Horror Extreme Movie Catalog - Editorial Reviews

Contains Two Versions Of Bava?s Restored Crime Classic Plus An All-New Featurette

For Master Of The Macabre Mario Bava (BLACK SUNDAY), it was to be the most startling film of his entire career: After a botched payroll heist, a trio of vicious criminals take hostages in a desperate getaway that explodes with cruelty, degradation and shocking violence. But when the film?s financier was killed during the last stages of production, his entire estate ? including the sole unfinished work print of RABID DOGS ? was seized and impounded by an Italian court. Mario Bava?s final masterpiece ? and one of the most intense EuroCrime thrillers of all time ? would remain locked away for nearly 23 years.

Anchor Bay?s presentation of RABID DOGS includes both Bava?s original film ? now with newly created opening and end credit sequences ? as well the version known as KIDNAPPED featuring footage shot by producer Alfredo Leone and Mario?s son and longtime assistant Lamberto Bava. Features:Widescreen Presentation enhanced for 16x9 TVs Audio Commentary with Author Tim Lucas End Of The Road: Making RABID DOGS and KIDNAPPED Italian with optional English subtitles Mario Bava Bio

Kidnapped (aka Rabid Dogs), unreleased for over twenty years except in limited quantities during the '90s, clearly inspired Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs among other American gangster films. Three thugs hijack a car following their robbery, as the viewer discovers that the car's original drivers, Riccardo (Riccardo Cucciolla) and Maria (Lea Leander), have also just kidnapped a baby, held hostage in the backseat. While the nervous couple fights for the child's life, the thugs feud violently about how to handle upcoming run-ins with the law. Set entirely in the car, the film exudes claustrophobic anxiety. On the tail of the renowned Italian director's major boxset re-release, The Mario Bava Collection: Volume 1, Kidnapped) offers a filmic digression into reality from the Bava's beloved forays into fantasy and horror. Though not as cinematically imaginative, the suspense-building close-ups in Kidnapped) rival chiaroscuro moments in Black Sunday for amped up tension. As an experiment, Kidnapped feels like what has come to be known as classic Bava, though his vintage horror and fantasy films are more visually engaging. ?Trinie Dalton