Verdict
Summary
A tricky little early slasher film that almost feels as though it could’ve been made recently, Blood and Lace (a title that doesn’t mean anything in the context of the film) is truly a film without any “good” guys, with even the most sympathetic characters being tainted by bad or evil deeds. The whole film is full of despicable characters, which is really interesting and upends our expectations and how we’re supposed to feel as the film goes on towards its shock ending. The cast is great, with Grahame taking the crown for playing a truly evil character perfectly. The film feels sleazy without ever descending into nastiness, and it’s pretty violent as well, keeping in tune to the vibe that slashers would eventually retain in later years.
Plot:
An orphaned teen girl is placed in an orphanage run by a pair of very evil caretakers.
Review:
A beautiful prostitute well known in the community is brutally murdered by a hammer-wielding killer, alongside her john, leaving the woman’s beautiful 17 year-old daughter Ellie (Melody Patterson) orphaned. She’s placed at an orphanage where we already know the caretaker Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) and her handyman Tom (Len Lesser) abuse and murder some of the teens who come to live with them. They freeze the bodies and keep them on ice until the county officer occasionally stops by to do a head count, in which case they thaw the bodies out and put them in the infirmary and pretend the corpses are merely sick kids, just to keep the orphanage flowing with cash. With another girl chained up in the attic for trying to run away and another boy dead in the nearby woods somewhere after being killed by Tom, this place is basically hell on earth, but Ellie tries making the best of it by trying to befriend another girl and taking one of the older boys on as a boyfriend, but there’s another menace to worry about: The person who killed her mother is now stalking her (he has a hideously scarred face) and will likely kill her if she doesn’t try running away too …
A tricky little early slasher film that almost feels as though it could’ve been made recently, Blood and Lace (a title that doesn’t mean anything in the context of the film) is truly a film without any “good” guys, with even the most sympathetic characters being tainted by bad or evil deeds. The whole film is full of despicable characters, which is really interesting and upends our expectations and how we’re supposed to feel as the film goes on towards its shock ending. The cast is great, with Grahame taking the crown for playing a truly evil character perfectly. The film feels sleazy without ever descending into nastiness, and it’s pretty violent as well, keeping in tune to the vibe that slashers would eventually retain in later years. It has POV kills, which fans of the genre will appreciate, and the killer has a unique look as well. Overall, this one is a solid early slasher that works as well as any slasher made decades later and sort of reminded me of The Toolbox Murders. From director Philip Gilbert.
Kino Lorber has just released a solid looking Blu-ray edition of Blood and Lace as part of their “Kino Cult” label (#23 on the spine), and it comes with a new audio commentary by a film historian, plus opening titles and the trailer. A slipcover is also included.
