Kill, Baby, KillRating:
Release Date: 01 January, 2003 Retail Price: $3.95 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: |
Kill, Baby, Kill Reviews
Bright and sinister
The worst thing about this film is the title..."Kill Baby Kill" is far more suitable for a schlocky blood 'n' breasts romp than this stately gothic. Everything else about the film is pretty good. The story tells of a doctor who arrives in a remote village to investigate some mysterious murders. The coach driver who delivers him will come no nearer than the village outer walls, and the villagers inside either give him the silent stare treatment or tell him to leave if he knows what's good for him. The only person to befriend him is an attractive young female scientist, who assists him in his investigation despite fearing for her own safety...because the village is being haunted by the apparition of a young blonde girl, who's appearance is said to mark the person who sees her for a violent death.
Now, after being faced with that many horror movie cliches in the opening 20 minutes, you might be forgiven for losing interest with this pretty quickly. And it's true to say that few movies starting with this premise ever approach the realms of the "classics". But stick with this one and you might see some scenes that surprise you.
Firstly, the thing that every reviewer seems to mention is the colour. Scenes are bathed in all sorts of unnatural shades of blues, reds and yellows, and the effect makes the film take on a very luxurious appearance. The photography is mostly very beautiful. Shots of the ghostly girl peering through windows, along with the general eye for compostion in most shots is very accomplished. The location the film is set in is also pretty striking, seemingly filmed in an almost totally derelict village. I don't know how the viewer is supposed to believe that people actually carry on their lives dwelling in what appear to be roofless ruins!
The atmosphere is postitively dripping with gothic trappings. Every scene takes place in either a ruin of some sort, a heavily decorated room or a cobwebbed passage or tomb. The characters all wear richly detailed period clothes. The best scenes of the movie take place in a grand, isolated villa - the source of the villager's terror and the home of the murderous phantom child who seems to be terrorizing the place. The only living inhabitant is the child's mother, a reclusive and half-mad Baroness, played up to the hilt by the actress in a full-on "Miss Haversham" style. She hates the villagers and holds them responsible for the death of her young daughter many years ago. Will she help or hinder our heroes as they try to end the ghostly reign of terror?
There's no denying the fact that although it's strikingly filmed, the movie still looks a bit cheap and formulaic. But Bava was always adept at making a lot out of a little, and he succeeds here. There's a great dream sequence that the heroine experiences at one point, plus another scene in which the hero runs through a maze of identical rooms in the Baroness's villa, running so fast he actually catches up with HIMSELF at one point - a very bizarre sequence! The ending is also quietly satisfying, if maybe a little muted.
You won't find any gore or nudity in this horror tale, but you will find plenty of flair for period gothic. The sombre ghostly girl and her bouncing ball (it often appears, plopping down a staircase or corridor, even though she is nowhere in sight) are great horror movie motifs. Sadly, the English dubbing is rather lame as usual, and the DVD's available of this film in English are reportedly not the greatest image quality. it would be nice to see this in widescreen and re-mastered, and apparently there is an Australian DVD release that has managed this...let's hope some copies of that make their way around the world.
Kill, baby!
Okay, it's a stupid title for a movie, and it sounds like it belongs to a cheap slasher flick.
But fortunately Mario Bava's "Kill Baby Kill" is much better than its hokey title suggests, as one would expect from a giallo master. Instead of a slasher movie, it's a gothic horror movie with impalements, ghosts and magic. It has all the beauty -- and terror -- of a decayed fairy tale.
When a young woman leaps onto an iron fence, young Dr. Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) is called in to do an autopsy, with the help of beautiful Monica (Erica Blanc). He finds a coin in the girl's heart, and none of the townspeople will tell him -- because if they do, they will suffer a similar fate. Eswai doesn't buy all this superstition.
He's even more annoyed when local sorceress Ruth (Fabienne Dali) begins using her powers to protect a young girl from a childlike specter -- little dead aristocrat Melissa Graps. But as the bodies pile up, and Monica is plagued by bizarre nightmares, Eswai must accept Ruth's help to save Monica from the ghost, and an evil baroness.
This is more gothic horror rather than straightforward "giallo," but it has the cinematic touches that Bava was known for. Bava fills the run-down village sets with broken doors, coffins, and long fluttering canopies. It's gothically delicious. But he also adds dreamlike touches -- the village is full of mist, tombstones, and green, blue and red lighting. He packs this movie so full of visual opulance, it's like being locked inside a beautiful nightmare.
And he has a knack for the really spooky stuff too. A bouncing ball, childish giggling, and a little girl on a swing become really horrifying, not to mention all those impalements on everything from fences to, uh, candlesticks. Two particularly eerie scenes have Eswai chasing himself through endless rooms, and Monica running down an endless spiral stair.
The ghost story itself is quite simple, and the secret identities of two characters are quite obvious. But fortunately, this doesn't detract from the atmosphere. How could it? "Kill Baby Kill" is steeped in atmosphere from the first creepy scene, and rather than building in suspense, it runs steadily all the way to the end.
And the cast helps. Despite the emotionless dubbing, Rossi-Stuart and Blanc both do outstanding jobs, but the best performance of the movie belongs to Fabienne Dali, as a tragic sorceress who is trying to save the village from Melissa's revenge. The scene where she mourns her dead lover is exquisite.
"Kill Baby Kill" is a gorgeous, creepy ghost story, with good acting and stellar direction. Definitely a must-see for fans of atmospheric cult horror.
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