Mario Bava's slasher precursor gets the big screen treatment at The Beverly Theater, and if you've never caught this 1971 Italian giallo in a proper theater setting, it's worth the trip. "A Bay of Blood" follows a group of greedy relatives and outsiders circling a lakeside property, each with their own murderous agenda, and Bava stages the violence with the kind of painterly, saturated color and inventive camera work that influenced an entire generation of slasher filmmakers who came after. The kills are stylized and shocking even by today's standards, blending pulpy exploitation with genuine visual artistry.

Watching it inside the Beverly's intimate main theater feels right for a film this atmospheric and grimy in the best possible way. The venue's excellent acoustics let every creaking floorboard and sudden scream land with impact, and the smaller seating capacity means there's a shared, almost communal energy to the screening, which suits a cult classic that's spent decades building its reputation through word of mouth and horror fandom. Expect a crowd that appreciates the genre's roots, since this is the kind of film that shows up on plenty of "most influential horror movies" lists without a lot of mainstream name recognition to go with it.