Blood and Black Lace

Bava shoots a fashion house like a jewellery box someone has been sick in. Gel-lit reds and greens, mannequins everywhere, and a killer in a blank white stocking mask who is still frightening sixty years on.

The plot concerns a diary and is not worth your attention; Bava plainly agreed, since he stages six murders and barely bothers connecting them. What makes it the foundation text isn't the mystery but the decision that a killing could be the point of a scene rather than its consequence. Everything from Deep Red to Halloween is downstream of this.

Start here if you're starting anywhere.