Baron Blood

Mario Bava's "Baron Blood" is the tale of American student Peter Kleist who travels to Austria to check out his dubious gothic roots by persistently reciting an incantation to bring back evil ancestor Otto (Mr Blood to you). With the help of the delightful Elke Sommer he does so, promptly loses the means to reverse the situation and old Baron Blood has some murderous fun just like the old days.

Restored to it's original European glory, Baron Blood is an interesting slice of Bava history but my no means his best. Filmed in just over five weeks back in 1971 the film is chock full of gothic splendour that will please fans of that particular genre. There are some beautifully shot scenes too, but it all seems too rushed and following classics like Black Sunday and Bay of Blood it just doesn't quite cut the grade.

The disc itself contains the "original uncut European version" which means very little considering the movie is very much bloodless and would easily have picked up a PG rating from the censors. The picture quality is generally good with some NTSC grainyness and the sound sadly is very low mono sound which you'll need to crank right up. There's the mandatory trailer and picture gallery too.

All in all, this one is strictly for the hard core of the late Mario Bava fans and if you're new to the great masters work avoid this and go straight for either Black Sunday or Bay of Blood instead.