Mario Bava was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter. His low-budget genre films, known for their distinctive visual flair and stylish technical ingenuity, feature recurring themes and imagery concerning the conflict between illusion and reality, as well as the destructive capacity of human nature. Widely regarded as a pioneer of Italian genre cinema and one of the most influential auteurs of the horror film genre, he is popularly referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the Macabre".
Black Sabbath is a 1963 Italian horror anthology film directed by Mario Bava. The film consists of three separate tales that are introduced by Boris Karloff. The order in which the stories are presented varies among the different versions in which the film has been released. In the original, Italian print, the first story, titled "The Telephone", involves Rosy who continually receives threatening telephone calls from an unseen stalker. The second is "The Wurdulak", where a man named Gorca (Karloff) returns to his family after claiming to have slain a Wurdulak, an undead creature who attacks those that it had once loved. The third story, "The Drop of Water", is centered on Helen Corey, a nurse who steals a ring from a corpse that is being prepared for burial and finds herself haunted by the ring's original owner after arriving home.
In Italian cinema, giallo is a genre of murder mystery fiction that often contains slasher, thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements.
Lamberto Bava is an Italian film director. Born in Rome, Bava began working as an assistant director for his director father Mario Bava. Lamberto co-directed the 1979 television film La Venere d'Ille with his father and in 1980 directed his first solo feature film Macabre.
Blood and Black Lace is a 1964 giallo film directed by Mario Bava and starring Eva Bartok and Cameron Mitchell. The story concerns the brutal murders of a Roman fashion house's models, committed by a masked killer in a desperate attempt to obtain a scandal-revealing diary.
Black Sunday is a 1960 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava in his official directorial debut, and starring Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici and Enrico Oliveri. Loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's short story "Viy", the film takes place in Moldavia and tells the story of a witch who is put to death by her brother, only to return two centuries later to seek revenge upon his descendants.
Danger: Diabolik is a 1968 action and crime film directed and co-written by Mario Bava, based on the Italian comic series Diabolik by Angela and Luciana Giussani. The film is about a criminal named Diabolik, who plans large-scale heists for his girlfriend Eva Kant. Diabolik is pursued by Inspector Ginko, who blackmails the gangster Ralph Valmont into catching Diabolik for him.
Demons is a 1985 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Lamberto Bava, produced by Dario Argento, and starring Urbano Barberini and Natasha Hovey. The plot follows two female university students who, along with a number of random people, are given complimentary tickets to a mysterious movie screening, where they soon find themselves trapped in the theater with a horde of ravenous demons.
Noite Maldita - Demoni 3 is a 1991 Italian horror film directed by Umberto Lenzi. It was written by Lenzi and his wife Olga Pehar, and the zombie makeup fx were handled by Franco Casagni. Lenzi said in later interviews that this was one of his favorite films, but he felt it was ruined by the low budget.
Until Death is a 1988 Italian made-for-TV horror film directed by Lamberto Bava.
A Blade in the Dark is a 1983 Italian giallo film directed by Lamberto Bava. Originally planned for television, the film was made as a nearly two hour piece split into four parts each of which would end with a murder scene. After the film was found to be too gruesome for Italian television censors, it was re-edited into a feature film.
The House of Clocks is an Italian horror film directed by Lucio Fulci. In it, a wealthy older couple is murdered during a robbery by three young perpetrators. The event results in a supernatural reversal of time, symbolized by the fast, counter-clockwise movement of hands on the house's many clocks. Eventually, this leads to the resurrection of the older couple, who subsequently seek to terrorize the three burglars.
Delirium is a 1987 Italian giallo film directed by Lamberto Bava and starring Serena Grandi, David Brandon, George Eastman and Daria Nicolodi. The film is about Gioia, a centerfold model for the adult Pussycat magazine. She is harassed by a killer who sends her photos of her co-workers with her own erotic photography in the background.
The Sweet House of Horrors is an Italian made-for-television horror film directed by Lucio Fulci. The film is about a young couple who are brutally murdered by a burglar and return as spirits to watch over their two young orphaned children, to seek revenge against their murderer, and try to prevent their house from being demolished.
Dinner with a Vampire is a 1989 Italian television horror film directed by Lamberto Bava and written by Dardano Sacchetti. It was among four films made for the Italian television series Brivido Giallo.
Graveyard Disturbance is a 1987 television film directed by Lamberto Bava.
The Ogre is a 1989 Italian television horror film directed by Lamberto Bava and written by Dardano Sacchetti. It was among four films made for the Italian television series Brivido Giallo. The film released outside of Italy as Demons III: The Ogre, where it was promoted as a sequel to Bava's films Demons and Demons 2.
Macabre is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Lamberto Bava.
Midnight Killer is a 1986 Italian giallo film starring Valeria D'Obici and Leonardo Treviglio, and directed by Lamberto Bava.
Body Puzzle is a 1992 Italian horror film directed by Lamberto Bava. The film is about a psychopath who leaves body parts outside the house of a young widow. The film was one of the last films released by P.A.C. in Italy before its bankruptcy. The film was re-released in Italy as Misteria after legal issues of using Carl Orff's Carmina Burana as music in the film came to the front.
