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Twitch
of the Death Nerve
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Italy
/ 1971
Directed by Mario Bava
Starring
Claudine Auger
Luigi Pistilli
Brigette Skay
Color / 84 Minutes / Not Rated
Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC)
Image Entertainment
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your mouse pointer over an image for a pop-up caption
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"You
are full of hot dogs and Cadillacs and you have no music
in your soul."
Party
animal (and classical
music lover) Brunhilde
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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6
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Everybody
dies.
I don't feel I'm giving away the store
by telling you this. Whodunit — or even why — really isn't the
point of the film. It's raison d'être are the murder sequences
themselves, so much so that Image cleverly includes a "Murder
Menu" among the DVD's bonus features: short clips cued
to each of the movie's 13 slayings. But unlike the more famous
films which it undoubtedly influenced (Friday
the 13th and its legion of sequels, among others), Twitch
of the Death Nerve
(a.k.a. Bay Of Blood) possesses a definite sense of visual
style, with a pinch of dark humor to leaven the carnage.
Director Mario Bava (Black
Sunday, Planet of the Vampires)
tosses out a major convention of the "giallo" thriller
within the film's first few minutes. When elderly, wheelchair-bound
Countess Federica is murdered, Bava's camera pans up from the
killer's traditional black gloves to reveal his face! This
eyebrow-raiser
is immediately trumped when the murderer himself is slain by
an unseen, knife-wielding assailant. Thus begins the colorful,
systematic slaughter of every character in the film. The rapidly
spiraling body count is triggered by a plot to acquire pristine
(and potentially lucrative) oceanfront property the Countess
refused to sell. Most of the characters have plenty of motive
for murder — either to develop the bay or to preserve its natural
beauty.
Innocents, too, are caught up in the cycle
of violence. In the film's most memorable (and later copied)
scenes, a group of randy college kids — busty Brunhilde, pricktease
Denise, horny Duke and clueless Bobby — are ruthlessly butchered
for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Twitch's
other victims are either killers themselves or likely suspects.
(Bonehead Bobby actually sort of deserves it, though, for that
horrendous '70s hair helmet.) Strangulation and edged weapons
are the methods of choice for murder, as one by one every cast
member meets their demise. Naked greed is the motivator in this
dog-eat-dog massacre. Anyone is capable of the most heinous
act of barbarism to advance their agenda. But Bava's savage
and often sly skewering of Man's baser instincts ultimately
blows it with a supposedly humorous ending that's just too ridiculous
to be funny.
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The
letterboxed video transfer is occasionally a bit dark in outdoor
night scenes — likely a symptom of the film's very low budget.
Minor video flaws aside, my only real beef with the DVD is the
sound. It's muffled and tinny; trebles sounds harsh. This is especially
evident during the sappily romantic symphony piece that introduces
the Countess, and undercuts what is otherwise a very catchy, bongo-driven
(and giallo-appropriate) score by Stelvio Cipriani.
The Murder Menu is a clever extra fully consistent with the
movie's thrust; the film's trailer (under the alternate title
Carnage) is a truly psychotronic oddity. The disc also
contains radio spots for Twitch of
the Death Nerve, theatrical
trailers to 6 other titles in Image's Mario Bava Collection, and
fact-packed liner notes by Bava scholar Tim Lucas. 5/05/01 |
| UPDATE
This DVD went OOP in 2005. Anchor Bay will issue a new, remastered
edition in 2007 (as Bay Of Blood)
as part of the Mario Bava Collection, Vol.
2. |
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