Blood and Black Lace (DVD)

Also known as Fashion House of Death or Six Women for the Murderer, writer/director Mario Bava's 1964 slasher Blood and Black Lace is a must-have for the discerning horror movie fan's library. A forerunner to the shadowy, gory, red-splashed Dario Argento movies of the following decade, Blood and Black Lace is an obvious influence on him, and many new directors still up and coming today.

Vivid visuals, cold killings, and plenty of pulchritude fill the screen from beginning to end in the fully restored, unrated and uncut DVD. The strangulation killings and scenes of torture are pretty shocking, even by present standards — and this is probably because, unlike some modern filmmakers who just go for the gore, Bava doted on themes of dread, fear, and suspense leading up to the bloody bits. That's what makes this somewhat dated fright flick still scary, nearly 45 years after its first theatrical release.

The mystery centers on the bright scarlet, damning diary of murdered lingerie model Isabella  (Lea Krugher), and the scandalous secrets it contains (cocaine use, abortions and homosexuality are hinted at) about her colleagues at Christiana Haute Couture. The madam-like Christiana (Eva Bartok) lords over her girls and is not above going to extremes to keep her fashion house's reputation intact. When one of the models, Nicole (Ariana Gorini), takes the journal home, she finds out that there is more than just one person interested in its contents.

One of these suspects is the masked killer of Isabella. He's a prototype for the gloved assassins we see so often in giallos and slasher flicks of the 1970s — wordless, clad in black, coolly deadly — however, this evil eradicator is a little bit different (and even more unsettling) in that he wears an opaque flesh-colored stocking over his face, making him appear to have eyeless, unformed features. It's quite unnerving.

The imagery in Blood and Black Lace, exploited to the limit in vibrant Technicolor, is truly sumptuous: the main location for the murderer's misdeeds, Christiana Haute Couture, is architectured just like a classic haunted house. Furthermore the set decoration, with its blood-red velvet-flocked manikins, shadowy dress forms, dark dressing rooms and creepy closets sets the perfect stage for murders most foul. The characters, each one stretched to the limit just shy of caricature, are compulsively watchable, and the mystery includes just enough of them to keep you guessing throughout.

The DVD looks and sounds perfect, but the English dubbing is a little off (which, to me, simply adds to the enjoyment of this very guilty pleasure). There's an interesting commentary by Video Watchdog editor Tim Lucas on the first disc, then the "bits and pieces" (interviews, trailers) are contained on disc two.

= = =

Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson