Twitch of the Death Nerve
Encyclopedia
Twitch of the Death Nerve (
) is a 1971
Italian
horror film
directed by Mario Bava
. Bava cowrote the screenplay with Giuseppe Zaccariello, Filippo Ottoni and Sergio Canevari, with story credit given to Dardano Sacchetti
and Franco Barberi. The film stars Claudine Auger
, Luigi Pistilli
, and Laura Betti
. Carlo Rambaldi
created the gruesome special makeup effects.
The story details the simultaneous murderous activities of several different characters as they each attempt to remove any human obstacles that stand in the way of an inheritance. Easily Bava’s most intensely violent film, its emphasis on graphically bloody murder set pieces was hugely influential on the slasher
and splatter film
s that would follow a decade later. In 2005, the magazine Total Film
named Twitch of the Death Nerve one of the 50 greatest horror films of all time.
) is attacked and strangled to death by her husband, Filippo Donati (Giovanni Nuvoletti). In turn, an assailant suddenly stabs him to death. Donati’s corpse is then dragged to the bay. The police find what they believe to be a suicide note written by the Countess. Donati's murder goes undiscovered.
Real estate agent Frank Ventura (Chris Avram) and his lover Laura (Anna Maria Rosati) plot to take possession of the bay. They had arranged with Donati to murder his wife after she had refused to sell her house and property to them. To finalize their scheme, Ventura needs Donati's signature on a set of legal documents. They have no idea that Donati has been killed.
Four teenagers break into Ventura's cottage. Shy Bobby (Robert Bonnani) stays behind in the house while his date, Brunhilda (Brigitte Skay), skinny-dips in the bay. Donati's rotting corpse rises from the water and collides with the nude girl. Terrified, she rushes out of the water, but an unseen assailant hacks into her throat with a machete, killing her. The killer then goes to the house and slams the machete deep into Bobby’s face. Bobby and Brunhilda's two companions, Duke (Guido Boccaccini) and Denise (Paola Rubens), find a bed upstairs and are in the throes of sexual passion when the murderer finds them; a long spear is thrust through them, bloodily killing both at the same time.
Simon (Claudio Volonté), the Countess' illegitimate son, is the killer. He had earlier killed Donati, and is now conspiring with Ventura. Offered a large amount of cash, Simon agrees to sign all the legal documents and turn the land over to Ventura. However, it turns out that the Countess had a daughter, Renata (Claudine Auger), who is resolute about the property becoming hers. A search for the Countess' will proves unsuccessful, and Ventura, who believes Renata may be the rightful beneficiary, suggests that Simon finish her off.
Renata and her husband, Albert (Luigi Pistilli), arrive and go directly to the house of Paolo Fassati (Leopoldo Trieste
), an entomologist who lives on the Donati’s grounds. Anna (Laura Betti), Fassati's wife, tells them that the Countess’ death was due to Donati, and says that Simon will probably end up with the property. Renata, who until that moment had no idea she had a half-brother, immediately makes plans with her husband to murder Simon, who at the same time is planning her demise.
Renata and Albert find Donati's gruesomely mangled corpse on Simon's boat, then go to Ventura's house. Ventura suddenly attacks Renata and tries to kill her, but Renata manages to stab him instead. Fassati has witnessed everything, and when he starts to telephone the police, Albert strangles him to death. In order to ensure that there are no additional witnesses, Renata murders Anna by decapitating her.
Laura arrives, hoping to meet up with Ventura. When Simon discovers that it was she and Ventura who had plotted with Donati to kill his mother, he slowly strangles Laura to death. Seconds later, Simon is murdered by Albert. The wounded Frank suddenly reappears but Albert kills him in a short struggle.
Albert and Renata know that since there are no other living heirs, the property is guaranteed to be theirs, and they go home to wait for the announcement of their inheritance. Their own children are at the front door waiting for them with a shotgun, and they shoot their parents to death. The young boy and girl gleefully jump over the corpses and rush outside to play.
The film began production in early 1971, originally under the shooting title Cosi imparano a fare i cattivi ("Thus Do We Live To Be Evil"), which was soon changed to Reazione a catena ("Chain Reaction"). Bava showed great enthusiasm for the film but, unfortunately, the movie’s budget was extremely low, and it had to be shot very quickly and cheaply before the production money could evaporate. Acting as his own cinematographer
, Bava, due to the severe budgetary restrictions, had to utilize a simple child's wagon for the film's many tracking shot
s.
