Isabella, a young model, is murdered by a mysterious masked figure at a fashion house in Rome. When her diary, which details the house employees' many vices, disappears, the masked killer begins killing off all the models in and around the house to find it.
Nate H. reviewed Blood and Black Lace (1964)
Review from the comment
Watching Blood and Black Lace one has to understand the time frame on its release and how groundbreaking it was. When you hear the term slasher film, most people will argue about Black Christmas being the first, maybe even Psycho, and then Halloween of course being the one that kicked the door open on the genre.
But Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace absolutely needs to be in the conversation as well. The story revolves around a fashion mogul's studio where models are being picked off one by one by a masked assailant. Its not important to get into the plot too much, because while the film is a pioneer in brooding ambiance and killer POV camera angles, it also is an unfortunate example of how horror films have been very thin on plot over the years. The acting is no better, in fact its downright terrible in some parts, and when I read that some of the actors didn't speak English and sounded out their lines phonetically, it made a lot of sense. The acting and plot factors are the reasons Blood and Black Lace will never be great.
But those things aside, Bava shows why he is widely touted as an unsung master of the thriller. His impressive use of color, lighting, mood music, and angle are all seen in films of all types today. I look forward to checking out some of his other work.
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