Mario Bava on why he chose ‘Terror’ as a form of expression: “Interviewer: Mr. Bava, your films made you famous as the “Hitchcock of Cinecittà”. Why did you choose terror as a form of expression? Bava: I don’t know. Terror fascinates me and attracts me for no particular reason. Maybe it’s a psychological thing. In real life I am easily scared, so when I shoot a horror movie it’s as if I am taking revenge on fear itself. The lights, the technicians and the actors on set make me overcome situation

Mario Bava on Visual Tricks in 1960s Horror (1969) “I saw Gamera vs. Guiron (Noriaki Yuasa, 1969) recently: the papier-mâché gorilla was fighting the clay dinosaur and, at every blow, ten skyscrapers collapsed. At some point, a jeep full of soldiers approached the monsters… possibly to make things more suspenseful. A guy in the audience shouted, ‘Here comes the army to separate the contenders!’, and none of us in the theater could take the film seriously anymore… Filmmakers should never offer sp