Another largely forgotten horror from the early 1970s, Blood and Lace sounds a very interesting film, particularly since it was apparently released with a PG rating (actually ‘GP’, but equivalent) despite featuring brutal murders and torture of children. This website also shows how many similarities there are between this and several other horrors that came after it (including the killer’s striking resemblance to Freddy Krueger).

Notably, this was director Philip S. Gilbert’s only film. It seems that it has never been released on DVD but was briefly available to stream on US Netflix so there’s a chance that it may be given a release soon.

This US 30×40 features photographs that have been hand-tinted using brilliantly lurid colours and note the poorly-drawn blood-splatters on the hammer. I’m a big fan of what the designer of the poster did with the title.

The use of large, repeating type is a common them with horror film posters from this period.

The original trailer can be found on YouTube.

I believe this to be an official restrike/reissue done by Warner Brothers in the late 70s or early 80s. In comparison to the original one I have you can see that the layout changes and several printer marks are missing, yet it measures the correct 27″ x 41″.  The fold lines from the copied original are also visible (see photos).

If anyone has any more information on this please get in touch.

A strong contender for one of the earliest entries into the ‘slasher’ sub-genre of horror, Fright was filmed in the UK by Peter Collinson, perhaps best known as the director of the original The Italian Job. The film focuses on the plight of a babysitter, played by Susan George, who suffers a series of frightening occurrences after the parents (Honor Blackman and George Cole) leave for the evening, but before long the real terror arrives in the shape of the child’s biological father (Ian Bannen), a recent escapee from a mental asylum.

Fright is notorious for its brutal scenes of violence and is one of several films that raised the bar in terms of the depiction of on-screen horror following the relaxation of censorship rules at the start of the 1970s. This was the second film released in 1971 to feature Susan George being subjected to domestic terror, the other being Sam Peckinpah’s brilliant Straw Dogs.

The original trailer is on YouTube.