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Mario Bava is considered the granddaddy of Italian horror. He was a cinematographer who began directing at age 46. He was always assigned genre films. He is known for his striking visuals, envelope-pushing violence and gore and a distinctive style with off-kilter humor.

This film begins with a fly committing suicide in a lake. Then we move to a highly dramatic scene of Countess Federica Donati (Isa Miranda, THE NIGHT PORTER) rolling her wheelchair to the window on a rainy night staring out at a boathouse in lament. The music swells as she moves back into the room and then suddenly the music is cut off, a noose is thrown around her neck and she is pushed off her wheelchair to hang herself. This shocking first death is only the tip of the iceberg in what surprises lie within the twisted world of this film.

All the characters in the film are shady to some degree. And most of them have plots and murder on the mind. The Countess owned the bay-front property and doesn’t want to sell it to developer and neighbor Frank Ventura (Chris Avram, EMMANUELLE IN BANGKOK). The Countress’s husband Count Filippo Donati (Giovanni Nuvoletti) is a womanizer. Neighbor Paolo Fossati (Leopoldo Trieste, CINEMA PARADISO) is a bug freak who likes to watch insects die on pins. He doesn’t like the idea of turning the bay into a resort. His wife Anna (Laura Betti, FAT GIRL) is a nosy busy-body, involved in Tarot cards. Simon (Claudio Camaso, 1900) is a fisherman with a secret. Renata (Claudine Auger, THUNDERBALL) is the Count’s conniving daughter and Albert (Lugigi Pistilli, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY) is her whipped husband. They leave their kids alone in a trailer, so they can find out a way to weasel their way into inheriting the bay. Laura (Anna Maria Rosati) is Frank’s beautiful, blonde secretary and his lover.

The mystery plot works almost as a very dark satire of soap operas and Agatha Christie tales where vile rich people cheat and double-crossed each other to get more wealth. All the characters are potential victims and killers. There is no real moral center in the film, but in this film that’s the point. We root for the comeuppance of all of them.

The only partly innocent characters are four teens — Duke (Guido Boccaccini, only film performance), Denise (Paola Montenero, EMANUELLE AND JOANNA), Robert (Roberto Bonanni, INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION) and Brunhilda (Brigitte Skay, SS HELL CAMP) — who have come up to the bay to party and have sex. This film is truly the original slasher film. FRIDAY THE 13TH ripped this film off extensively. From the big kills to the horny teens to the tongue-in-cheek humor, so many films were influenced by what this film did. However, for the most part, they lack the style and deviant, satirical thrust that makes this film so good.

Bava is playing with the audience throughout this film. Like a good mystery, you’re always wondering what will happen next. The end surprise won’t be a shock for certain people who understand that screenplays do not introduce characters unless they are important. Another problem with the film is that the sequence with the teens feels tacked on for body count sake, runs too long and never develops any sympathy for the characters. However, once the last teen is dead, the film kicks into its real purpose and that’s to twist and turn as each devious character tries to outwit the next. The teens work as set up for the real story. This is not a film for everyone, but for horror fans it is an absolute must see film. This is a twisted gem.