Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971)

Splatter movie fans have long revered Mario Bava’s Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), a.k.a. Bay of Blood, as the inspiration for the progenitor of all U.S. slasher franchises, Friday the 13th, which used death scenes from the Bava film throughout the early installments of the series, especially the famous speargun scene used in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984). The plot similarities are certainly evident. Twitch of the Death Nerve features a cold-blooded and seemingly inhuman killer in a remote rural setting picking off the possible heirs to a large fortune one by one, as well as some unlucky campers who happen to be in the area. Bava also set the standard by including in his film what would eventually become a slasher-movie staple--the ill-fated skinny-dipping sequence. Watch as Brigitte Skay shows a generation of scream queens how to truly enjoy an evening at the lake.