Kill Baby, Kill (1966)
Directed by Mario Bava

Film Review

One of the most unsettling and chillingly atmospheric films in the entire horror genre is this understated supernatural thriller from the undisputed king of Italian horror, Mario Bava.   Its most commonly used English language title Kill Baby, Kill hardly does justice to the film and erroneously suggests something akin to today's juvenile slasher flicks.  Previous titles Curse of the Dead and Operation Fear (Operazione paura, the original Italian title) are much nearer the mark in conveying what the film offers - a spine-tingling excursion into Gothic fantasy in which the living are viciously preyed upon by the spirits of the dead, or rather one spirit in the guise of a creepy little girl.

Kill Baby, Kill was the last in a run of startling baroque horror films that Mario Bava made in the 1960s, films which were made cheaply but which had an immediate and lasting impact, influencing numerous film directors, including Martin Scorsese.  Bava, like his American counterpart Roger Corman, had a reputation for making quality horror films on a miniscule budget and this film, perhaps more than any other, demonstrates Bava's ability to conjure up something magical from next to no resources.  The film was shot in just eleven days and reused sets from earlier films, but it still ran into financial difficulties so that, at one point, Bava was unable to pay his actors.  With no money to commission a new score, the director was compelled to piece together a soundtrack from music and sound effects used on his previous films (something that accentuates the film's unsettlingly disjointed feel).  Yet, miraculously, the film was completed and not only does it look like a pretty lavish production, it actually stands as one of the most visually striking and original works in its genre. 

As is the case with much of Bava's cinema, this film offers a remarkable visual experience, one that draws the spectator into a nightmare alternative reality where the laws of the natural world are gleefully perverted and where one's notions of time, space and consciousness are constantly challenged.   The colour-saturated chiaroscuro and unsettling camera positionings give the film an ethereal, brooding unreality, which the discordant score complements to suggest a universe in which the paranormal has triumphed over the natural order.   The recurring motif of the spiral staircase, with its explicit Freudian undertones, reminds us that we have departed from the world that we know and have entered an altogether different state of being, that unchartered realm of the imagination, the mist shrouded buffer zone between life and death.  The stark unreality of what we see conveys a powerful sense of oppression and dread, and the overriding sensation is one of being trapped in a nightmare that is drifting inexorably towards a climax of pure terror.

Kill Baby, Kill is remarkably effective but it is also one of Bava's most understated films.  There are a few intensely gory moments, but these are fleeting and have much less impact than some of the film's more subtle horror images, such as the sudden appearance of a child's hand pressed against a window pane.   Because the film was shot so quickly, Bava was unable to prepare a detailed shooting schedule, so much of what we see was improvised on the day.  This must have been a liberating experience for the director, since the film contains some of his most inspired flourishes.  The most memorable sequence is the one in which the hero chases a man through a series of rooms, only to end up back in the room where he started and discovers that the man he has been pursuing is himself.  Another stroke of genius is a pendulum shot that appears early in the film.  The camera moves back and forth and suddenly reveals the unimaginably scary image of a young child on a swing.  A white ball bouncing across the field of view to the sound of a child's manic laughter lends the chilling impression of a ghostly visitation.  The entire film is studded with inspired touches of this kind, subtle touches that take something familiar and seemingly innocent and give it a horrifying demonic purpose.  The result is one of the most disturbing films in the horror genre, a film that requires at least three viewings to fully appreciate its haunting visual power and its quiet blood-curdling menace.

Film Synopsis

Dr Eswai arrives in a remote Transylvanian village to perform an autopsy on a young woman who has recently died, apparently by impaling herself on railing spikes.  He is met by Inspector Kruger, who reveals that several girls have died in a similar manner over the past few years. Eswai is surprised to find a coin in the heart of the dead woman and discovers it was placed there by Ruth, the village sorceress, to give her peace after death.  Eswai then meets Monica Schuftan, an attractive young woman who has just returned to the village after many years to visit her parents' grave.  The locals are suspicious of both Eswai and Monica and urge them to go away as their lives are in peril.  Eswai is scornful of the villagers' superstitions but soon discovers that supernatural forces are at work.  The only thing to connect the dead women is that, before they died, each was visited by a little girl.  Eswai receives a note instructing him to meet Kruger at Villa Graps, the house where the latest victim worked as a maid.   Here, after being repulsed by the reclusive Baroness Graps, Eswai sees the little girl from a distance, but she runs away and disappears before he can reach her.  This is Melissa Graps, who died twenty years ago in horrific circumstances.  She has returned from beyond the grave, to claim her revenge...