14 October 2024
Kill, Baby, Kill! (1966)
84 min.
Directed by Mario Bava.
With Erika Blanc, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Fabienne Dali, Gianni Vivaldi, Piero Lulli, Luciano Catenacci, Micaela Esdra, Franca Dominici, Guiseppe Addobbati, Valeria Valeri.
An excellent entry from Mario Bava, and one of his best.

Turn of the 20th century. A small Carpathian village is terrorized by a series of unexplained murders.

Dr. Eswai (Rossi-Stuart) is called in to perform an autopsy on the latest victim. Curiously, each of the murdered have been found with a strange gold coin placed within their hearts.

It would seem something supernatural is at play here.

There's a rumor amongst the locals: the village is cursed by the ghost of a deceased little 7 year-old girl named Melissa. And her grieving mother, the Baroness Graps (Vivaldi), has been goading her daughter's ghost to commit one murder, then another, then another...

Could such an outlandish rumor be true?

Full of ethereal lyricism, atmospheric mists, and a pervading sense of Gothic doom, Kill, Baby, Kill! is a masterpiece of the genre.

Nearly every choice Bava makes here is perfect, from the gorgeous color palette, to the expert cinematography from Antonio Rinaldi, to the well-calculated plotting and pacing.

A must see.

Lesson learned here? Beware of giggling little girls in black patent leather buckle shoes and sheer-white hosiery...Super frightening!

Also known as Curse of the Living Dead.

Italian: Operazione Paura.

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