I consider it my own personal mission to make the world aware that Mario Bava was the greatest horror director of all times and ... with brilliant movies like this "Operazione Paura" ...it can't be too difficult to fulfill that mission. This Gothic masterpiece easily ranks high among the most beautiful horror movies ever made, with an atmosphere that constantly causes you to gasp and a striking photography that influenced even the most successful directors in the post-Bava era. This haunting gem takes place in an early 20th century ghost town, complete with superstitious inhabitants, fog-enshrouded cemeteries and supernatural curses! Paul Eswai is an young and ambitious coroner/doctor who's called to the town to perform an autopsy on the unfortunate Irena Hollander who died under mysterious circumstances. It doesn't take Paul long to find out that there are many more mysteries that need to be cleared out in this town... All the strange deaths in this town are related to the tragic accident that killed the young Melissa 20 years earlier. Has the restless soul of this girl returned to avenge her own death ... or is it her witchy mother Baroness Graps who entrenches herself in her lonely old mansion? The script contains a few holes (rather big ones...) but Bava cleverly camouflages them by a stunning use of color or by introducing creepy gimmicks. "Kill Baby...Kill" contains some truly horrific, yet masterful oddities that have been copied numerous times since, like the constant eerie use of mirrors, a ball bouncing through corridors in slow-motion or the mesmerizing spiral-staircase sequence. The absolute best sequence can't even be put into words, so great it is! I won't spoil it, though...it involves a bizarre pursuit by the hero himself but you have to watch the film in order to believe what happens. The camera-work is outstanding, the color pattern is powerful and the filming location is really breathtaking! The town is a nightmare place...and this is wonderfully illustrated with dying trees...ramshackle building and the very unappealing inn. This is subtle and atmospheric Gothic terror, so you shouldn't expect large amounts of bloodshed or sleaze. Don't be alarmed, though, because this film evokes shocks and nightmares without a single gruesome image. "Kill Baby...Kill" is at least ten times scarier than, for example, "the Shining" and yet no one ever mentions it. It's about time Mario Bava receives credit for his achievements.
Review of Kill, Baby... Kill!