The location shooting was mostly completed at a Sabaudia
beach house
(owned by Zaccariello) and its outlying property. Bava had to resort to various camera trickery to convince the audience that an entire forest existed surrounding the Donati estate when in fact only a few scattered trees were at the location. Betti recalled, "All of this had to occur in a forest. But where was it? Bava said, 'Don't worry, I will do the forest.' And he found a florist who was selling these little, stupid branches with little bits of foliage on them, and he began to make them dance in front of the camera! We had to act the scenes strictly in front of those branches -- if we moved even an inch either way, the 'woods' would disappear!"
To ensure the utmost realism in depicting the thirteen different murders, Carlo Rambaldi
was hired to provide the gruesomely effective special makeup effects. The 1971 Avoriaz Film Festival jurors awarded the film the Best Makeup and Special Effects Award. Rambaldi's effects work also earned the film a "Special Mention" Award at the prestigious Sitges Festival
in 1971.
attended a screening of the film, having expressed an interest in seeing the latest effort from the director of The Whip and the Body
, which Lee had starred in eight years before. Lee was reportedly completely revolted by the movie.
When the film was picked up for U.S. distribution by exploitation specialists Hallmark Releasing Corporation, they titled the film Carnage and copied their own successful advertising campaign for Mark of the Devil
by proclaiming that Bava’s film was “The Second Film Rated ‘V’ for Violence!” (Devil having been the first.) The movie was apparently unsuccessful, and it was withdrawn and re-released in 1972 under its most commonly known title, Twitch of the Death Nerve. It reportedly played for years under this title in drive-ins
and grindhouses
throughout the country.
It remains Bava’s most controversial film, and maintains a mixed critical reaction. Jeffrey Frentzen, reviewing the film for Cinefantastique
, called Twitch "the director's most complete failure to date. If you were appalled by the gore and slaughter in Blood and Black Lace
, this latest film contains twice the murders, each one accomplished with an obnoxious detail...Red herring
s are ever-present, and serve as the only interest keeping the plot in motion, but nothing really redeems the dumb storyline." Gary Johnson, on his Images website, said that “Twitch of the Death Nerve is made for people who derive pleasure from seeing other people killed…The resulting movie is guaranteed to make audiences squirm, but the violence is near pornographic. In the same way that pornographic movies reduce human interactions to the workings of genitals, Twitch of the Death Nerve reduces cinematic thrills to little more than knives slicing through flesh.” Phil Hardy
’s The Aurum Film Encyclopedia
: Horror, while noting that Bava was able to “achieve some striking images”, opined “Zooms, no doubt programmed by the imperative to work quickly, spoil some scenes that cried out for Bava’s particularly fluid use of camera movement which were so much in evidence in Operazione Paura (1966).”
Joe Dante
, on the other hand, was enthusiastic about the film, writing in The Film Bulletin (later reprinted in Video Watchdog
) that it “…features enough violence and grue to satisfy the most rabid mayhem fans and benefits from the inimitably stylish direction of horror specialist Mario Bava (Black Sunday). Assembled with a striking visual assurance that never ceases to amuse, this is typical Bava material – simply one ghastly murder after another, 13 in all, surrounded by what must be one of the most preposterous and confusing plots ever put on film.” In Fangoria
, Tim Lucas
wrote thirteen years after the film’s theatrical release that “Twitch unreels like a macabre, ironic joke, a movie built like an inescapable trap for its own anti-hero…Seen today, the violence in this movie remains as potent and explicit as anything glimpsed in contemporary “splatter” features…”
The film has a favorability rating of 89% on the Rotten Tomatoes
movie review website, out of nine reviewers surveyed.
. Writing in 2000, Tim Lucas wrote that Bava’s film is “the acknowledged smoking gun behind the ‘body count’ movie phenomenon of the 1980s, which continues to dominate the horror genre two decades later with such films as Scream
, I Know What You Did Last Summer
, and their respective sequels.” According to Gary Johnson, “Twitch of the Death Nerve is one of the most imitated movies of the past 30 years. It helped kick start the slasher genre….[Bava’s] influence still resonates today (although somewhat dully) in movies such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream, and Urban Legend
.”
