"Blood and Lace" (1971) with Gloria Grahame - The Exploitation Film That Paved the Way for Modern Slashers!

*Blood and Lace*, a 1971 exploitation film starring Gloria Grahame (from *It's a Wonderful Life*), is a proto-slasher that influenced the entire horror genre. Grahame plays the cruel director of an orphanage that hides macabre secrets: murdered orphans, bodies preserved in freezers and a masked killer. The story mixes abuse, attempted rape, torture and POV of the killer climbing stairs with a gun - a classic feature that would appear in *Black Christmas*, *Halloween* and *Deep Red*. While it's not extreme gore like '70s slashers, it planted seeds of human killers, hidden identities, and domestic violence. Reviews at the time were negative, but the film was an important precursor between *Psycho* (1960) and the slasher boom. A forgotten exploitation gem that deserves rediscovery by horror fans!