Blood and Black Lace

Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous Looking, Ground Breaking Giallo!
Review: We all know that Director Mario Bava is really a Cinematographer at heart and it really shows in "Blood And Black Lace". Unusually graphic for 1964, though fairly tame today I guess, this film is still suspensful, full of red herrings and difficult to watch in certain scenes. This is the film often credited with popularizing and really starting the "giallo" genre and it truly is a masterpiece of it's kind. Of course we have the black-gloved killer, the plot twists, the sexual heat, etc... which makes any good giallo and as wonderful as Bava is at Directing this movie, just witness the tracking shots and the close-ups, he really excels as a Cinematographer in this one! The use of color is amazing! As strange as it is to say, it is a beautiful film to look at despite the fact that it is brutal in content. The beautiful colors grab you and hold you and create a surreal, almost dream-like quality in spite of the fact that there are people being brutally murdered. It is quite obvious that, even though it was different in content, this film with it's use of colors was a clear inspiration for Dario Argento's gorgeous, color-induced, frightening, nightmare film "Suspiria". If your looking for a film to show you what Mario Bava is all about as a Director and Cinematographer and you want to see the "grandfather" of the giallo film, there is no better place to start then with "Blood And Black Lace". A true cinematic masterpiece!