Blood and Lace

Yes the "original" idea that opens Halloween has to come from on of the opening shots of this film. It's a hammer being carried through the house instead of a knife but it's very very close.

That said Halloween is a much better movie, which goes almost without saying. But this does have a lurid feeling and a warped ending. It's that modest to low budget grunge of the 70's that oozes sleaze and danger.

Unfortunately the plot here borrows from obvious sources as it goes along which dampens the more original aspects. Tayback fans from his nice guy TV star role will be shocked, or may want to be by seeing him here.

Still warts and all this film has its memorable moments especially for fans of the era.

I give this a solid 7. Didn't see the film until it was released on BLURAY.

The print I saw was excellent, with decent sound. I have read various reviews all over the place.

For a movie supposedly made for $200,000 USD 1971 ($1,238,814.07 today) it is a stellar showcase of both creativity and using well held traditional production techniques, mixed in with really off the wall but effective tricks, some taken from other movies, some movies taken from this. The sound effects aren't as cheesy in most cases as I assumed since taken from older libraries, the crickets loop at the start were probably the most heard effect ever, have heard that in TV shows, movies and cartoons. The opening title , credits is a classic gothic german font, kinda cool. I was unfamiliar with Wranger Jane, but knowing the story of her career, this appears to be a bad turn in her history, degraded her. She is a presence on screen, but no match for someone like Vic Tayback (Calvin). The lighting at times is very flattering to her, and sometimes terrible. Her character's (Ellie Masters) entire back story is basically tragedy. I was surprised again with some production details like quality , but basic camera work, showing they probably hired union guys who have done a million TV shows. This does not look rookie, just lower budget. The actors chosen are great and are what hold this interesting 'prototype' slasher film together, but I find it more psychological than slasher.

"The Baby" from 1973 kind of takes the cake for the most twisted movie to ever get a PG rating (that this viewer has seen, anyway). But "Blood and Lace" would have to rank as a strong contender for that title. Its final revelations elevate it (or lower it, depending on your sensibilities) to something truly special.

It can boast a stylish opening murder set piece. Done mostly from the killers' perspective (with some cuts here and there), it actually predates sequences from both "Black Christmas" and "Halloween". It's got a cast of familiar faces, with the lovely Melody Patterson of 'F Troop' starring, screen legend / Oscar winner Gloria Grahame as a nasty antagonist, Len Lesser (Uncle Leo from 'Seinfeld') as her handyman / henchman, Vic Tayback (Mel from 'Alice') as police detective Calvin Carruthers, and TV veteran Milton Selzer as a social worker.

Ellie Masters (Patterson) is a teen whose mother, the extremely busy town whore, is murdered along with one of her johns. So Ellie is shipped off by Mr. Mullins (Selzer) to an orphanage, a den of corruption where uncooperative kids meet cruel fates. And not only will Ellie yearn to escape, she'll fall in lust with hunky resident Walter (Ronald Taft, "Night of the Witches"), compete with Lolita-like character Bunch (Terri Messina, "Single Room Furnished"), and a mysterious goon in a hideous mask will prowl around the premises.

Some buffs may cringe seeing Ms. Grahame in this kind of exploitation fare, but she does a solid job. Lesser, Tayback, and Selzer are all good as well. Patterson and Messina, despite clearly being substantially older than their characters, are appealing. That's a young Dennis Christopher ("Breaking Away", "Django Unchained") as orphanage resident Pete, and none other than June Foray can be heard as the voice of Ellie in her first scene in the hospital.

Strikingly violent, definitely melodramatic, and offbeat enough to be amusing, "Blood and Lace" is a shocker that ought to satisfy curiosity seekers.

Seven out of 10.

A textbook example of the "so bad it's good" B horror movie that, unfortunately, shows up less and less in video stores and on cable. "Blood And Lace" concerns Ellie, the teenaged daughter of the town prostitute. When Ellie's mother is murdered with a hammer by a john, the teen is sent to an isolated group foster home presided over by psycho housemother Gloria Grahame and sadistic handyman Len Lesser. Escorted by sympathetic sheriff Vic Tayback, Ellie arrives at the home and soon realizes that all is not well. Not only does she believe that her mother's murderer is stalking her at the home, but she also discovers that Grahame metes out horribly cruel arbitary punishments--and worse--to the teens who get on her bad side(watch for the disturbing scene in which Grahame torments a hapless girl who is tied up in the attic for not folding her dinner napkin(!))It all ends in a shocking denouement in which virtually all the main characters' secrets are revealed--and not just old Gloria Grahame is revealed as a sicko! I first saw this flick on TV about 15 years ago on a local independant station out of eastern Tennessee on a late-night horror show. I missed the first few minutes with the titles and murder of Ellie's mom, so for a while I went around with the memory of this warped mind-melter in my skull and no title. I found it out a few years ago when I purchased a compilation tape of horror movie trailers from Something Weird video(why can't they re-release this sucker on tape? It's right up their alley!). There's so much to love about this film . . . it should be in the top ten of every lover of bad movies! A delectable blend of pyschodrama, bad acting, and gratuitous violence--a lost gem! Hard to believe that it got a GP rating, which at the time was the equivalent of PG. This rating was probably due to the lack of sex and language, but all the murder, dismemberment, and sadistic torture of the teen orphans should have merited and R. Still, it's a sick delight. Catch it if you get the chance. Another weird flick from that era and genre is "The Baby", which is readily available on video. This one concerns a social worker concerned about one of her cases, an adult man who wears diapers, lives in a playpen, and is treated like a baby--literally--by his boozy, harpie mother and kinky adult sisters! Things get creepy when the idealistic social worker plots to kidnap "Baby" and save him from his freaky family! And believe me, you won't see the ending coming! Watch both if you get the chance!

"Blood And Lace" is best described as a demented "Grimm Fairy Tale". After her prostitute mother is murdered, teen aged Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) is sent to an isolated orphanage run by Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) and her handyman (Len Lesser, now known as Uncle Lou on "Seinfeld"). Taking an avid interest in her welfare is detective Calvin Carruthers (Vic Tayback, Mel from the "Alice" TV series). Taking almost no interest at all, is social worker Harold Mullins (Milton Selzer) who is completely under Mrs. Deere's thumb, or, as Lesser puts it "under her skirt". Lots of unpleasant surprises are in store for Our Heroine, not the least of which is the fact that Mrs. Deere and her handyman are both brutal sadists, who run the orphanage like a concentration camp. The film shows it's obviously low budget only too well, but it really doesn't matter. The script is very clever, Grahame is excellent as usual, and Patterson (of TV's "F Troop" fame), is appealing. The supporting players are all good, including a young Dennis Christopher, as one of the "inmates". Definitely ahead of it's time, "Blood And Lace" holds up remarkably well.