While most slasher movies owe a considerable debt to Twitch’s somewhat nonsensical narrative
and its emphasis on bodily mutilation, at least one film was directly imitative: Friday the 13th Part 2
notoriously copied two of Bava’s murder sequences almost shot for shot. One character in that 1981 film is sliced full in the face with a machete, and two teenage lovers are interrupted when a spear ends up shoved through their bodies. Along with The Burning, Just Before Dawn
(1981), and several other similarly plotted slashers, Friday specifically “followed Bava’s inspired cue, having young people stalked by violent death amid beautiful wooded settings.”
According to Tim Lucas, Bava’s film is "probably known by more titles than any other movie ever released." Its best-known title is Twitch of the Death Nerve, but it has been shown theatrically and appeared on home video
under a bewildering variety of titles. In Italy, the pre-production
draft screenplay was called Odore di Carne ("The Stench of Flesh"), but the shooting title was originally Cosi imparano a fare i cattivi ("Thus Do We Live To Be Evil"), which was soon changed to Reazione a catena ("Chain Reaction"). After production was completed, it was announced as Antefatto ("Before the Fact"), but when finally released to theatres, the title had changed once again, this time to Ecologia del delitto ("The Ecology of Murder").
In the United States, it was originally released as Carnage, then retitled Twitch of the Death Nerve. It is also known as Bay of Blood (or A Bay of Blood), Last House on the Left
– Part II (or Last House – Part II), and New House on the Left. In the UK
, it was released as Bloodbath. The Internet Movie Database
also lists Bloodbath Bay of Blood and Bloodbath Bay of Death as alternate titles.
) is a 1971
1971 in film
The year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...
Italian
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Mario Bava
Mario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
. Bava cowrote the screenplay with Giuseppe Zaccariello, Filippo Ottoni and Sergio Canevari, with story credit given to Dardano Sacchetti
Dardano Sacchetti
Dardano Sacchetti, born in Rome, Italy in 1944, is an Italian screenwriter best-known for his work in the horror genre.At an early age, he became hooked on films from watching the American science fiction classic Them!...
and Franco Barberi. The film stars Claudine Auger
Claudine Auger
Claudine Auger is a French actress best known for her role as Bond girl Dominique "Domino" Derval in the James Bond film Thunderball . She earned the title of Miss France Monde and was also the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.Born in Paris, France, she attended St...
, Luigi Pistilli
Luigi Pistilli
Luigi Pistilli was an Italian actor of stage, screen, and television. In theater, he was considered one of the country's best interpreters of Bertolt Brecht's plays in The Threepenny Opera and St Joan of the Stockyards....
, and Laura Betti
Laura Betti
Laura Betti was an Italian actress.Born Laura Trombetti in Bologna, this blonde and flamboyant actress started her career as jazz singer. Betti made her film debut in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita. In 1963 she became a close friend of the poet and movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini, for whom...
. Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi is an Italian special effects artist who is most famous for designing the title character of the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the mechanical head-effects for the creature in Alien...
created the gruesome special makeup effects.
The story details the simultaneous murderous activities of several different characters as they each attempt to remove any human obstacles that stand in the way of an inheritance. Easily Bava’s most intensely violent film, its emphasis on graphically bloody murder set pieces was hugely influential on the slasher
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
and splatter film
Splatter film
A splatter film or gore film is a subgenre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. These films, through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the...
s that would follow a decade later. In 2005, the magazine Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
named Twitch of the Death Nerve one of the 50 greatest horror films of all time.
Plot
At night in her bayside mansion, wheelchair-bound Countess Federica (Isa MirandaIsa Miranda
Isa Miranda was an Italian actress with an international film career.A native of Bergamo, Isa Miranda worked as a typist whilst attending the drama academy in Milan and training as a stage actress. She went on to play bit parts in Italian films in Rome...
) is attacked and strangled to death by her husband, Filippo Donati (Giovanni Nuvoletti). In turn, an assailant suddenly stabs him to death. Donati’s corpse is then dragged to the bay. The police find what they believe to be a suicide note written by the Countess. Donati's murder goes undiscovered.
