Horrorfest 2010: Blood and Black Lace

There are a ton of foreign films on the "best horror films" list I'm working off of and a lot of them are Italian, like BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. I've been aware of the golden-age of Italian horror for a while now, but I've only dipped into it a little bit, checking out some Lucio Fulci here and a some Dario Argento there. This one's directed by the other Italian horror master, Mario Bava, and is credited for starting the "slasher" genre in which more attention is given to the killer and his/her stalking and murdering than to the actual mystery or murder investigation.

What is the difference between this, one of the earliest examples of the Slasher, and the films (good and bad) that would follow and become so popular in Hollywood? I guess the main thing is above all BLOOD AND BLACK LACE is stylish and interesting to look at.

That's appropriate for a movie that takes place in the world of fashion. It stars Cameron Mitchell and Eva Bartok as two proprieters of a "fashion house" who are also romantically involved. Bartok's character has recently lost her husband under mysterious circumstances and the fashion models who work at the fashion house observe that her demeanor hasn't been the same since his death. The fashion house itself is a big, gaudy, baroque mansion lit with primary colors that give way to dark shadows. Curtains hang everywhere and creepy mannequins stand around every corner.

The action starts off with the murder of one of the models, Isabella (Francesca Ungaro). As the death is investigated by the police, all of the models working at the fashion house realize their dirty secrets could be revealed if Isabella's controversial diary is found. One girl resolves to turn the diary over to the police, but the others attempt to conceal it and the secrets within -- tales including abortion and drug abuse. One by one they're visited by Isabella's killer, a figure in a black trench coat and fedora with a blank, featureless, white face.

So, at the time, the movie was unique because of the emphasis it put on the stalking and killing scenes, each more creative than the last. It also places the mysterious killer front and center, almost as the lead protagonist, which would later become common place with the likes of Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers. Probably the most harrowing scene is the one in which the killer tortures one of the girls (Mary Arden) by slowly pushing her face up against a bright red heated furnace.

The movie suffers from some of the conventions of the genre it created, as well, though. The problem with slasher movies is that they're repetitive and BLOOD AND BLACK LACE is no exception. It runs at a brisk 90 minutes, but uses the same music cues over and over, the same sets over and over, and the same progression of events over and over -- there are only so many ways a killer can slowly stalk a half naked hot chick and then suddenly kill her. Maybe Hitchcock was on to something when he limited the dead hot chicks to 1 in the first half hour of PSYCHO and cut straight to the killing without the stalking.

I can respect the movie's importance in the history of horror films and I like the style of the film, but overall I was disappointed. Still, enough film buffs love the flick so it stands to reason that you might, too.