A Blade in the Dark

A Blade in the Dark
Italian theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lamberto Bava
Produced by	Lamberto Bava Mino Loy (uncredited) Luciano Martino (uncredited)
Written by	Elisa Briganti Dardano Sacchetti
Starring	Andrea Occhipinti Anny Papa Fabiola Toledo Michele Soavi Valeria Cavalli
Music by	Guido & Maurizio De Angelis
Cinematography	Gianlorenzo Battaglia
Edited by	Lamberto Bava
Production company	National Cinematografica Nuova Dania Cinematografica
Release date	6 August 1983
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	English

A Blade in the Dark (Italian: La casa con la scala nel buio/ The House with the Dark Staircase) is a 1983 Italian giallo film co-produced and directed by Lamberto Bava, written by Dardano Sacchetti. Michele Soavi has a role in the film, one of his acting jobs before he became a noted Italian horror film director. Lamberto Bava has a cameo as one of the people in the editing room.

Bruno, a composer, is hired to do the soundtrack for an upcoming horror film, and to help him concentrate, he moves into a rented villa for a few weeks. Several of the tenants and neighbors are murdered by a razor-wielding slasher, and there is a weird next door neighbor who is a key suspect. The murders are excessively brutal even for a giallo.

The film was released three times on DVD in the United States. The first time in 2001 by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The company subsequently re-released it in 2003 on a double feature DVD with Lamberto Bava's Macabre. Both these versions are out of print. The third DVD release came from Blue Underground in 2007. It was released on Blu-ray for the first time by 88 Films on August 23, 2015.

AllMovie gave the film a mixed review, writing, "Lamberto Bava eschews complex mystery in favor of elaborate stalk-and-slash sequences, with only partial success".