, Blood Bay, Twitch of the Death Nerve, Carnage, The Last House on the Left II & Ecology of a Crime, not to mention titles in other languages!

Brigitte Skay, the blonde bombshell.

You got something on your sweater, let me get it for you.

Overall, Reazione a Catena is a film that goes straight to the point. With a very simple plot involving every character in one way or another, this film is a total murder feast that I'm sure slasher fans and connoisseurs in general have already watched many, many times. If you've never heard about this movie but enjoy watching Giallo movies and horror movies from the late 70's and early 80's this film is definitely for you. If you've never watched a slasher before (I doubt it in 2016 but...) This film would be a great appetizer to a very interesting genre. 

In case you're concerned about the murder scenes and how graphic they are, well, there are far worse than Reazion a Catena if you're faint of the heart.

Anyways, here's the movie trailer, and please make sure you watch it in Italian because the English dub isn't the best.