Well, this film deserves a lot of the criticism it has received over the years: a most perverse storyline, major acting talent like Gloria Grahame being relegated to grade Z horror, lots of blood and unsettling scenes for early 1970s, and cheap, cheap, cheap production values. I cannot argue with any of these things as they are all true. The spirit of this film is one of genuine misanthropy, devoid of any human compassion at any level. All the characters seem to have flaws which turn them away from our sympathies(with the possible exception of Melody Patterson in the lead role as Ellie. The story is about Ellie, having witnessed the brutal slaying of her prostitute mother and a trick(not much of a treat here)with a hammer no less, being sequestered in a children's home from Hell. The place is run by Gloria Grahame - once promising and later flourishing star of Hollywood now desperate for a job, any job. Grahame is actually very good as a chilling woman who cares nothing for her wards but rather about cutting costs as she has a most depraved secret herself. She sanctions all kinds of terrible things in this home and will do anything to protect what she has - even sleeping on a regular basis with a county social worker type. Her henchman is Len Lesser - I recognized the face - and soon realized this was Uncle Leo from Seinfeld and Garvin from Everybody Loves Raymond. He plays a sick, twisted man who does the real bad stuff at the home. What kinds of things do we get here: rape, incest, death by hammer, provocative behaviour and undress from an adolescent, children running and killed trying to escape, children that have been slain being kept in a freezer and then brought out and defrosted and left in the infirmary for the body count by the social worker, a cop who has a sick, almost pedophilic obsession with Ellie, a killer wearing an effectively chilling mask and so on. There is almost nothing redeemable about the characters or the story or the budget, and yet despite all this I found the film interesting in a so-bad-its-good way. No, it isn't one of those films that will make you laugh - almost not all. But it has something about it that makes you glued. Part of it is that the acting is decent from Patterson to Grahame and Lesser to Vic Tayback doing a good job as the cop. Even some of the "kids" at the home are somewhat developed(character depth-wise I mean). I cannot say that I know many films like this one and recommend it as one of the more truly unique horror experiences from the 1970s. Watch out for that ending - it shows it is coming and yet I never caught on.
Review of Blood and Lace
