Five Reasons to Add ‘Kill, Baby…Kill!’ to Your Spooky Season Watchlist

My favorite part of the Halloween season is watching spooky films for the very first time. Whether it’s watching classic horror movies I should have seen a long time ago or unearthing a few cult fascinations, every October is a time of great discovery in the film community, and one of the very few times we collectively turn our focus towards a specific genre. That is why I come to you today with a recommendation: Mario Bava’s Kill, Baby…Kill!

Thanks to Kino Lorber’s recent restoration of the film, I was introduced to this 1966 Italian gem for the first time just a few days ago. I’ll likely return to it in the years to come as well. It’s a movie set in a Transylvanian village with curses, witchcraft, psychedelic visuals, and an unrelenting sense of paranoia — what more could you need out of a spooky movie???

In an effort to persuade you so that you may take the leap as I did, here are a few reasons why you should check the film out:

#1: The Eerie Cold Open

Kill, Baby…Kill! begins rather oddly. It abruptly opens in a locked-off shot peering at a mansion partially hidden by trees. You expect the camera to move first, but instead, a woman runs furiously outside into frame. A cut to a closer view of this mystery woman quickly follows, but that subtle subversion of a character running into an establishing shot rather than the camera moving in on her immediately creates a sense of imbalance. Typically, that’s not how a movie looks — some may be quick to label it as “awkward” — but it works very well for a movie that then relies on making you feel “off” for the rest of the runtime.

The woman then sprints over to an abandoned building (conveniently) across the lawn, flailing her arms uncontrollably. As she reaches the top of the stairs, you can see she’s fighting some sort of dark force in her mind, although you have absolutely no idea what is actually happening until much later. The camera slowly inches back from the unknown woman to show a few spikes (also conveniently) below her. She screams out, but falls to her death as if she has no control over her body.

Mind you, this is all within the first 90 seconds of the film! The Kill, Baby…Kill! title card pops up onscreen as soon as the woman is impaled (with great effects work, I might add) and we’re off. Gotta love an efficient opening.

#2: The Perplexing Curse

After the opening credits roll, our hero Dr. Paul Eswai (Giacomo Rossi Stuart in a very dapper three-piece, double-breasted trench suit) arrives at the village to examine the dead woman’s body and deliver a cause of death. He sees three men in the distance sprinting off with a coffin to bury it — the paranoia is quickly settling in.

After talking specifics with Inspector Kruger (Piero Lulli), Paul learns that the woman’s name is Irena Hollander. The townspeople are almost in a near-frenzy over the body — the men we saw a few minutes ago were attempting to bury Irena’s body before Paul could even look at it.

The village believes Irena is the latest casualty in a long and horrible curse that pervades the land. Naturally, as pragmatic men, Inspector Kruger and Paul initially believe it’s all a hoax. With the help of a local named Monica (Erika Blanc), the only person in town who has any qualifications remotely close to a physician (she studies natural sciences, a cute little detail showing the town’s unwillingness to embrace science in the face of unnatural evil), Paul tries to get to the bottom of what is actually happening. It’s a classic horror movie standoff between science vs. superstition.

Obviously, we’re in a horror movie, so there’s more going on in Kill, Baby…Kill! than just freak accidents. It’s revealed that the ghost of a young girl named Melissa terrorizes the town after dying tragically years ago. Once she reveals herself to you, it’s only a matter of time before you die yourself.

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