Before Halloween begins, we honour the “Italian Master of Horror” director MARIO BAVA. Famous for his ‘giallo’ horror films, Bava began working in special effects and matte paintings, with his own ingenious works possessing luminous off-kilter style.
Bava was son of Italian cinematographer Eugenio Bava. Mario trained as a painter, but followed his father into the film industry as a cinematographer and SFX whiz, including making/adjusting matte paintings for early Italian sword-and-sandals.
After ‘ghost directing’ a few films, Bava got funding for his own debut BLACK SUNDAY (1960). This atmospheric Gothic horror is now acclaimed, created a star out of Barbara Steele, and had Bava provide the matte paintings himself within the sound stage set.
Bava went on to make several creepy sexually-charged movies – like KILL, BABY… KILL! (1966) - which turned limited sets into otherworldly realms with smoke, projections and matte backgrounds.
Bava’s PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1965) was a huge influence on Ridley Scott’s ALIEN (1979), and similarly this film runs wild with set design and atmosphere, including Bava being credited as doing the movie’s mattes himself.
One of my favourites of Bava’s is his comic adaptation DANGER: DIABOLIK (1968), which inhabits its bizarro pop-art world and striking design seemingly beamed in from another galaxy (much like another comic adaptation that I'm screening - DICK TRACY (1990))
Mario Bava’s approach to fake backgrounds can perhaps be found in this ending clip of BLACK SABBATH (1963). Creepy but also playful, finding the joy in creating artificial dreamscapes on shoe-strings budgets to give viewers a fright. Happy Halloween!
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