A review in the "Monthly Film Bulletin" declared it as Bava's "most expensive-looking and ecorative horror film to date" concluding that "if this is a very good (i.e. characteristic) example of Bava's work, it is a less good example of the murder thriller genre, being derivative, for the most part poorly acted and written, and risible in its several descents into bathos." Leonard Maltin gave the film one and a half out of a possible four stars, criticizing the film's "wooden script and performances" but complimented Bava's direction, calling it "imaginative." Later response for "Blood and Black Lace" has been mostly positive; with the film often cited as an important title in the development of the giallo film genre and is considered to be one of the major movies of the so-called "Golden Age" of Italian horror. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on , with a weighted average rating of 7.43/10. Almar Haflidason, reviewing the film for BBC Online, said that "Director Mario Bava stages all these murders with the flair and style that was to become a founding mantle for the giallo films... Through a prowling camera style and shadow-strewn baroque sets that are illuminated only by single brilliant colours, he creates a claustrophobic paranoia that seeps into the fabric of the movie and the viewer." Glenn Erickson, aka "DVD Savant", noted "Bava probably didn't mean to invent a subgenre with "Blood and Black Lace", a murder story which forgoes the slow buildups and character development of previous thrillers to concentrate almost exclusively on the killings themselves." Fernando F. Croce of Slant Magazine stated, "The roots of the Hollywood slasher are often traced back to "Blood and Black Lace", yet Mario Bava's seminal giallo has a richness of texture and complexity of gaze that have kept its elaborate carnage scintillating even following decades of leeching from genre vultures." "Blood and Black Lace"s mixture of eroticism and violence later used as a template for both giallo and slasher films. Tim Lucas has written that "Blood and Black Lace" was "one of the most influential thrillers ever made" and "the first authentic 'body count' movie." "Blood and Black Lace" has been included in multiple lists in various media outlets as one of the greatest horror films ever made.