Mario Bava Collection 2K: A Journey into Dark Genius

There are auteurs who merely follow genres and others who traverse them and, by making them their own, reinvent them. Mario Bava undoubtedly belongs to the second category, and this 2K Blu-ray box set demonstrates it with disarming clarity. A box with 6 films and as many variations of the same vision: that of a craftsman capable of transforming production limitations into pure visual invention.

Discovering the Master of Gothic

The journey opens with Hercules in the Haunted World (1961, image format 2.39:1), probably the most surprising title for those who associate Bava exclusively with horror. Here, peplum is contaminated with gothic imagery, giving rise to an infernal journey with little to do with traditional muscular epic. The use of color, unreal set designs, and a magnetic malevolent presence transform the classical myth into an almost dreamlike experience. Not a simple adventure but a symbolic tale of descent into darkness, constructed with a visual freedom that anticipates much future cinema.

The jump to the seventies with Four Times That Night (1971, image format 1.85:1) is disorienting. Bava almost completely abandons the fantastic to experiment with a fragmented narrative structure, based on conflicting versions of the same story, inspired by Rashomon, linked to an attempted rape.

The result is an irregular, at times provocative film, which plays with eroticism and the perception of truth. Not everything works, but it is precisely this anomalous nature that makes it interesting: it is the least recognizable Bava and perhaps for this reason the most audacious.

With A Bay of Blood (1971, image format 1.85:1) we enter a key moment for the evolution of horror. Here the director constructs an interlocking death mechanism, where each character is both victim and executioner.

The violence is explicit, almost programmatic, impressively anticipating the rules of modern slasher films. However, reducing the film to a simple precursor would be limiting: beneath the bloody surface lies a deeply pessimistic vision, in which human greed becomes the true driving force of the narrative. Here you can find the complete review of the 4K edition released individually.

Baron Blood (1972, image format 1.78:1) marks the return to gothic, but with a more direct and less baroque approach compared to his early works.

Bava works on classic atmospheres — the castle, the curse, the malevolent presence — updating them through color and a faster pace. It is not his most complex film, but it is extremely effective in building tension and demonstrating how much he was still a master of the genre.

The heart of the box set, however, is Lisa and the Devil (1973, image format 1.78:1), probably the director's most personal work. Here the narrative dissolves into a suspended dimension, where dream and reality intertwine.

More than telling a story, Bava creates a sensory experience made of images, symbols, and obsessions. It is a film that requires openness because it rejects all linearity, but it rewards with a rare visual and thematic richness.

The comparison with The House of Exorcism (1975, image format 1.78:1) is inevitable. This reworked version of Lisa and the Devil intended for the international market attempts to bend the original material towards the exorcism trend of the time. The operation appears damnably forced but remains interesting as a testament to how commercial logic can damage a work.

All things considered, this box set is not just a collection of films, but a journey through an auteur who continually reinvented himself, leaving an indelible mark on multiple genres. Not everything is perfect, but it is precisely in this that one perceives the creative freedom of a unique Italian filmmaker.

Mario Bava Collection - Video & Audio Quality

From a technical standpoint, the works in this box set have discontinuous video rendering, although far from real critical issues, they are in not particularly solid condition for Hercules in the Haunted World (the opening titles and the alternation of more opaque and blurred elements with brighter ones), Four Times That Night and Baron Blood (with uneven grain and less precise passages in the background). Things are better for A Bay of Blood, Lisa and the Devil and its more graphic version titled The House of Exorcism. For the latter, everything is more solid, with greater detail even in the background and virtually no evident physical damage.

Overall, these are masters that, compared to the past, have nevertheless allowed a step forward in re-proposing productions so distant in time, with a feeling of greater fidelity between colors and lights. Recoveries that nonetheless allow us to appreciate the artisanal care too little considered in past Home Video editions. For all, resolution Full HD 1920x1080 (23.97p), AVC/MPEG-4 encoding on BD-50.

DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks (16 bit) in Italian and original language with decent rendering, considering the venerable age of the productions, with direct sound dialogue further enhancing involvement. Four Times That Night and A Bay of Blood are not subtitled; the other films offer Italian and English subtitles.

Mario Bava Collection - The Extras

Each disc is enriched with very interesting extras, with the common denominator being insights from Lamberto, Mario Bava's son, with the addition of other protagonists from the cast, creatives, and critics. The last film includes a 30-minute reel of trailers for Bava's works. Numbered box set of 1000 copies in a limited edition, includes a booklet with textual insights by Nocturno publisher, 6 maxi cards with film posters + the original artwork for the box set.