Blood and Black Lace
Blood and Black Lace is a 1964 film from France, West Germany and Italy, directed by Mario Bava, running 86 minutes. reelscum files it under giallo.
- Year
- 1964 · 1960s films
- Country
- France · West Germany · Italy
- Runtime
- 86 min
- Director
- Mario Bava
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- known (20/100)
- Also known as
- Fashion House of Death · Six Women for the Murderer · L'atelier de la mort
Defined in the glossary: Giallo
The template, and still the best-looking film on this list.
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.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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Written about
- The giallo, 1963 to 1976
A line of yellow paperbacks, a killer in black gloves, and Mario Bava building the American slasher a decade before Hollywood cashed the cheque.
On these lists
- The giallo starter pack
Six films, in this order. By the end you will know whether you can live without the plot making sense.
Filed alongside
The Cat o' Nine Tails
Argento's least favourite of his own films. He is roughly right.
Inferno
Argento's sequel to Suspiria. Even less plot, even more colour. A building that is alive.
A Bay of Blood
Bava invents the slasher a decade early. Friday the 13th copied two kills outright.
Tenebrae
Argento's coldest and cleverest. That crane shot earns its reputation.
Phenomena
Insect telepathy, a Swiss boarding school, and a straight-razor chimpanzee. Argento off the leash.
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Argento's third. Unavailable for decades, and worth the wait for the last shot.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
Argento's debut, and the film that made the giallo an export.
Opera
Needles taped under the eyes so she cannot look away. Argento's last truly great film.
Don't Torture a Duckling
Fulci's best film and his angriest. A giallo about mob justice in a village.
What Have You Done to Solange?
Unusually sad for a giallo, and much better for it.
Deep Red
Argento's best. Goblin's score does half the work and knows it.
Alice, Sweet Alice
American giallo in Catholic New Jersey. Genuinely disturbing and well acted.