Real estate agent Frank Ventura (Chris Avram) and his lover Laura (Anna Maria Rosati) plot to take possession of the bay. They had arranged with Donati to murder his wife after she had refused to sell her house and property to them. To finalize their scheme, Ventura needs Donati's signature on a set of legal documents. They have no idea that Donati has been killed.
Simon (Claudio Volonté), the Countess' illegitimate son, is the killer. He had earlier killed Donati, and is now conspiring with Ventura. Offered a large amount of cash, Simon agrees to sign all the legal documents and turn the land over to Ventura. However, it turns out that the Countess had a daughter, Renata (Claudine Auger), who is resolute about the property becoming hers. A search for the Countess' will proves unsuccessful, and Ventura, who believes Renata may be the rightful beneficiary, suggests that Simon finish her off.
Renata and her husband, Albert (Luigi Pistilli), arrive and go directly to the house of Paolo Fassati (Leopoldo Trieste
Leopoldo Trieste
Leopoldo Trieste was an Italian actor, film director and script writer.Trieste was born in Reggio Calabria...
), an entomologist who lives on the Donati’s grounds. Anna (Laura Betti), Fassati's wife, tells them that the Countess’ death was due to Donati, and says that Simon will probably end up with the property. Renata, who until that moment had no idea she had a half-brother, immediately makes plans with her husband to murder Simon, who at the same time is planning her demise.
Renata and Albert find Donati's gruesomely mangled corpse on Simon's boat, then go to Ventura's house. Ventura suddenly attacks Renata and tries to kill her, but Renata manages to stab him instead. Fassati has witnessed everything, and when he starts to telephone the police, Albert strangles him to death. In order to ensure that there are no additional witnesses, Renata murders Anna by decapitating her.
Laura arrives, hoping to meet up with Ventura. When Simon discovers that it was she and Ventura who had plotted with Donati to kill his mother, he slowly strangles Laura to death. Seconds later, Simon is murdered by Albert. The wounded Frank suddenly reappears but Albert kills him in a short struggle.
Albert and Renata know that since there are no other living heirs, the property is guaranteed to be theirs, and they go home to wait for the announcement of their inheritance. Their own children are at the front door waiting for them with a shotgun, and they shoot their parents to death. The young boy and girl gleefully jump over the corpses and rush outside to play.
Production
The genesis of Twitch of the Death Nerve was a simple story idea concocted by Bava and actress Laura Betti as a way to allow them to work together again, as the two had gotten along so well on Bava’s Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1969). The project's original title was Odore di Carne ("The Stench of Flesh"), and the murder-filled story had enough promise to convince producer Giuseppe Zaccariello to provide financial backing. Numerous other writers, including Zaccariello himself, had their hands involved in devising the final screenplay.The film began production in early 1971, originally under the shooting title Cosi imparano a fare i cattivi ("Thus Do We Live To Be Evil"), which was soon changed to Reazione a catena ("Chain Reaction"). Bava showed great enthusiasm for the film but, unfortunately, the movie’s budget was extremely low, and it had to be shot very quickly and cheaply before the production money could evaporate. Acting as his own cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
, Bava, due to the severe budgetary restrictions, had to utilize a simple child's wagon for the film's many tracking shot
Tracking shot
In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken...
s.
The location shooting was mostly completed at a Sabaudia
Sabaudia
Sabaudia is a coastal town in the province of Latina, Lazio, central Italy. Sabaudia's center is characterized by several examples of Fascist architecture.-History:...
beach house
Beach house
A beach house is a house on or near a beach, generally used as a vacation or second home for people who commute to the house on weekends or during vacation periods....
(owned by Zaccariello) and its outlying property. Bava had to resort to various camera trickery to convince the audience that an entire forest existed surrounding the Donati estate when in fact only a few scattered trees were at the location. Betti recalled, "All of this had to occur in a forest. But where was it? Bava said, 'Don't worry, I will do the forest.' And he found a florist who was selling these little, stupid branches with little bits of foliage on them, and he began to make them dance in front of the camera! We had to act the scenes strictly in front of those branches -- if we moved even an inch either way, the 'woods' would disappear!"
