Blood and Black Lace

One of the first and most influential giallo films, Mario Bava 1964’s visual treat centers on the Cristiana Haute Couture fashion house, where models and their boyfriends excel at the art of backstabbing, blackmail, and snorting cocaine. That is, until a faceless maniac embarks on a mission of death.

Combining elements of contemporary West German murder mystery films with the lurid juxtaposition of eroticism and violence from popular pulp novels at the time, Bava created a new sub-genre that would soon take the world by storm. With a score from the prolific Carlo Rustichelli and vivid technicolor shots from Ubaldo Terzano, the result is a glorious, yet disturbing piece of pop art trash.

Screened in Italian with English subtitles.