WATCHknownBlack Sunday
1960 · Italy · 87m
Bava could not afford colour and made the best-looking gothic ever shot. Barbara Steele's face did the rest.
Director · 8 films
Horror films directed by Mario Bava
8 films directed by Mario Bava are catalogued in the ledger, from 1960 to 1973. Countries of origin: Italy, Spain, Germany and France. The most common subgenres here are giallo (6), gothic (4), psychological (2) and folk horror (1). The best-documented entries are A Bay of Blood (1971), Black Sunday (1960) and Blood and Black Lace (1964). Of these, 1 were banned, refused or seized somewhere.
The films
WATCHknown
WATCHknownBlack Sabbath
1963 · Italy/France · 92m
Three Bava stories introduced by Boris Karloff, and the middle one is the most frightening thing Bava shot.
WATCHknownThe Girl Who Knew Too Much
1963 · Italy · 86m
Bava's proto-giallo, the film that invented the template, shot in gorgeous black and white in Rome.
WATCHknownBlood and Black Lace
1964 · France/Germany · 86m
The giallo template, and still the best-looking film in the category.
WATCHcultKill, Baby... Kill!
1966 · Italy · 85m
A Carpathian village, a dead girl with a white ball, and Fellini borrowed the image wholesale.
WATCHcultHatchet for the Honeymoon
1970 · Italy/Spain · 93m
Bava's first-person portrait of a killer who murders brides to recover a childhood memory. Genuinely strange.
WATCHknownA Bay of Blood
1971 · Italy · 84m
The hinge between giallo and slasher. Friday the 13th Part 2 lifts two murders almost shot for shot.
WATCHcultLisa and the Devil
1973 · Germany/Italy · 95m
Bava given complete freedom, and the film is a dream nobody can escape, including the producer.