** Screening as part of the series Terrore Giallo! Italian Thrillers as Anti-Kyriarchal Dream Agents **

The Cristiana Haute Couture Fashion House is a home to models… and backstabbing.. and blackmail… and drug deals.. and MURDER. Into this brightly colored nightmare world where women are commodified, eroticized, and disposed of creeps a faceless killer, the ur-form of the slasher villain. Oneiric violence and hallucinatory color schemes combine create an unforgettable atmosphere of sustained fear as primordial horror tropes are translated into an explosive new idiom.

Having established a template for the giallo genre with his film The Girl Who Knew Too Much, legendary filmmaker Mario Bava set about cementing its rules with Blood and Black Lace. In doing so he created one of the most influential films ever made – an Italian classic that would spearhead the giallo genre, provide a prototype for generations of horror cinema, and have a huge effect on filmmakers as diverse as Dario Argento and Martin Scorsese. Newly restored from the original camera negative and presented here in its original, uncut Italian form, this screening will allow fans to see Blood and Black Lace afresh and offers newcomers the ideal introduction to a major piece of cult filmmaking.