Kill, Baby...Kill!
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Okay Bums picture this; you’re in a dank and dark castle sleeping. You hear some child’s laughter in the wind. When you wake up and look at the darkened window you see a child pressing her hand against it and staring at you with her dead eyes. Now unless you are that sweaty overweight touchy-feely “uncle”, then this would be a rude awakening. Also take into account that this creepy little girl is a ghost that comes for you at night and drives you into killing yourself. Take that you Dateline weirdos!

A doctor (Knives of The Avenger’s Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) is called to a small village by a local police inspector to do the autopsy on a recently dead woman. Did the recently deceased woman throw herself off of the roof or get pushed? Was it suicide or murder? It’s the doctor’s job to maybe shed some truth to the matter. It seems that many people are killing themselves. What the doctor soon realizes is the villagers are very secretive and very superstitious. Turns out they have a very good reason to be both. Joining the doctor in the mystery is a lovely blonde who has just recently returned to the village after many years to visit her family’s grave. After finding coins in the hearts of the recently deceased, the two try to piece together the mystery.

Mario Bava does one hell of a job with the direction and especially the colors for Kill, Baby…Kill! Every scene could be an impressive still. Like many of his movies, the man casts the viewers into pure suspense, and this time even throws in a few moments of gore. There is nothing gory per se, but we get an impaling, neck slice, head wound, lashings and your normal 60s chokings. The movie is a work of art, but the story seemed to waver.

Now, like I mentioned before, children in horror movies can be creepy as hell. In this movie though, with the story being on the light side, the kid didn’t seem all that creepy. Give me an explanation of the kid. Does her touch melt your arm? If you see her are you dead? I get that the kid will drive you to kill yourself, but is that only after hanging out with her for 5 or more minutes? It even takes a bit for Bava to reveal that the child is dead. (It is a given though.) When you find out why the child is killing and more of the “twist” of the film, I was disappointed. I’m waiting for this build up and when it happens I just sat there. “Is that it?” I wasn’t completely disappointed but with all the tension going on it seemed like a let down. Now if it was only about a killing dead child, I’m onboard. Unfortunately it goes into this witchcrafty B.S and with the addition of Fabienne Dali’s (so damn hot) character “the sorceress” it took the movie to a crawl at times. A suspenseful crawl, but a crawl none the less.

Even with the iffy moments of story, the movie is another great addition for fans of classic horror. Visually stunning and quite suspenseful, Bava does a great job. If you want a movie with a logical story throughout or a huge twist at the end, then you will want to skip this. You might be disappointed. If you love classic horror and a direction that has been emulated from numerous directing masters then check this one out. I won’t say buy it, but I will say give it a strong look at when you go rent your next movie.

Added:  Thursday, May 03, 2007
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