CaliggyJack: Mario Bava Ranked

CaliggyJack 05.17.26	Here it is
BAT 05.18.26	solid ranking, and yeah the top 10 aree what i'd consider bavas essentials. never got around to his more non-thriller stuff tbh, does remind me i should actually give diabolik a watch cauuse i've only ever seen it getting clown on by mystery science theater lol. black sunday&bay of blood are probably my favs. rabid dogs i remember seeing on some sketchy bootleg not sure which version i saw tbh sidenote: according to legend he kinda ghost directed argentos inferno because dario got super sick once production started, movies definitely a little rough around the edges but visually looks amazing
CaliggyJack 05.18.26	That has been confirmed but exaggerated. Bava was brought in only after Dario's hepatitis had gotten so bad that he had to be taken to a hospital, and even then he was still in control creatively, Bava was simply there to assist and even that was limited, though he did provide some optical effects. The overlooking city was done by Bava. By and large though Dario did 90% of the film.
LouBreed 05.18.26	Bay of Blood is probably my favorite out of those I've seen (which is around half of his whole oevre). I remember being bored by The Whip and the Body, but Christofer Lee is amazing in that movie
BAT 05.18.26	Yeah some of the more hammer-esque stuff is poorly paced but than stuff like black Sabbath is fun. Than there's stuff like hachet for a honeymoon which is okay but just not memorable. And I forget where I heard it(most likely imdb forums) but I remember the ghost directed legend mostly stemming from actors claiming they didn't interact with dario on set and Mario was officially doing second unit on top of tons of production roles. Regardless i'd assume at least Claudio argent and darios wife were around cause they were the staple collaborators up until phenomena, think the legend just kinda started because it's the last thing bava worked on next to rabid dogs which was regarded as an unfinished film back in like 2003. I do think it feels more like an argento film but visually one of his outliers(still looks amazing but takes a different route than his prior stuff, phenomena is another outlier due to its blues/non anamorphic framing)
Azazzel 05.23.26	nice nice WOAH what's Whip and the Body doing at the bottom? easily one of his most visually gorgeous films. of course due greatly in part to DP Ubaldo Terzano who did BiBL and Sabbath. glad Black Sunday is outside the top tier 3, gets a bit inflated for its significance. see quite a few people call Lisa a near favorite, that's interesting but I can't quite buy it. did you see Reflection in a Dead Diamond last year? god if you've seen all these and rank Danger Diabolik that high you absolutely must. nobody does refined genre style pastiche like them
CaliggyJack 05.25.26	Will check it out sometime! Thanks for the rec!