His low-budget genre films, known for their distinctive visual flair and stylish technical ingenuity, feature recurring themes and imagery concerning the conflict between illusion and reality, and the destructive capacity of human nature.
Born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy, Bava was the son of Italian film cinematographer Eugenio Bava; a sculptor who also worked as a special effects photographer and cameraman in the Italian silent movie industry.
Bava's first ambition was to become a painter. Unable to turn out paintings at a profitable rate, he went into his father's business, working as an assistant to other Italian cinematographers like Massimo Terzano.
Bava also helped his father at the special effects department at the former Prime Minister of Italy Benito Mussolini's film factory, the Istituto Luce, an Italian corporation created in 1924 during the Fascist era.
Years later, Bava became a cinematographer himself in 1939, shooting two short films with Italian neorealist film director, screenwriter, and producer Roberto Rossellini.
In the early 1940s, Bava made his feature debut. His camerawork was an instrumental factor in developing the screen personas of such stars of the period.
These included Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptor Gina Lollobrigida, American professional bodybuilder, actor and philanthropist Steve Reeves and Italian director, actor, screenwriter and comedian Aldo Fabrizi.
Although most of Bava's films as director failed to achieve major commercial success upon release, many of them would eventually find acclaim as cult classics.
Their content and production values were favorably compared to the works of Alfred Hitchcock. Several of them have been noted for their revolutionary impact on their respective genres, especially in giallo.
Giallo is a 20th-century Italian genre of literature and film. Especially outside of Italy, giallo refers specifically to a particular Italian thriller-horror genre that has mystery or detective elements.
It often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements.
In Italy, the term generally denotes thrillers, typically of the crime fiction, mystery, and horror subgenres, regardless of the country of origin.
Among his credits, Bava is best known for shooting and directing the 1960 Italian black and white gothic horror/cult film 'La maschera del demonio' (also known as 'The Mask of Satan' and 'Revenge of the Vampire' in the United Kingdom). However, it is best known as 'Black Sunday'.
The film was very loosely based on Russian dramatist Nikolay Gogol's 1835 horror fiction novella Viy, However, Bava wen uncredited for co-writing the screenplay for 'Black Sunday'.
In 1630 Moldavia, while being burnt at the stake, the witch Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) vows to enact revenge on her descendants.
Centuries later, Asa returns to life and immediately raises her henchmen from the dead, ready to keep her promise.
By the social standards of the 1960s, 'Black Sunday' was considered unusually gruesome, and was banned in the United Kingdom until 1968 because of its violence.
In the United States, some of the gore was censored in-house by distributor American International Pictures before its theatrical release to the country's cinemas, where it was shown as a double feature with Roger Corman's 'The Little Shop of Horrors'.
'Black Sunday' was a worldwide critical and box office success, and launched the careers of both Bava and Steele.
Six years after the release of 'Black Sunday', Soviet film director Konstantin Yershov and Soviet director and actor Georgiy Kropachyov would co-write and co-direct their version of Gogol's novella with the 1967 Soviet horror/fantasy film 'Viy' ('Spirit of Evil' of Vii').
Despite Bava's reputation as a talented artist during his lifetime, his shy, self-deprecating demeanor prevented him from taking advantage of opportunities that would have furthered his international standing within the film industry.
Because of this, he turned down multiple opportunities to work in Hollywood.
A former painter whose cinematic compositions were often as lush and gorgeous as any portrait, Bava developed a reputation as a master celluloid illusionist.
This was in addition to creating some of the most gothic and haunting films in Italian cinema history.
Bava's influence had later passed down through such directors as Italian film director, producer, film critic and screenwriter Dario Argento ('The Bird with the Crystal Plumage', 'Suspiria') and Martin Scorsese. This was decades after Bava's death.
Others influenced by Bava include Federico Fellini, Frances Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Tim Burton, Nicolas Winding Refn, John Landis, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Edgar Wright and Italian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor Lucio Fulci.
Also known as John M. Old and John Foam, Bava passed of natural causes in Rome, Lazio, Italy on April 27, 1980. He was 65.
Bava's doctor had given him a physical just a few days before he went due to a sudden heart attack, and had pronounced him in perfect health.
Right before Bava's death, he was about to start filming a science fiction film titled 'Star Riders'; a project on which Italian film director and screenwriter Luigi Cozzi had hoped to collaborate.
In 2004, one of the sequences of 'Black Sunday' was voted #40 among the "100 Scariest Movie Moments" by Bravo TV Network.
Bava's skill at matte painting and camera trickery earned him a reputation as one of the most resourceful directors of his generation.
His son and frequent assistant director, Italian film director Lamberto Bava, later became a noted fantasy and horror film director in his own right.
Bava had been active from 1939–1977.
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