To ensure the utmost realism in depicting the thirteen different murders, Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi is an Italian special effects artist who is most famous for designing the title character of the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the mechanical head-effects for the creature in Alien...
was hired to provide the gruesomely effective special makeup effects. The 1971 Avoriaz Film Festival jurors awarded the film the Best Makeup and Special Effects Award. Rambaldi's effects work also earned the film a "Special Mention" Award at the prestigious Sitges Festival
Festival de Cine de Sitges
The Sitges Film Festival is a Spanish film festival that is one of the most recognizable ones held in Europe, considered the world's foremost international festival specializing in fantasy and horror movies...
in 1971.
Response
As the latest offering from a noted genre specialist, Twitch of the Death Nerve was greeted with disappointment and disgust by several critics, especially by those who were fans of the director’s earlier, more restrained films. At the 1971 Avoriaz Film Festival, where the movie had its world premiere, Christopher LeeChristopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
attended a screening of the film, having expressed an interest in seeing the latest effort from the director of The Whip and the Body
The Whip and the Body
The Whip and The Body is a 1963 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava.-Plot:The story concerns a cruel, domineering man who returns to his castle home and resumes his sado-masochistic relationship with his sister-in-law whom he vigorously flogs...
, which Lee had starred in eight years before. Lee was reportedly completely revolted by the movie.
When the film was picked up for U.S. distribution by exploitation specialists Hallmark Releasing Corporation, they titled the film Carnage and copied their own successful advertising campaign for Mark of the Devil
Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält
Mark of the Devil, or in original German Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält is a German horror film released in 1970. It is most remembered for its marketing: slogans included "Positively the most horrifying film ever made" and "Rated V for Violence", while sick bags were given free to the audience upon...
by proclaiming that Bava’s film was “The Second Film Rated ‘V’ for Violence!” (Devil having been the first.) The movie was apparently unsuccessful, and it was withdrawn and re-released in 1972 under its most commonly known title, Twitch of the Death Nerve. It reportedly played for years under this title in drive-ins
Drive-in theater
A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars.The screen can be as simple as a...
and grindhouses
Grindhouse
A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. It is named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on 42nd Street in New York City, where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease were featured.- History :...
throughout the country.
It remains Bava’s most controversial film, and maintains a mixed critical reaction. Jeffrey Frentzen, reviewing the film for Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
, called Twitch "the director's most complete failure to date. If you were appalled by the gore and slaughter in Blood and Black Lace
Blood and Black Lace
Blood and Black Lace is a 1964 Italian thriller film directed by Mario Bava. Bava cowrote the screenplay with Giuseppe Barilla and Marcello Fondato. The film stars Cameron Mitchell and Eva Bartok...
, this latest film contains twice the murders, each one accomplished with an obnoxious detail...Red herring
Red herring
A red herring is a deliberate attempt to divert attention.Red herring may refer to:* Red herring , the informal fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but does not address the issue in question....
s are ever-present, and serve as the only interest keeping the plot in motion, but nothing really redeems the dumb storyline." Gary Johnson, on his Images website, said that “Twitch of the Death Nerve is made for people who derive pleasure from seeing other people killed…The resulting movie is guaranteed to make audiences squirm, but the violence is near pornographic. In the same way that pornographic movies reduce human interactions to the workings of genitals, Twitch of the Death Nerve reduces cinematic thrills to little more than knives slicing through flesh.” Phil Hardy
Phil Hardy (journalist)
Phil Hardy is an English film and music industry journalist. He was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire in 1945 and studied at the University of Sussex, 1964-1969, during which time he was a visiting student at the Berkeley campus of the University of California . At Sussex he started The Brighton Film...
’s The Aurum Film Encyclopedia
The Aurum Film Encyclopedia
The Aurum Film Encyclopedia is a multi-volume reference work on cinema, published in the UK by Aurum Press and edited by Phil Hardy. The first volume, devoted to western films, appeared in 1983, with eight subsequent volumes announced at that time as "forthcoming". However, as of 2007, only...
: Horror, while noting that Bava was able to “achieve some striking images”, opined “Zooms, no doubt programmed by the imperative to work quickly, spoil some scenes that cried out for Bava’s particularly fluid use of camera movement which were so much in evidence in Operazione Paura (1966).”
Joe Dante
Joe Dante
Joseph "Joe" Dante, Jr. is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and science fiction content....
, on the other hand, was enthusiastic about the film, writing in The Film Bulletin (later reprinted in Video Watchdog
Video Watchdog
Video Watchdog is a bimonthly, digest size film magazine started in 1990 by publisher/editor Tim Lucas and his wife, art director and co-publisher Donna Lucas....
