A faceless killer lays siege to the employees of a fashion house.
Blood and Black Lace has probably had the biggest swings in terms of my opinion on it. The first time I watched it, in my early twenties, I was dissatisfied.
I had watched Black Sunday, and had digested a massive tome on Bava’s filmography. I was also primed for the film as the first true giallo.
My expectations were far too high. Blood and Black Lace is a blood-and-thunder thriller. It is not a film with a lot of characterisation or plot. I think I was expecting a little bit more from it.
I only re-watched it again last year. In the in-between, I had watched more giallo and more slashers overall, and gained more of an appreciation for them.
Going back to the beginning, as it were, I was finally able to get on its wavelength.
Blood and Black Lace is a blast. Bava turns the film into surreal showcase of death, and Carlo Rustichelli‘s score brings a sinister frivolity to proceedings.
A movie all about the art of presentation, of being looked at, Blood and Black Lace is a celebration of and takedown of our obsession with beauty.
As with Bava’s previous films, it is also revealed as an illusion - covering the venality, greed and homicidal rage lurking beneath the surface.
Befitting a movie set at a fashion house, the credits present all the characters like mannequins, figures to be presented - and destroyed.
I have read some criticism that sees a disjunct between the villains’ urbane veneer and the violence of the murders. But it seems to be more a case of Bava juxtaposing that surface civility with the savagery of their actions - the epitome of judging a character by what they do rather than what they say.
For a character who is obsessed with accumulation, it tracks that this character would destroy beautiful things if they cannot possess them.
The villain’s blank mask, like the mannequins of the fashion house, is defined by a lack of specificity. Sans a human face, this character is able to act as their true self, rather than maintain a public mask of polite sophistication.
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