Baron Blood

One of Bava’s most successful films, BARON BLOOD returns to the all-stops-out Gothic atmosphere, and the central theme of a witch’s curse, that fuelled his breakthrough film “Black Sunday” twelve years earlier.

This time, the curse was placed on Baron Otto von Kleist, Austria’s legendarily murderous ‘Baron Blood’, whose corpse is inadvertently revived when an ancient incantation is read out as a joke by a descendant and his girlfriend. Naturally, the Baron decides to carry on where he originally left off, with the help of an entire vault of elaborate torture devices.

Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane, The Third Man) has a whale of a time as the deceptively charming Baron, and is given sterling support from Elke Sommer (Lisa and the Devil), who is chased through fog-shrouded alleyways in one of Bava’s most memorably atmospheric set-pieces.
– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of three versions of the film: Bava’s original version Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga with Italian audio, The European Export Version of Baron Bloodwith English audio, and, on home video for the first time, the re-edited and re-dubbed AIP Version of Baron Blood with alternate score by Les Baxter.
– Three audio versions: Optional Italian, European English and AIP English re-dub and re-score.
– English SDH subtitles for both English versions and a new English subtitle translation of the Italian audio.
– Audio Commentary with Bava biographer and expert Tim Lucas.
– Introduction to Baron Blood by author and critic Alan Jones.
– “Delirium Italian-style” – Ruggero Deodato on Mario Bava and the golden age of Italian genre films.
– “Mario Bava at work” – a photo gallery of Bava behind the scenes on his films.
– Trailers and Radio Spots.
– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys.
– Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic James Oliver, illustrated with original archive stills and posters.