Blood and Black Lace

This elegant 1964 film by Mario Bava is one of the defining pioneering films in the giallo genre. The original Italian title translates to Six Women for an Assassin but the American title Blood and Black Lace is far more evocative of the psycho-sexual nature of this elegant slasher pic with its mix of poetic haunting beauty, Grand Guignol gore, and sexual perversity. The thin plot concerns a respected Italian fashion house, a murdered model, cocaine, and a tell-all diary that seems to implicate just about everyone connected with the house of style. The disappearance of the diary initiates a wholesale slaughter of the remaining models. But the plot is secondary to the spectacle of the dreamy dance of death, as a faceless figure wrapped in a trenchcoat stalks his (or her?) female victims. It is all choreographed with sadistic precision and delivered in lurid color, as the restlessly gliding camera snakes through the sets—kind of like low-budget Hitchcock on speed. There’s an undeniable edge of misogyny to the whole thing, but the psycho-thriller aspects seem beside the point as the narrative melts into a near abstract display of choreography and color. It's a cult landmark of Italian horror, but was also recently released in a superior special edition from Arrow. On this Blu-ray/DVD combo special edition, the DVD features the Italian soundtrack plus two archival actor interviews, while the Blu-ray carries the English language version plus two new commentary tracks. Both discs also include photo galleries, video comparisons between the U.S. and European cuts, and an isolated music score. Although the Arrow release is the better choice, this less expensive version should be considered a strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)