January 5 - Kill, Baby, Kill

            Yesterday there was a coup attempt and so I obsessively reloaded Twitter and the New York Times instead of watching a movie. I would very much like to do less doom-scrolling today, since there’s no longer a situation actively requiring updates (knock on wood). Perhaps this write-up will be a helpful distraction.

            …So anyway there was this guy called Mario Bava. Like most Italian directors of his time, Bava was extremely prolific. He made westerns, sci-fi films, superhero movies, Hercules movies, and sex comedies (every Italian director made at least one sex comedy). But he is best known for his horror films. Italian horror is most famous for the giallo, a hyper-stylized mystery-slasher hybrid that was a huge influence on American horror. And with films like The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Blood and Black Lace, and Bay of Blood, Bava basically invented the genre. But these weren’t his only horror films – he also made a bunch of Gothics.

            Eurocult loved the Gothic. American horror cinema largely moved on from the Gothic in the ‘50s, preferring to make movies about space aliens and mad scientists, and by the ‘60s horror was more interested in human killers and contemporary American settings (except for AIP’s Poe movies I suppose). But in Europe, the Gothic was just getting started, with the likes of Hammer Horror, Jean Rollin’s horny vampires, and the Italian Gothic. Bava’s first solo directing credit is a little film called Black Sunday, a gorgeous black-and-white witch movie starring Barbara Steele that has had an enormous influence on the likes of Tim Burton. Then there’s Kill, Baby, Kill.

            Recognizable immediately as following the Gothic formula, Kill Baby Kill begins with the arrival of a coroner in a remote village, despite the misgivings of his carriage driver. He discovers that the science-loving town officials are clashing with the superstitious locals who refuse to cooperate in the investigation of a young woman’s mysterious death. (Don’t worry; this set-up remains a horror classic – we saw something similar just a few days ago in Impetigore!) As Dr. Eswai and his new hot assistant Monica try to figure out the goings-on, we also meet Ruth, the local witch, who’s trusted by the locals because her methods, while unconventional, keep them safe, while the blundering Dr. Eswai keeps getting folks killed. It’s a science versus superstition clash as old as Dracula, except here there’s no compromise Van Helsing figure to swoop in and save the day. It’s witch or bust, baby.

            The curse in question turns out to involve the vengeful ghost of a little rich girl, Melissa Graps, whose death, like the fate of little Jason Vorhees, was enabled by the on-lookers partying a little too hard. Melissa’s ghost turns up to impel anyone who mentions her to kill themselves; she is a striking figure with her blonde hair, white dress, and bouncing ball. There’s some additional lore involving Melissa’s family, a living person who’s serving as her medium, and some bonus vengeful ghosts. I don’t know if I followed all of it. But at heart this is a simple story; useless dude, helpful witch, little ghost who wants to kill, kill, kill.

            It certainly has its visually striking moments, especially when the camera takes on Melissa’s POV as she giggles on a swing or sneaks up on her victims. There’s the spiral staircase in Melissa’s manor, shot from overhead as people run up and down, and a striking sequence as Dr. Eswai tries to escape a room but just loops over and over, eventually running after his doppelganger. But ultimately, this film didn’t have Black Sunday’s magic to me. There were no visuals that matched Barbara Steele’s face, scarred from the Iron Maiden, or her silhouette as she appears in a cemetery with her massive dog in tow. For that matter, as delightful as Ruth the witch and Melissa the ghost are, no one here has one fifth the presence of Barbara Steele. The scenes when the ghost shows up are wonderful, but there are far too many scenes of men talking, debating superstition and witchcraft and nefarious goings-on. The pacing of this movie is all off.

            I think this film is more successful as a collection of images than a film. Melissa makes a great creepy kid – she’s not innately evil or anything, she’s just wronged and pissed. Like the ghost boy of The Changeling, she feels like a child; I think they’d make good friends. And the image of the “innocent” but deadly ghost girl is justly influential. The rest of the film sags, but Melissa shines.

Subgenre: Gothic, ghost story.

Story Type/Archetypes: Hello again to Town With a Curse and Child Ghost. We’ve also got Helpful Witch and Useless Science.

 Sense of Place: The remote village very much has that Shot on a Soundstage je ne sais quoi. We once again have the remote, superstitious village that conflicts with modernity (which we’ve also seen in Impetigore, House of Wax, and arguably even Lair of the White Worm). I wasn’t expecting such thematic consistency!

 Mood: Dusty costume Gothic, with fog and cobwebs and the works.

 Are there heroes?: Our medically trained normals and legal officials take up far too much of the screen time considering how little they accomplish other than being exposited to. Only Ruth, the neat witch, gets anything done.

Who are the monsters (and why are they scary)?: Ghostly vengeful Melissa and her apparent psychic powers to induce death make her one of the more effective ghosts in horror. No making spooky sounds or closing random doors for her! She’s aided and abetted by her mom’s own psychic abilities.

 This movie will freak you out of you’re creeped out by…: Dolls or kids.

 Is it a metaphor for something?: The figure of the child is already loaded with metaphor, so the grumpy ghost child is certainly even more so.

 What kind of ending is it?: I was expecting a stinger, but nope – things are just resolved!

 The girlfriend’s rating (i.e. how much would this upset my girlfriend?): PG for discussion of child death.

 But how gay is it?: Any movie with a witch is at least a little bit queer, but sadly, Ruth has a boyfriend. 

 And did it fit the daily theme?: Kill, Baby, Kill is certainly no giallo, though the color and camerawork was apparently a big inspiration on the development of the genre, which was still in its infancy. The violence is mild by Bava standards but still unusually blunt for a Gothic.

 Watch this if you enjoy: Spooky ghosts, spooky kiddos, and old-school European Gothic.

 Musical Accompaniment: Apparently, there was no original music for this movie, just the reuse of earlier bits of scores for Bava’s other films. But the repeating themes actually work pretty well (even if they get repetitive eventually). Italian horror always has the best music!

 Girlfriend’s Corner: I am very sad I missed the forcefemmed child!! (Actually, I am not sad I missed the forcefemmed child, because apparently he got tormented by Bava for being made to wear a dress. Only forcefemme ppl with their explicit consent!!)