Lamberto Bava was born in Rome, Italy and was the first of a third generation of Italian filmmakers. His grandfather, Eugenio Bava (1886-1966), was a cameraman and optics effects artist during the early days of Italian silent cinema. His father, Mario Bava (1914-1980), was a legendary cinematographer, special effects designer, and director. Lamberto entered the cinema as his father's personal assistant starting with the film Terrore nello spazio (1965). Bit by bit he gained experience from his father's direction in which he made him the assistant director for most of the rest of his films. He even co-wrote the screen play for Schock (1977), (Shock) Mario Bava's last theatrical film where, being in poor health, Mario often feigned illness so Lamberto directed a few scenes, uncredited, to gain further experience. Both Lamberto and Mario directed the made-for-Italian-TV drama La Venere d'Ille (1979) (TV). Both worked on the Dario Argento horror flick Inferno (1980) where Mario designed some of the color set pieces, including the underwater ballroom, and created all the visual special effects, while Lamberto worked as Argento's assistant director. Late in 1979, Lamberto made his solo directorial debut with Macabro (1980), a tense drama-horror flick loosely based on a 1977 incident in New Orleans about a woman whom keeps her lover's severed head in her freezer. According to Lamberto, the project started by chance when producer Pupi Avati approached him to direct as well as write the screen play, which took just six weeks to write and direct. Lamberto finished Macabro which was released in Italy in February 1980 to mixed reviews, but won him recognition by his father Mario. Just two months later, Mario Bava had died, in which an era in Italian film making had come to a close. Macabro was not the box-office hit as Lamberto planned and as a result, he went back to assistant directing, one part of which he worked with Dario Argento again in 1982 with Tenebre (1982). In 1983, Lamberto was offered to direct another film, titled A Blade in the Dark, which was a violent mystery thriller shot in only three weeks on a tight budget and filmed almost entirely in a producer friend's house. Next, he directed the action-flick Blastfighter (1984), which was filmed in Georgia, USA and immediately after wards, directed the Jaws-like thriller _Shark rosso nell'oceano (1984)_ which was shot in Florida. Neither of which Lamberto had anything to do with the scripts or production for he served only as a director. For these he used a pseudo titled "John Old Jr." which was named after his father's occasional screen name of "John M. Old". He enjoyed his most commercial success with Dèmoni (1985), which was produced by Dario Argento and co-written by Dardano Sacchetti and filmed in West Berlin, Germany. This international box-office success of Demons made him co-wrote, produce and direct a sequel Dèmoni 2 (1986). Lamberto returned to "giallo" thrillers with Le foto di Gioia (1987). But in the late 1980s as the Italian cinema turned moribund, along with most of his colleagues, he turned to making films for Italian television. His also directed a remake of his father's La maschera del demonio (1960) which was titled La maschera del demonio (1989). Today, Bava continues to divide his time between TV work and a few movies which acknowledges his inspiration from his late father, Mario.

Son of Italian director Mario Bava