When watching Mario Bava's seminal Blood and Black Lace, all I could really do was marvel at the colors. No matter how many giallos I watch, I don't think that I will ever be able to stop babbling at their exquisite use of striking colors and sets. Very little is subtle about giallos; they used overly gory deaths and beautiful women to keep the audience interested until the final credits. Blood and Black Lace was one of the most important giallos and would go on to help inspire the slasher genre. But I was amazed at how mediocre I thought it was. The story was just a vehicle for shoving as many deaths on screen as possible: a killer stalks the members of a fashion house looking for a diary that contains all of their dirty secrets. The film comes right out and tells you who the villain is about 2/3 of the way in. There is little sense of the mystery and suspense that dominated other giallos like Suspiria and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Still, the film is an important part of cinema history and it features some of the most hypnotically beautiful visuals that I have encountered in a long time. There are better, more important giallos out there, but at some point, every fan of the genre should see this one.
6/10
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