A World of Mannequins

This chapter looks into Mario Bava's aesthetic sensibility and synthesis of the stylistic and thematic thread that underlies the film Blood and Black Lace (6 donne per l'assassino). It explains how viewers of the film associated the gimmick of using mannequins with the opening pages of Gialli Mondadori, which include a list of characters and their qualification in order to give the reader a “human map” on which to rely when reading. It also discusses how the same concept of a human map is reinvented in the film Blood and Black Lace in a visual key with a surrealistic effect through the use of mannequins. The chapter analyzes the poses of mannequins that are considered artificial, enigmatic, and disturbing. It highlights how mannequins reiterate the initial equation between men and anthropomorphic objects, in which mannequins provide cautionary shadows for actors and actors are sometimes caught in the act of making the same gesture as the mannequins.