A Bay of Blood | 100 Movies Bucket List

 

The description of this film says that it 'paved the way for future slasher flicks', so given how much I love the slasher genre, I was really looking forward to seeing it.

Unfortunately, I didn't love this film.

The opening scene is great - starting with twists and turns puts the audience on the back foot from the beginning. We're invested, but we have no idea where the story is going.

But after this opening, things started to slow down a bit. Given that the film is only 80 minutes, you would think the pace would be a lot faster. The film actually feels a lot longer than it is because of this.

And because of this, it didn't really capture my attention. Yes I enjoyed the opening scene, but because you don't know those people, the scene doesn't mean much. And because after this, many characters are introduced in quick succession, you can start to lose your grip on the actual story.

One of the best things about a slasher for me is when the movie is a 'whodunnit' where we get a great surprising reveal at the end. For this movie, even if it wanted to add that whodunnit element, it wouldn't work because we don't really know the characters.

And because we don't know the characters, it's not particularly fun to root for them. As the story continues and more people find themselves in danger, it's hard to care about them as individuals.

That being said,it's really well written, and the actors are all great in their roles.

It's easy to see how this film influenced modern slasher horror and became iconic for that reason. Though I think the slasher genre has definitely improved as time has gone on, and I'm really grateful for that!