The 60-minute Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre provides a decent introduction to the late, great cult director. Written by Charles Preece (also credited with writing Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror) and directed by Gary S. Grant, the documentary does a fairly good job of illustrating Bava's profound influence on the horror genre. Less impressive, however, are some notable omissions in the director's filmography.

Released on DVD in 2000, the documentary poses two questions at the outset: Who was Mario Bava? And why did it take so long for his artistry to receive the recognition it deserves?

A brief bio pretty much answers the first question: born in San Remo, Italy, Bava, following in father Eugenio's footsteps, worked as a cameraman for many years (some of the directors he worked with include Roberto Rossellini, G.W. Pabst, Raoul Walsh and Jacques Tourneur). His official directorial debut: 1960's groundbreaking Black Sunday, starring Barbara Steele.

As to the second question, a number of those interviewed hint at an explanation. Bava's granddaughter Georgia, for example, tells us her grandfather always dreamed of coming to the U.S., where he felt he might have achieved greater success. AIP founder Sam Arkoff, however, notes that Bava didn't speak English very well and therefore "didn't feel he'd be at home here." Another reason for the director's neglect has to do with the type of films he made. Often marginalized, they were the kind of movies for which little serious attention was paid—at least at the time of their release. Today, Bava is looked upon as a "unique visual stylist."

Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre features a number of interviews. Four of the interviewees are American directors who acknowledge Bava's influence on their own work: Joe Dante, John Carpenter, Tim Burton and Sean S. Cunningham. Cunningham, the director of Friday the 13th, sheepishly confesses that "anybody who really did any work in the horror genre in the '80s owes a huge debt to Mario."

This after one of the commentators, Dr. Linda Williams of the University of Southampton, blasts the Friday the 13th series in toto as being not much more than a "remake" of Bava’s Bay of Blood (aka Twitch of the Death Nerve): "I think there's a very thin line between plagiarism and homage."

To illustrate her point, we're shown a clip from Friday the 13th, Part 2 wherein a nakedly engaged young couple is killed via a spear driven through both of their bodies. This scene is nearly identical to one found in Bay of Blood (the only difference being a variation of who's on top). I've watched both scenes and I don't think it's unfair to call the latter one plagiaristic. Cunningham, too, admits that several of the Friday the 13th sequels "drew extensively from stuff that [Bava] had created."

Another example, albeit less blatant, is Ridley Scott's Alien. Here there's an uneasy relationship with Bava's Planet of the Vampires. Released in 1965, "Planet" is "still impressive," according to Joe Dante. And Ms. Williams, while acknowledging its low-budget limitations, finds it "driven by astonishingly interesting ideas."

Did Ridley Scott rip off these ideas? It's not entirely clear. Kim Newman, a horror novelist (Anno-Dracula) and film critic, thinks not. He's confident, however, that Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shusett (credited with the original story), "quite cheerfully lifted the idea outright from a film they assumed nobody had ever seen."

I found these two prime examples eye opening, but Bava's influence doesn't stop there: other names mentioned, but who do not actually appear in the documentary, include Martin Scorsese and Roger Corman. Take Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, for example. Seems the idea of a little girl portraying the Devil originated with Bava's Kill, Baby, Kill. Corman, too, is noted for borrowing bits and pieces of Bava's work.

Of course Bava's greatest disciple is Dario Argento (Suspiria). For some reason, though, he doesn't appear in the documentary and, oddly enough, nobody mentions him. A disappointment, to say the least.

Also disappointing, the documentary skips over entirely some of Bava's best films, most noticeably the "giallo" Blood and Black Lace although Rabid Dogs, which didn't see the light of day until 1996 due to a legal matter, is pretty much passed over as well.

Still, Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre culls together a number of interesting figures (son Lamberto Bava, director of "Demons" and "Demons 2," Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog, actor John Phillip Law, FX guru Carlo Rambaldi, et al.) and there's a generous amount of film clips. Worth a watch if Bava is of interest to you.


Recommended: Yes