Blood and Black Lace

Directed by Mario Bava, Blood and Black Lace follows a masked killer as he wreaks havoc among the various models and employees of an Italian fashion house. Filmmaker Bava, working from Marcello Fondato’s screenplay, delivers a stylish opening stretch that proves effective at initially capturing the viewer’s interest, as Blood and Black Lace boasts a striking first act that’s been peppered with compelling visuals and engaging, suspenseful set pieces. (There is, for example, a fantastic sequence wherein a model is stalked by the aforementioned killer within a strobe-lit antique store.) It’s clear, then, that the picture begins to palpably lose its way as it enters an increasingly hit-and-miss midsection, with a pronounced emphasis on the exploits of the narrative’s myriad of one-dimensional characters certainly exacerbating the underwhelming, uninvolving atmosphere (ie it’s difficult to work up much interest in or enthusiasm for the detective-on-the-case’s rote, by-the-numbers investigation). And although Bava avoids complete tedium by periodically cutting to an appreciatively gruesome murder, Blood and Black Lace builds towards a spinning-its-wheels third act that is, ultimately, fairly interminable – which confirms the movie’s place as a disappointingly erratic misfire from a terminally lackluster filmmaker.

** out of ****

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