mario bava

It's a sight both thrilling and familiar -- the winding staircase, especially when seen from directly above or below. Many directors and cinematographers use such shots for their guaranteed visual punch -- the landings create artificial frames, the spirals imbue the center of the screen with a sense of the infinite. Plus, the practical purpose of the stairway suggests a journey and not an easy one. Different films have used the winding staircase to evoke different things -- vertigo, insanity, a descent into hell, and even female genitalia. This Thanksgiving weekend, we give our gratitude to one of the great visual tropes in the horror-thriller by presenting six films with staircases we love.

As usual, click the thumbnails to open a larger version of the picture in a new window.(read more...)

When we decided on "Foreign Horror" as the overall theme for our Shocktober review marathon this year, we made a conscious decision to leave out Italy for the most part, despite it having the second-highest horror output for a non-English-speaking country (after Japan). The fact is, we have plenty of Italian horror covered on the site, and we devoted two and a half weeks of last year's Shocktober to two of the country's best-known horror directors, Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava.(read more...)

Scan through the reviews in Classic-Horror's Mario Bava Week and you'll see a certain name pop up over and over again: Tim Lucas, editor of Video Watchdog magazine. You'll also see plenty of references to "Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark", Lucas's self-published biography of the director, which came out in September.(read more...)

Using the camera and some tricks of light and perspective, Mario Bava created artistic masterpieces that were beautiful in motion and often more beautiful seen at a halting standstill. It's one thing to create a phenomenal photograph and quite another to present 24 a second for 80-100 minutes. Herein we present some visually striking moments from several of Bava's films from within the horror genre and from without. Each still is taken from a DVD screen capture and most are presented without additional comment. 

Each week in October this year, as part of our Shocktober Classics event, we'll be featuring a different director who has significantly contributed to the horror genre, with new reviews for that director's films from Monday to Friday of that week. For our final celebration, we look at the Italian Maestro of the Macabre, Mario Bava.(read more...)

Each week in October this year, as part of our Shocktober Classics event, we'll be featuring a different director who has significantly contributed to the horror genre, with new reviews for that director's films from Monday to Friday of that week.

The schedule for the month is as follows:

Week of October 1st: Roger Corman
Week of October 8th: Wes Craven
Week of October 15th: Lucio Fulci
Week of October 22nd: Mario Bava
Week of October 29th: Mario Bava continued (through the 31st)

We've received the cover art for Anchor Bay's Mario Bava Collection: Volume 2. This box set, set for release October 23rd, will contain eight of Bava's films, including Lisa and the Devil, House of Exorcism, Bay of Blood, Baron Blood, Kidnapped, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack, 5 Dolls for an August Moon, and Four Times that Night.(read more...)

In his Video Watchblog, Tim Lucas announced that Anchor Bay will be releasing The Mario Bava Collection Volume 2 on October 23rd, just in time for Halloween. This box will contain Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil (and House of Exorcism, which is mutilated form of Lisa, with non-Bava scenes of satanic possession edited in), Roy Colt & Winchester Jack, Four Times That Night, Bay of Blood, and Five Dolls for an August Moon.(read more...)

Welcome to Haunted Newsreel's DVD Preview for April. This edition is sponsored by Anchor Bay Entertainment's upcoming discs for Dead and Deader, Masters of Horror: Family, Noein: Volume 3, and their theatrical release Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. (read more...)