Blood and Black Lace, by Mario Bava

Part of our on-running Fashion and Film series, we screened Blood and Black Lace on Halloween night..

1966, 88 mins.
language: Italian with English subtitles

Blood and Black Lace, by the Italian godfather of horror films, Mario Bava, is generally considered one of the earliest and most influential of all giallos, and served as a stylistic template for the “body count” slasher films of the 1980’s. Tim Lucas has noted that the film has "gone on to inspire legions of contemporary filmmakers, from Dario Argento and Martin Scorsese to Quentin Tarantino.

Filmed under the working title “The Fashion House of Death”, it revolves around dubious secrets involving a group of nerve-wracked fashion models, and a certain red diary. Like the sumptuously baroque fashion salon, the murder scenes are meticulously staged, with bodies often re-arranged for yet more breathtakingly spectacular effect. Son of Eugenio Bava, an accomplished cinematographer in Italian silent cinema, Mario himself was a brilliant and innovative technician, highly regarded for his use of colour and lighting