Cut Chemist
Knives of the Avenger (1966)
directed by Mario Bava
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
So many great movies begin around a campfire, which is something a story in a book can't do. Knives of the Avenger may not be great, but it's what a viking movie should be: scenery, sorcery, and a great score echoing from cliffs to caves. Antonio Rinaldi's ghostly pools of primary colors have the effect of natural, if otherworldly, light - the ochers and magentas of Frank Quitely's Gotham City - and Bava would be the man to dye your haunted house for Halloween. He's still underestimated, I think, in a genre that has resurrected even its most obscure dead.
directed by Mario Bava
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
So many great movies begin around a campfire, which is something a story in a book can't do. Knives of the Avenger may not be great, but it's what a viking movie should be: scenery, sorcery, and a great score echoing from cliffs to caves. Antonio Rinaldi's ghostly pools of primary colors have the effect of natural, if otherworldly, light - the ochers and magentas of Frank Quitely's Gotham City - and Bava would be the man to dye your haunted house for Halloween. He's still underestimated, I think, in a genre that has resurrected even its most obscure dead.
posted by NPK at 7:10 AM
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