) that it “…features enough violence and grue to satisfy the most rabid mayhem fans and benefits from the inimitably stylish direction of horror specialist Mario Bava (Black Sunday). Assembled with a striking visual assurance that never ceases to amuse, this is typical Bava material – simply one ghastly murder after another, 13 in all, surrounded by what must be one of the most preposterous and confusing plots ever put on film.” In Fangoria
Fangoria
Fangoria is an American magazine devoted to horror and exploitation films, which has a number of associated brands:* Fangoria Comics* Fangoria Films* Fangoria RadioFangoria may also refer to:* Fangoria , a Spanish electro pop band...
, Tim Lucas
Tim Lucas
Tim Lucas is a film critic, biographer, novelist, screenwriter, blogger, and publisher/editor of the video review magazine Video Watchdog.-Biography and early career:...
wrote thirteen years after the film’s theatrical release that “Twitch unreels like a macabre, ironic joke, a movie built like an inescapable trap for its own anti-hero…Seen today, the violence in this movie remains as potent and explicit as anything glimpsed in contemporary “splatter” features…”
The film has a favorability rating of 89% on the Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
movie review website, out of nine reviewers surveyed.
Influence
Several critics have noted that the film is probably the most influential of Bava’s career, as it had a huge and profound impact on the slasher film genreGenre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
. Writing in 2000, Tim Lucas wrote that Bava’s film is “the acknowledged smoking gun behind the ‘body count’ movie phenomenon of the 1980s, which continues to dominate the horror genre two decades later with such films as Scream
Scream (film)
Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette...
, I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 American horror film. The film stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. The screenplay was written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream, and very loosely based on Lois Duncan's popular novel of the same title...
, and their respective sequels.” According to Gary Johnson, “Twitch of the Death Nerve is one of the most imitated movies of the past 30 years. It helped kick start the slasher genre….[Bava’s] influence still resonates today (although somewhat dully) in movies such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream, and Urban Legend
Urban Legend (film)
Urban Legend is a 1998 horror film starring Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Jared Leto, Michael Rosenbaum, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Loretta Devine, Robert Englund, John Neville, Joshua Jackson, Regina King, and Tara Reid...
.”
While most slasher movies owe a considerable debt to Twitch’s somewhat nonsensical narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
and its emphasis on bodily mutilation, at least one film was directly imitative: Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part II is a 1981 slasher film directed by Steve Miner, who also directed its sequel, Friday the 13th Part III and several other popular horror films. A sequel to Friday the 13th , it is the second film in the Friday the 13th film series. It was a moderate box-office hit, opening on...
notoriously copied two of Bava’s murder sequences almost shot for shot. One character in that 1981 film is sliced full in the face with a machete, and two teenage lovers are interrupted when a spear ends up shoved through their bodies. Along with The Burning, Just Before Dawn
Just Before Dawn (1981 film)
Just Before Dawn is a 1981 slasher film from director Jeff Lieberman. Though the film came and went quietly upon its theatrical release the film has now developed a devoted cult following among horror fans. It is praised for its eerie atmosphere, lush cinematography, and above-average cast...
(1981), and several other similarly plotted slashers, Friday specifically “followed Bava’s inspired cue, having young people stalked by violent death amid beautiful wooded settings.”
Multiple titles
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
under a bewildering variety of titles. In Italy, the pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
draft screenplay was called Odore di Carne ("The Stench of Flesh"), but the shooting title was originally Cosi imparano a fare i cattivi ("Thus Do We Live To Be Evil"), which was soon changed to Reazione a catena ("Chain Reaction"). After production was completed, it was announced as Antefatto ("Before the Fact"), but when finally released to theatres, the title had changed once again, this time to Ecologia del delitto ("The Ecology of Murder").
In the United States, it was originally released as Carnage, then retitled Twitch of the Death Nerve. It is also known as Bay of Blood (or A Bay of Blood), Last House on the Left
The Last House on the Left (1972 film)
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham.The story is inspired by the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge"...
– Part II (or Last House – Part II), and New House on the Left. In the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, it was released as Bloodbath. The Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
also lists Bloodbath Bay of Blood and Bloodbath Bay of Death as alternate titles.