Critics reviews

Bava floods the eye with stimulation, overwhelming our senses so much that the subtle and ingenious plot rushes by in a blur—an effect that would come to be a major component of the giallo. Purples, reds, golds, greens, blues, and occasional stark whites inform the images, motivated by subjective rather than objective instincts.

For all its visual beauty, Bava's baroque vision here doesn't display any will to subversion. He's here an inspired, maybe genius, craftsman who's content to draw within the old lines. But it's interesting to look at the range of variation that exists within what a lot of people are willing to lump within the same exploitation cinema parameters.

By eschewing dry detective drama for an artistic take on murder itself, [Bava] gave birth to the slasher film that would dominate US horror cinema in the Eighties. Just as Herschel Gordon Lewis was beginning to experiment with sex and gore in the 'States, the Italian delivered something similarly themed but infinitely more elegant, with brutal murders that were not only alluring but also undeniably beautiful.

Decadent visualist as well as severe moralist, Bava locates the macabre beauty at the heart of his art in this fashion-world dollhouse, where the models, both human and inanimate, become the main canvases for the sensual lushness of the mise en scène.

Widely regarded as the first stalk'n'slash movie... [Blood and Black Lace,] clear and bright, proves that suspense could be shot in vivid Technicolor.

A super-gory whodunit.... sporting stilted dubbed English dialogue, stark color and grammar-school histrionics.