Kill, Baby...Kill (Mario Bava Collection)

Kill, Baby...Kill (1966; original Italian title: Operazione Paura) is a micro-budgeted, stylistically enthralling gothic ghost horror film from maestro Mario Bava. The admittedly thin story follows Dr. Paul Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) arriving in a crumbling village to perform an autopsy, and getting entangled in the community's belief that a ghost is responsible for a series of murders.

The central plot fulcrum--a girl left to die by neglectful villagers wreaks bloody vengeance from beyond the grave--fascinatingly anticipates both The Omen (1976) and Friday the 13th (1980). But neither of those films, regardless of their relative fame and higher budgets, can hold a candle to the filmaking prowess on display here. Bava packs the frame with foreground and background detail, lit with his trademark pools of vivid, primary-colour light. In a couple of interior scenes, notice that a cobweb is lit with bright chlorophyll green. How many directors would go to the trouble of lighting a cobweb? Bava's sense of detail in his compositions lends subtle, layered texture to the film. The exteriors, shot amidst authentic ruins, project a palpable sense of decay, building on the theme of a group of people cursed by their past.

There are several directorial touches that convey a genuine sense of the supernatural. The shot of the girl's face at a dirt-frosted window, and the appearance of a child's toy ball, bouncing towards the camera, announce the intrusion of the vengeful ghost with effective eeriness. The scene on the spiral staircase, brilliantly set up and shot, and the sequence where a character appears to chase themselves are virtuoso set pieces, worthy of comparison with Hitchcock.

It perhaps shows a particular kind of cinematic snobbishness that Bava, working in less-respected film genres, has never received due respect from film connoisseurs. However, for true lovers of film, who can respect great work regardless of where its done, Bava's Kill, Baby...Kill is a cinematic treat.

The Anchor Bay DVD, from the Mario Bava Collection, Vol. 1, boasts a clear, vivacious picture, in anamorphic widescreen, that shows little sign of the film's age.

---
Directed by Mario Bava
Written by Mario Bava, Romano Migliorini, and Roberto Natale

Starring:
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart...Dr. Paul Eswai
Erika Blanc...Monica Schuftan
Fabienne Dali...Ruth (the sorceress)
Piero Lulli...Insp. Kruger