BARON BLOOD

Italy, 1971, 98 minutes, Colour.
Joseph Cotten, Elke Sommer, Massimo Girotti.
Directed by Mario Bava.

Baron Blood is a film by Mario Bava, a prolific director of horror films in Italy, especially Black Sunday. However, this is a rather tame affair with American star Joseph Cotten as an evil baron who is resurrected and continues the torturing he performed centuries earlier. The heroine is Elke Sommer who had appeared in a number of Italian horror films as well. Classic Italian director Massimo Girotti appears as the doctor.

The film is an example of the spaghetti horror film – which received a boost the following year after the release of The Exorcist and produced many imitations of that film including House of Exorcism with Telly Savalas.

1. Was this a serious horror film or partly tongue in check? Why?

2. Was the modern setting with its air of mystery a context for a horror story? Why?

3. Were Peter, his uncle and the others developed as characters or was this not important?

4. How fascinating are the stories of cruelty and evil in the past (including the popularity of films like this?)

5. Why was Peter curious? the incantation? Is there any credibility in such a thing happening in real life at all?

6. Was Baron Blood figure a horror character, the hideous make up, the subjective shots in the killings?

7. Was the film too callous in its presentation of the killing especially the servant in the spiked coffin?

8. Was the character of Alfred credible? When did you suspect he was Baron Blood? Why? What made you suspicious?

9. Were the chases and fights well done? What film techniques made them convincing?

10. How did the sequence of the visit to the woman add to the atmosphere?

11. Was the horror finale convincing, the torture, the recorded cries, reviving the dead, the new death of the Baron?

12. Why was the film fascinating and frightening? What is it in horror stories like this that captivates audiences: horror, cruelty, fear, superstition, the juggling with time?

13. Was this a well made horror film or just average and forgettable? Why?